puzzle 82: "tom tom club"

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another week, another puzzle with a weird grid and left / right symmetry. what can i say? i really enjoy doing some weird, unconventional things sometimes. i certainly didn't make this easy on myself, as evidenced by parts of this puzzle, but nevertheless, i'm pleased with how it came out.

also, any resemblance between this grid and a face is completely coincidental.

and, of course, happy thanksgiving to y'all. as always, i'm thankful to each and every one of you for solving these puzzles and continuing to put up with my particular brand of nonsense. although, that being said, i'm pretty sure there's no car seat headrest stuff this week for once. either way, i hope you enjoy this puzzle, and i hope you enjoy your holiday, wherever you may be, whatever you may be doing.

 

puzzle 81: "from start to finish"

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a puzzle that is only slightly more orthodox than last week, if you can even say that. the seed entry is one that i've wanted to use for a bit; after that, i couldn't resist the urge to include yet another car seat headrest reference in another theme entry. (i am reasonably sure, however, that next week's puzzle will not contain any such references; it will also come out on thursday for what should hopefully be obvious reasons.)

in crossword news: less than two days left to back the incubator, if you haven't already. in addition, andrew ries has just dropped a new crossword suite "stretch", and it's also worth checking out.

puzzle 80: "ex men"

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this puzzle's reveal is timely, topical, and worth listening to (after solving, of course). after that, it's also worth looking up the best memes associated with this. otherwise, i can probably promise that the next puzzle after this will be slightly more orthodox (emphasis on slightly). either way, as always, hope y'all enjoy solving this one.

edit: the original version had 24 down spelled wrong. after changing a good chunk of the puzzle, this has been fixed, but my apologies for messing that up in the first place. all files should be correct now.

puzzle 79: "remember, remember (freestyle 72)"

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not to be confused with the similarly-named puzzle from a few weeks back. pleasantly surprised that most of the seed entries (both those related to the mini-theme and not) for this interlocked so well, and allowed for some nice corners to boot. i certainly had some fun making this, and a lot more cluing it, and i hope you enjoy it as well.

also, regarding 43-down, i am not resetting the "weeks since making a gratuitous car seat headrest reference" sign to zero...if only because it's already at zero from last week.