Category Archives: Crosswords

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

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 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.

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 492: Freestyle 441. Hold off on that.

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Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

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Get the PUZ here!

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

Get the PDF here!

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

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’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!