Puzzle 188: Freestyle 156. Throwing it all into the mix.

Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.39

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Consider the unfortunate life of the 14-letter entry. Its mere presence causes entire grids to look odd or out of whack. It forces unwanted three-letter entries. Unless you want an odd-shaped grid, a wide-open grid, and/or weird symmetry, you’re forced to either deal with those issues or not consider 14s at all… or find more creative ways to include them in the grid. You’ll see what I did when you open this grid — stacks of 14-14-15. Yes, it’s an odd look, but it’s the least intrusive, in my opinion, way to get 14-letter entries into 15×15 grid. My 14-letter list in my seed entry list was getting a little long and neglected, so I figured I’d give it a little love.

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Puzzle 187: Freestyle 155. There’s nothing else to say.

Last Friday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.44

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Another example of seeding a stack not at the edge of a grid. I think the numbers would bear it out, but I’d bet that the majority of my seeds don’t occur at the part of the stack along the edge of the grid (here, it’d be 1-Across or 66-Across). The seeds here were at 16-Across and 60-Across. I literally had the upper right section done and the cluing started when I completely changed that section. I’m not usually bothered by this, but it was a down answer repeating a prefix, of all things. Normally, I wouldn’t be really bothered by that, but my eyes kept moving back to that pair of words, so something in my subconscious was telling me to yank one of them out. So I did. I should always trust my subconscious because it turned out that I made that corner a lot better.

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better?

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Puzzle 186: Freestyle 154. Get your head around this.

Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.39

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My fondness for (well, more like “willingness to use”… not like I long to employ them every chance I get) helper squares is shining through here with the inclusion of three (gasp!) pairs, including (gasp again!) one pair in corners of the grid. That pair was to enable the inclusion of an entry that’s been on my seed list about as long as I’ve had a seed list (1-Down). I know it’s not a debut, but I liked it enough that I made it a point to build a section around it.

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better?

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Puzzle 185: Freestyle 153. Why don’t we grab a bite?

Last Friday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 70
Mean word length: 5.40

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The 14-15-14 stack you’ll see in the middle was definitely something I set out to do from the start, but I definitely wasn’t planning on the long downs running through them at 9 and 24. It was actually a pure stroke of luck that those long downs worked out — I was working in the area that’s now the beginning of 24-Down when I discovered that it could be extended all the way to the bottom of the grid. Crossword constructors, if they’re anything like me, always have the ticker skip a beat as they do that, because they’re briefly worried if the opposite symmetric answer will work too. Obviously, it did.

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better?

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Puzzle 184: Freestyle 152. Making a clean breast of it.

Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.33

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Another 7×7! I’ve heard that some roll their eyes at 7x7s because there aren’t any really long answers in the grids, as if you couldn’t have color in shorter answers. I’d like to think that I’ve disproved that notion with grids like these in the past as well as this one. It’s funny, I had a seed list entry that I tried to fit in one of the corners, and it just didn’t work the way I wanted it to, for some reason. Amazingly, though, through dumb luck, a pattern came up during construction that just happened to fit that same seed list entry that I couldn’t fit in another part of the grid! Sometimes it’s just fate.

Also, I feel like I have to talk about green paint here. For those who don’t know or don’t remember, green paint refers to an entry that’s definitely a thing, but may or may not quite be in the language. I’m coming clean here — there’s an entry in this grid that may or may not be considered green paint. I won’t say which one, but it should be evident when you finish the grid which one I’m talking about. (And, if it isn’t evident… well, then, I guess it isn’t such a big deal, isn’t it?)

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better?

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Puzzle 183: Freestyle 151. I know this much is true.

Last Friday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.44

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I don’t usually toot my own horn, but I am really proud of the way both ten-stacks came together in this grid. A lot of times, in a stack of 7 or longer, you’ll see two really good entries and one ordinary or gluey entry that’s not great, but is just there to hold the other two nice ones in place. (I’m guilty of that plenty of times, believe me.) But, here, I didn’t have to have the gluey entry in either of the two ten-stacks.

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better?

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Puzzle 182: Freestyle 150. Stand clear of the door!

Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 68
Mean word length: 5.56

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Usually, in a freestyle grid, you’ll see a standard triple stack of some length somewhere in the grid, filtering into some shorter fill on the outside or the inside of the grid. This one has none of that — it has a very unusual look from the start. Lots of scatter in the pattern and not much order. Much of the reason for this was that I wanted to focus on getting a couple of 14s in the grid, but I didn’t really want to do the standard grid spanner bracketed by an L-shaped group of blocks. The seed entry was put in at 14-Down originally, but only a few letters from that original entry survived into the final product — it’s funny how the construction process can work! The only negative upshot is the larger (but not obscenely large) amount of three-letter entries than usual. I was careful with those, though.

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better?

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Puzzle 181: Freestyle 149. There’s a lot going on here.

Last Friday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.39

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With the Olympics going on during the construction of this puzzle, their influence is quite obvious in this grid. Right off the bat, the first two across answers were seeds based on Olympic coverage, and the entry in 2-Down was kept in the grid because of the Olympic trivia in its clue. I’m always happy to find 8-letter seeds, both because my 8-letter seed list is low and I find the 8/6 structure you see in this grid most conducive to construction. I’d like to think that I’ve managed to make all 12 of the 8-letter entries in this grid colorful.

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Puzzle 180: Freestyle 148. Step by step, putting it together.

Last Tuesday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 72
Mean word length: 5.31

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No bonus points here for figuring out what entry started this grid… it’s pretty obvious. It may well even be a gimme to many. But there are some entries that you just can’t resist when they’re 15 letters or less, no? Actually, the origin was not just that entry, but that entry crossing another entry stacked under yet another entry (which ones they are may also be pretty obvious).

I had to add that extra block in the lower left and upper right. It really pained me to do that, because I don’t like adding single blocks that add six (or more) three-letter words to the grid count. I hate it, actually. But I would rather do that than stretch a corner and get a really bad fill or some really bad concessions.

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better?

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Puzzle 179: Freestyle 147. Are you not entertained?!

Last Friday’s freestyle solution

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Word count: 70
Mean word length: 5.43

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18-Across and 51-Across were the origins for this grid, obviously. I don’t think I’m giving anything away with this, but I say “obviously” because you don’t just happen upon fitting 18-Across in a grid. You pretty much have to start with it. The bit of trivia in 3-Down I’ve known for a while, but it took until now to fit it into the grid — it’s one of my favorite little bits of music trivia. I’ve seen one of the musicians referred to by that clue many times… I’ll leave it to you to figure out which one.

As always, I’d like to know, folks… comment is welcome! Come say hello! What did you like? What could I do better?

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