Monthly Archives: April 2021

Crosswords

Puzzle 671: Freestyle 609. Not in front of the kids!

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Last Friday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.25

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

Did I slightly modify a clue in this grid so that I could use the above song in this post? I might have… maybe…

For a grid with pretty limited flow to it (this was a basic pattern I chose from the start, so I knew what I was getting into), this isn’t really a grid where there are any tight corners you can get stuck in. One section opens up into another pretty well. I’m usually pretty mindful of closed-off sections, so I clue the sections a little easier than normal, but I didn’t think that was necessary here.

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Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.

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Crosswords

Puzzle 670: Freestyle 608. Here’s one for the books.

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Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

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Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 70
Mean word length: 5.46

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

It was an unusual move for me in this grid — I went to 70 words instead of 72 not because the fill forced me to, but because I wanted to. It was just because I felt like it. It goes against my manifesto for this site, I know. There’s an advantage in not having any more three-letter entries than you want to, though; I could have split 24/45-Across into two, but I just wanted to leave it as it was.

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 669: Freestyle 607. You’re a lifesaver!

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Last Friday’s freestyle solution

Get the PDF here!

Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.22

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

That big sawtooth pattern down the middle was not put there for visual effect but out of necessity. Without it, I had a deceptively difficult-to-fill 5-6-7-8 stack intersecting two nines, and that just wasn’t coming together for me in either corner. It does look pretty cool, though. The seed that started this was at 11-Down, a concept I learned from a Jeopardy! clue and revisited after Prince Philip’s death.

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 668: Freestyle 606. Let’s blow this joint.

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Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

Get the PDF here!

Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.25

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

Sorry, I’ve got no real tributes to the special day today in this grid. I mean, I don’t partake myself, but you can go for it and light one up however you want. That would certainly make your solve a lot more interesting, so I wouldn’t really suggest it if you’re trying to solve for time here. I obviously don’t solve my own grids, but I would imagine that it would be… interesting… given the occasional misdirecting nature of my clues to solve my grids under the influence. You do you though.

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 667: Freestyle 605. Tanks for everything.

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Last Friday’s freestyle solution

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Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.19

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

This was obviously made for the express purpose of being an eye-popping, unusual grid. I’m breaking from my usual standard by having a staggered stack in the middle on a Friday. (I know… this is anarchy!) The flow of this grid is a bit compartmentalized in spots, but I think it’s neat nonetheless. The beauty of thinking on my feet: the central entry was originally something slightly different, but I really got forced into having a mediocre entry or two until I realized I could change the first five letters of it and make it totally work. (Don’t worry, that really isn’t a spoiler.)

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 666: Freestyle 604. Maybe it was… SATAN?!

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Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

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Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 70
Mean word length: 5.40

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

The upper left and lower right are shining examples of how helper squares can be a great benefit to fill. Yeah, they added a couple of three-letter entries, which I initially didn’t want, but the alternative fill (especially in the bottom right) without that square would have been absolutely full of mediocre to bad entries that I would not have abided.

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 665: Freestyle 603. This came out of nowhere.

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Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

Get the PDF here!

Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 70
Mean word length: 5.40

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

There is a very subtle but very definite connection between the central across entry and the central down entry in today’s grid. How subtle, you might ask? It’s so subtle that I didn’t even notice it until literally minutes before I wrote this post. It’s so subtle that I may just be stretching this connection a little too much just to make a post out of it.

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 664: Freestyle 602. Swipe right on this one.

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Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

Get the PDF here!

Get the PUZ here!

Word count: 70
Mean word length: 5.51

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!

This grid underwent a very insect-like metamorphosis from start to finish. I did not at all plan on all those long downs intersecting the big stack. I was planning on keeping the cocoon around the stack in the middle, but, one by one, I kept having to pop open the center until all the long downs appeared, and then two more 15s appeared… before I knew it, it had turned from a cocoon into a butterfly, with its legs and wings all over the place connecting to the thorax in the middle.

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, Variety Puzzles

Puzzle 663: Anagram Crossword 9. There’s no fooling you.

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Last Friday’s freestyle solution

Get the PDF here!

Get the PUZ here!

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!

It’s my first post since April Fools’ Day. I didn’t do anything too wacky, wild, or crazy, but I felt like I had to do something to mix things up at least. And mix things up I literally did. I admit that it doesn’t take me as long to write the clues for these grids, because the point of the puzzle is more the anagramming than the clue-to-answer thing that’s the case with standard crosswords. I thought briefly about creating a variant of these crosswords in which you have to anagram one word in each clue to make sense of it, then anagram the answer to put in the grid. That would be really nasty of me, and I’m not so sure it wouldn’t be a little unfair in some spots. Maybe I’ll have that as an option the next time I do one of these — you can solve the regular one, or you can solve the one with an anagram in the clues as well. Don’t mind me, I’m just thinking out loud.

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!