puzzle 74: "statesmen"

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pretty straightforward theme today. it shouldn't be too hard to figure out what the seed entry for this theme was, but it's kinda fortuitous that the lengths and letters worked out enough for the intersections here. otherwise, had some fun making this, especially with some of the clues. as always, hope you enjoy!

  

puzzle 73: "remember (freestyle 36)"

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thank you to everybody who solved last week's meta puzzle! thirty-three people emailed me with the correct answer, which will be spoiled at the end of this post. of those, jesse lansner, who you may remember from this collaboration, was the lucky recipient of will nediger's suite sixteen, which you can (and should) get if you haven't already.

anyway, this was fun, and i'm looking forward to doing it again. fingers crossed that i can finish off a suite of my own in the near future so i can make that the prize. in the meantime, though, freestyle this week, and i've nothing to say except that the below image is lovingly stolen from andy kravis.

<spoilers> there were five long across entries in last week's puzzle, all of which were two words where one word contained -ei- and the other contained -cie-. which is to say that all five of these answers broke the rule "i before e, except after c" in both possible ways, and which means that weird science is your meta answer. </end spoilers>

puzzle 72: "repeat offenders (meta)"

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meta puzzle this week! the meta answer is a movie from the 1980s that would have made a good theme answer for this puzzle. submit your answers to me via email by next wednesday at noon central time (five pm utc) for a chance to win will nediger's wonderful suite sixteen collection. and if you've already bought that, no worries--you can still enter, and we'll work something out if you're the one lucky solver.

also, very exciting news on a personal front: i have begun working as a crossword editor for spyscape, an interactive museum headquartered in nyc. if you're at all interested in contributing, email me at this address for a full spec sheet, etc. i especially encourage you to do so if you are a newer and/or traditionally underrepresented constructor.

puzzle 71: "america (freestyle 70)"

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freestyle this week, followed by a contest meta next week, then some more puzzles, and stuff like that. surprised how nice, generally speaking, this one turned out, given the five (!) seed entries, all interlocking, and four of them grid-spanning. stretches a bit in places, but overall, it still works.

puzzle 70: "close shave"

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some puzzle news: one, as you can see below, i've added in-browser solving courtesy of amuse labs. two, adam nicolle, who you might remember from this puzzle two weeks ago, is reviving his site; there's already a few really nice puzzles there, and he should be dropping a new one come monday, which is labor day. speaking of which: mark halpin's labor day extravaganza drops this weekend; check it out as well.

otherwise, as far as this puzzle goes, a bit unusual to have the reveal come first...but it's the sort of thing that i have no qualms doing when it suits the theme. and it's the sort of thing that's a lot easier to get away with in an indie puzzle, and one of the many reasons why i continue to enjoy making puzzles.

puzzle 69: "nice"

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consider this puzzle to be my take on will nediger's excellent puzzle of the same number and name. i must admit that i tried using the same grid in the beginning, but with black squares around everything to really make the numbers pop. but then i realized that i could just as well make the numbers with the black squares themselves. lots of trial and error to get a grid that looked like the numbers and that could be filled nicely, but here we are.

in other news, i realized this blog is now one year old! technically the birthday was like a month ago, but i completely forgot about it, what with the school year starting and me missing boston and lolla and all. still, i'm glad that i've been able to bring y'all nearly seventy puzzles so far, including quite a few i'm proud of.

puzzle 68: "wot in alternation (with ada nicolle)"

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another collaboration, this time with ada nicolle, who says:

i have the hardest time coming up with ideas for themed puzzles, so i rarely construct them, but i'm glad this one was able to happen and i think it came out well. you were a hoot and a half to work with!

i have very little to add to those comments, other than to echo them and say: it me.

(also i am not at lollapuzzoola this weekend and it's killing me and i forgot to arrange printing in advance so i won't even have copies there. so if you're there, have fun, solve puzzles, spread the word, and have fun.)