puzzle 171: "don't call it that (w/ jenna lafleur)"

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another collaboration, this time with jenna lafleur, who you may remember from this freestyle; unlike that puzzle, this one's themed, and the theme comes from jenna, who notes:

i first had the idea for this puzzle in late 2017 due to what seemed like an unusually high amount of [spoiler] that year. i roped chris in sometime around august 2018, and the puzzle sat in development hell for a while as we tried to wrangle a theme set together that would work symmetrically and be able to be clued fairly. hope you enjoy!

puzzle 170: "both sides now (w/ george barany and noam elkies)"

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diagonal symmetry seems to be all the rage these days, but this isn't exactly hopping on the bandwagon: this puzzle, in its earliest incarnations, dates all the way back to 2012 (!), though i didn't get involved with this puzzle until early 2016. either way, this one's been a long time coming. it's possible that, if the chronicle of higher education was still doing crosswords, this one might have seen the light of day before now; it was accepted there but unfortunately didn't make it into print before the chronicle ceased publishing crosswords.

unrelatedly, this puzzle's second co-author (noam elkies) is much more known for his work in mathematics and has an erdos number of two, via john horton conway; if this crossword counts (and i don't see why it shouldn't, although it'd be slightly more legit if this was actually published somewhere), then i have an erdos number of three.

also, i'll be streaming some crosswords and rows garden puzzles tonight on twitch; it'll be a fun time, and if you can get kevin bacon to join me, so much the better.

puzzle 169: "touchword 3"

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last saturday, i twitch streamed a bunch of rows gardens puzzles, and at one point the discussion turned to different types of variety puzzles and whether we'd constructed them before. i haven't made a rows garden yet, but i have made some touchwords, and so that inspired me to put another one out.

if you haven't solved one before, the rules are pretty straightforward: instead of having words cross at the same letter, in a touchword, every letter is vertically adjacent to the same letter (either above or below, and sometimes both). also, the first and last rows are considered adjacent, so the whole thing wraps around into a cylinder, and thus everything is crossed touched.

also, three quick puzzles announcements: one, eric berlin has put out a set of social distancing puzzles, meant to be solved with a partner. there's ten puzzles plus a final puzzle that ties everything together, and having solved them last night, i can confirm that they're all well made and incredibly entertaining, with lots of nice little touches throughout that show how much care (and fun!) eric put into these.

two, will nediger also has a puzzle suite out; titled escape the grid, it's a series of meta puzzles where each one unlocks the next, and the whole thing functions as an escape room somehow. i haven't solved yet, but i'm looking forward to doing so.

and finally, the people behind boxaroo are doing colby's curious cookoff, an online puzzle hunt that hasn't launched yet (but will soon!) and which i'm told is going to be incredibly fun and well worth solving. i've already signed up, and i can't wait for when it goes live.

puzzle 168: "questionable content (freestyle 152)"

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this freestyle was directly inspired by this tweet (spoilers, obviously) in response to my recent new york times puzzle. only one thing you can do with that tweet; would've liked to have used the same grid as that puzzle, but i'm pretty pleased with how this one turned out.

speaking of crossword tweets, here's a mini crossword (3x5) i posted on twitter recently.

otherwise, friday's livestream is still posted on my twitch; the stream went well, and i managed to solve all 31 universal puzzles from may in 1:25:37. fast, but not as fast as dan feyer, who solved a bunch of freestyles (including my most recent one) on his twitch yesterday, which was a bunch of fun to watch. looking forward to the next time he does that, as well as the next time i stream (probably friday or saturday, as seems to be usual). until then, stay safe.

puzzle 167: "do the right thing (freestyle 154)"

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those of you who follow my twitch streams will know that last weekend, i discussed the lack of motivation / creativity i've had in creating puzzles recently, and the reasons behind that, which helps explain why last weekend's puzzle is appearing on a wednesday. but i appreciate the constructors who have been able to continue making puzzles, most of which i've been streaming, and i appreciate those who watch and show their support.

anyway, burying the lede here: i'll be streaming a speedrun of all the universal puzzles from may in the near future. inspired by rebecca falcon, i would like to raise money for black lives matter, the ongoing protests, bailout funds, and whatever else could use it at the moment. to that end, i'd appreciate it if you'd join me for the stream and pledge some money. this twitter thread has some ideas, some of which are performance-based and some of which depend on the words in the crossword, and i'd also be thrilled to hear any ideas to add to that and raise more money.

also, both paolo pasco and erik agard have offered crosswords for donations; i've already donated; i encourage you to do so as well, and to join me when i do another livestream fundraiser with these puzzles later this month.