puzzle 175: "it takes more than skill (freestyle 162)"

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freestyle puzzle in advance of boswords, which is happening tomorrow; i have no expectations that it'll go as well as last year's tournament did, but i'm hoping that it'll go better than the crossword tournament from my couch, where i made way too many typos. fingers crossed for clean solves tomorrow, and hope to see y'all (virtually) there as well.

as for this puzzle, it's entirely seeded from discussions we've had on the crossword streams i've done recently. there's a lot of fun stuff throughout, though, and i like how this turned out; many thanks to trent evans for testing this.

puzzle 174: "that hurts!"

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easy themed puzzle this week; those massive corners (with intersecting theme answers) weren't easy to make, nor necessary, but with a bunch of shorter fill, wanted something longer, and i think they came out (mostly) nice.

in addition, i have today's universal puzzle, which is also easy and themed and had some nice larger corners and longer fill answers and should be fun. also, a reminder that the boswords tournament is taking place online next weekend, and that the grids for good collection is still available; both are well worth your money, and you should do that if you haven't already.

puzzle 173: "raise your shield (guest puzzle by sid sivakumar)"

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timely guest puzzle from sid sivakumar, who has a bunch of awesome puzzles on his site and who is one of the constructors for this year's boswords tournament, which is taking place online this year on july 26th and which just opened their registration. lots of other awesome constructors as well, and it'll definitely be a fun time.

also a fun time: the grids for good collection, which has already raised over fifty thousand dollars for a bunch of charities and is well worth every penny you donate (and then some). sid and i both have puzzles in that, as do a bunch of other awesome constructors, and you should get those pronto if you haven't already.

otherwise, as always, be well, stay safe, and make sure to 66-across.

puzzle 172: "vibe check (freestyle 159)"

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freestyle in advance of both the holiday and a guest avcx freestyle this weekend; it's my second freestyle puzzle (and third overall) with the avcx, and i'm always honored to have puzzles published there.

anyway, had some fun making this one; absolutely no points for guessing what the seeds were, but even after that, there's a lot of good fill (and clues) in this rather aesthetic, slightly lower word count grid. shout out to adam aaronson for testing this and helping me tweak some clues (and in particular, listening to the song that's one of the seed entries to help me confirm the clue there).

in other puzzle news, i have a puzzle in the recently announced grids for good collection, which is well worth making a donation for; details at the link. otherwise, as always, be well, stay safe, and enjoy the holiday weekend.