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Saturday, November 20, 2021

THE QVXWORDZ FIRST ANNIVERSARY THROWBACK SPECTACULAR

 

This Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of QVXwordz, and I wanted to do something nostalgic to celebrate - so, here are some puzzles I QVXcavated for you.

Back at the start of the pandemic, when I lost my job and couldn't leave the house, I decided that I'd go insane if I didn't do *something,* and out of the blue one of my friends mentioned he'd been using a program called Phil to make his own crosswords online. After a couple months, I had finally made a pair of 15x grids that I thought were good enough to share with friends, so I sent them to this guy whose puzzles I had been enjoying. And that guy's name was Sid... something or other. I think he has a website, the name of which eludes me at the moment? Whatever. Anyway, Sid Something-or-other said he liked my puzzles, and got me in touch with Matthew Stock, who got me in touch with Erik Agard, and before you know it I'm the hottest girl in all of crossworld, getting commissions left and right, I'm published in all sorts of newspapers, etc etc. So you know, not to undersell my mad skillz, but let's take this opportunity to give thanks to Erik, and Matthew, and Sid - all famously wonderful guys, as anyone remotely familiar with the world of indie puzzles will attest - without whom I'd likely not be the phenom I am today.

And you know, let's add one more name to that list of giants whose shoulders I stand upon - Phil creator Keiran King. Keiran, are you reading this? You rock, and I literally would not be making puzzles at the level I am today if I hadn't chanced upon your site. Seriously, man, hit me up. Let's collab on a grid sometimes. I owe you my career, arguably.

Right, anyway: under the cut you'll find the first two 15x puzzles I ever made that approach "solvable." I'm selling myself short, actually - these are pretty damn good, considering I had no idea what a ""wordlist"" even was at the time. They got the Sid Something-or-other seal of approval way back when, which is no mean feat. So let's go. Here's to one year of QVXwordz, bitches. Applets below the cut; see you next week.

 

Monday, November 8, 2021

#33: It'll Make You Say "Oh" (Smoother Version) (Themeless #14)

 

 


[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: "smooth"

Hello to the many, many people who just solved my Boswords puzzle! I hope you had as much fun solving it as I did making it. If you're looking for some more fun puzzles on this site, well, anything on the front page is worth a go, but also consider checking out the following grids of mine:

- Themeless #7 on this website, which as I mentioned during Boswords has six intersecting spanners.
- Take a Stab on Crucinova, a themeless with a truly wild grid shape.
- This themed puzzle I did for The Atlantic with some distinctly 21st century entries.

If this puzzle looks familiar, it's because you might have solved it before elsewhere - specifically, you might have done it two months ago when the grid appeared as a guest spot on Tim Croce's website. But in the spirit of Boswords, I've decided to make an alternate version of the grid with much easier clues. If you're a Stormy level solver, by all means, give Tim your traffic and try that version of the puzzle instead!

As for this puzzle, Kelsey and Frisco kindly test-solved this clue; thanks to them both. Applet under the cut; two new puzzles (!!) this Thursday, plus maybe a guest puzzle!? We'll see. Love y'all.