Crosswords

Puzzle 494: Freestyle 443. Winning by a nose.

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Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.28

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I was rather hampered because I was forced to adjoin a 10-letter entry to my stack where I started, in the bottom right. You all know Newton’s law of crossword constructing, of course, which is that what happens once has to happen twice. So I had to make the same thing work with the other stack on the other side. That was a bit of a struggle.

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Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

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Crosswords

Puzzle 493: Freestyle 442. Our cover’s blown!

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Last Friday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.17

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It wasn’t the biggest expanses of white that vexed me the most when I made this grid — it was those simple-looking little 4×4 spaces in the middle left and middle right. Square-for-square, it was those stupid little spaces that I spent the most time on out of this whole thing.

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Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

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Crosswords

Puzzle 492: Freestyle 441. Hold off on that.

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Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.33

Have something you wanna say? Got a question? Want to do a guest freestyle? Want to collaborate on a freestyle? Want to just say hello? Hit me up by email!

The Utah-shaped chunks (btw, Utah Chunks is the name of my punk band if I ever form one) may look weird, but they sure saved me from a LOT of ugly short fill in the middle left and middle right sections that I would not have been proud of at all. One out of those two pairs of helper squares I needed to have a fill at all, but both of them I needed to be happy with what I was putting out.

Thanks so much to all who’ve left a tip! It’s much appreciated, believe me.

Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

As always, share this link! Pass it around! New puzzle on Friday!

Crosswords

Puzzle 491: Freestyle 440. Don’t sleep on it.

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Last Friday’s freestyle solution

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Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.39

Have something you wanna say? Got a question? Want to do a guest freestyle? Want to collaborate on a freestyle? Want to just say hello? Hit me up by email!

I like this method a lot better for including stacks of 11 in my grids. Make it a double stack instead of a triple.  I thought that throwing that extra pair of blocks to make it a two-stack would make it a little harder in some other part of the grid, but I was wrong. By some sleight of hand, I guess, I didn’t really have to make another part of the grid wide open.

Thanks so much to all who’ve left a tip! It’s much appreciated, believe me.

Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

As always, share this link! Pass it around! New puzzle on Tuesday!

Crosswords

Puzzle 490: Freestyle 439. Stranger things have happened.

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Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

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Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.39

Have something you wanna say? Got a question? Want to do a guest freestyle? Want to collaborate on a freestyle? Want to just say hello? Hit me up by email!

Herbert Hoover talked about a chicken in every pot in one of his famous speeches. Well, I’ve got a seed entry in every corner. Obviously, that makes me the Herbert Hoover of crossword constructing. The comparison is foolproof.

Thanks so much to all who’ve left a tip! It’s much appreciated, believe me.

Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

As always, share this link! Pass it around! New puzzle on Friday!

Crosswords

Puzzle 489: Freestyle 438. Don’t lift a finger.

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Last week’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.36

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I’m noticing that I’ve been throwing in little references, and even including seeds, that are influenced by my infant son Nathan. That explains 12-Down. After I threw in my crossing grid spanners, like I like to do, and I got my ultimate black square structure, 12-Down was a definite for me. We’re not even close to there yet with Nathan, and I don’t want to jump ahead in his life right now, but it still comes to mind.

Thanks so much to all who’ve left a tip! It’s much appreciated, believe me.

Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

As always, share this link! Pass it around! New puzzle on Tuesday!

Crosswords

Puzzle 488: Freestyle 437. It’s hip NOT to be square.

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Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

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Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 72 (16×14)
Mean word length: 5.17

Have something you wanna say? Got a question? Want to do a guest freestyle? Want to collaborate on a freestyle? Want to just say hello? Hit me up by email!

I had a couple of 16-letter entries burning a hole in my seed list, so I changed up my grid size a bit. I squeezed it in to 16×14, which has one square less than a 15×15… so that means you aren’t missing out on much crossword real estate. That translated to a lot of 4-letter entries (mainly because 14 squares means three columns of four letters separated by two black squares).

Thanks so much to all who’ve left a tip! It’s much appreciated, believe me.

Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

As always, share this link! Pass it around! New puzzle on Friday!