#48: Girls Gone Wild (ft. Richard Allen!)

 

[fullscreen] [PDF] [puz]

Hey, it's another themed grid - and this time, it's with a pal! Richard Allen runs the blog Lexicon Devil, where he posts metas and variety puzzles in addition to fun themelesses. In addition to this, he's also solved the puzzle classic Cain's Jawbone and one of the Zodiac Killer's ciphers (!!) - a real smart guy, and a great constructor too.

Anyway, we've got a 78-word themed puzzle of middling difficulty. Nothing too earthshaking, this type of theme, but I think it's a pretty good puzzle, firmly at the intersection of the two of our sensibilities. Especially that final theme entry! Actually, the northwest corner is... *very* Quiara, for better or worse. But we had our fun with this one, and we think you will too.

In case you missed it, I posted an "odds and ends" post earlier today recapping some of the cool stuff I did in the past three months. (I got a new job, among other things.) Anyway, applet under the cut; see you next week, probably.

#47: Sizzlin'

 

[fullscreen] [PDF] [PUZ]

"Hot" off the presses - ha ha ha. This puzzle is 72 words, lightly themed, and slightly tricky (in the fill department, not the theme department). It'll probably get trickier if you're solving this after 49-Across loses its relevance - so, in about a week? Joking, joking.

Lots of great puzzles out there these days, especially in the past month. I don't know if I want to do roundup posts anymore, since the crew at Daily Crossword Links have so kindly been putting their own "puzzles to check out" posts every week, and my recommendations couldn't possibly compare to Matt, Rich, and Shannon's. But while I'm here, I might as well give a shout-out to friend-of-the-blog and regular human streamer rogo, who started a crossword blog last week and whose puzzles feel like they're straight out of the golden age of indie crosswords. (Remind me to update my blogroll along with the rest of the QVXwordz theme overhaul I'm supposed to be doing.) Hey, and just for the hell of it, why don't I shout out the puzzle I made for Crossword Club this past Tuesday? I thought it was pretty good, that one.

Anyway, applet under the cut, as usual. See y'all soon.

#45: Baby Movies

 

[fullscreen] [PDF] [PUZ]

Ah, the triumphant return of everyone's favorite QVXwordz running gag - this time in the form of a somewhat difficult 72-word themed puzzle. (It's about as hard as a trickier NYT Wednesday, I'm told.) I was going to make a joke about how the grid shape on this one was brought to you by the letter S, but - and forgive me if this gets too inside baseball - then I checked the stats on this one and was surprised to find that there were very, very, very few instances of the letter "S" in the grid, relative to most other puzzles. E.g., Themeless 17 on this blog has as its final four across entries TENETS, CASTLES, OP-EDS, and KISSERS. And those are crossing JARS, CUTS, and HURTS. That's seven plural entries in just the final two rows! This is quite typical of crosswords - you hardly notice the surplus of plural entries unless you're solving a themeless where the final entry is SEERESSES or whatever. But this grid only has three plurals in the entire grid (and one is a theme entry so it doesn't count). S is only the third-most common consonant in the puzzle! Quite weird. Anyway, shout-out once again to John K. (who has today's NYT, incidentally) for test solving, as well as to Will Nediger, plus Louie and try_kach from Crosscord who were also very helpful with their feedback on which clues needed a polish pass.

It looks like we're settling into me posting grids every Sunday this year, which means I'll have to update the top header on this site... and the whole theme, honestly. (It's been four years! About time for a remake, I think.) People really hate the color scheme on this site, although I have to say I kind of like it. But I also like the terrible MacPaint-ass theme on my personal website, so what do I know?

Applet, as always under the cut. Enjoy!

#42: Toy Story

 

(insert sid's grids joke here)
[fullscreen] [PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: medium

Pretty self-explanatory why this puzzle's theme was a no-go everywhere I sent it - and no, I don't mean because it's a... well, you'll see. Lyle Broughton, champion of reality TV and Bananagrams variants, did due diligence test solving this one (and confirmed for me the title on this one isn't too dupe-y).

I have a couple puzzles coming out in very exciting places this month, so keep your eyes peeled for those. Also, maybe check out my weekly midi for Crossword Club? I usually have the Thursday grid there; I like this puzzle I did for them today. Will Nediger discontinued his indie highlights series, irritatingly, which means I'll have to pick up the slack on those going forward, so I guess I'll post that this weekend. And then... maybe back to regular posting on this here site? Why not.

Anyway, applet under the cut. Enjoy.

#41: Strip Poker

 

[fullscreen] [PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: medium

Somewhat belated puzzle, as hinted at by the vestiges of Halloween theming. Thanks to Brian Thomas and Will Eisenberg for testing this one!

I've had a lot of irons in the fire (including one that, when I can say it, will be of interest to all of you interested in puzzles bearing my imprint). Well, I had the November 15 Crossword Club puzzle, which was quite good, and due to the vagaries of our publication schedule there I'll also have tomorrow's grid. More excitingly, I also have a puzzle in this month's Lemonade Disco suite, edited by Taylor Johnson. I love Taylor's willingness to arrange these community projects - it's nice to see the return of a bit of the indie spirit that has been sorely missing from crosswords these days, even amidst the Puzzle Boom. Somewhat relatedly, I was not involved with its creation, but I loved this Ocean's Eleven themed cryptic by the Rackenfracker.

OK, puzzle under the cut. Love y'all.

#40: There Was an Attempt (ft. Riley Wise)

 

[fullscreen] [PUZ 2 come]
difficulty: medium (like a Wednesday NYT)

I don't know why it is that when you make a puzzle for a real venue, one that will pay you and everything, it takes literal months of back-and-forth and grid iterations before you get something even remotely decent, but that when you shitpost, you can create a complete and clean and good grid in thirty minutes. Such is the case with this puzzle, co-constructed by myself and Riley Wise. Lila test solved this mess, god bless her. I'll edit in the .puz file when I figure out how to get a certain aspect of the grid to work in .puz form. Anyway, applet under the cut - enjoy!

(P.S.: Did you do my AVCX grid from yesterday? It was called Monster Mash and literally everyone loved it!)

#37: Hey, it's Q Vasquez

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: easy-ish (Tuesday)

Lots of exciting personal news: first of all, me and Kaybart won the pairs division at the Boswords Winter Wondersolve, which was great - both our unexpected victory and the four puzzles themselves which were unsurprisingly brilliant. (But how could they not be, with a line-up like Kate Chin Park, Christina Iverson, Ade Koiko, and Matthew Stock!?!?) Registration is now open for the Boswords Spring Themeless League, which will be similarly great.

Even more exciting: after a successful Kickstarter, the AVCX's expansion is kicking off tomorrow, so for the low cost of $30 a year you will be getting daily-ish content from some of the best people in the crossword game. Including myself, both as a constructor and as an editor of various themeless puzzles. So yes - two midis, a themed puzzle, a themeless, a cryptic, and a trivia game! Every week, more or less. For $30. If you aren't subscribed, you're missing out!

Anyway - here's a slightly belated puzzle. It's the best sort of puzzle: a puzzle where you'll either not get the theme at all or get the theme and *hate* it. Hope you like it despite that. Applet under the cut.

#35 (Sweet Goodbyes): Exit West (by Parker Higgins) (Guest Post) (Grid Charlemagne)

 

(yes, i know not scoring this puzzle with the dan is blasphemy, but i don't want to spoil the grid)

difficulty: medium
[PDF] [PUZ]

You know a puzzle with four distinct parentheticals in the title is going to be a doozy. So here it is: a puzzle by everyone's favorite human, Parker "xor" Higgins. Among other things, Parker co-hosts the stream Cursewords Live with the equally attractive Ross Trudeau; runs a Twitter bot that posts train emoji every couple hours; and, most importantly for those of you keeping up with QVXwordz lore, has split mango mochi with me and Brooke Husic. What a king!

Parker notes:

It's an honor and a pleasure to have the opportunity to offer a contribution to the "Grid Charlemagne" movement. Thank you to Quiara for hosting me among her uniformly excellent puzzles, to Adam Aaronson for kicking off this whole Grid Charlemagne business, and to Walter and Donald for the music.

Well, that's it from me. I'll see you all next Monday with the... yes, I know I promised there'd be a Monday Mini *last* week. Please don't make a running gag out of this. Applet, as always, under the cut.

#34a: Chasing the Dragon

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: hard-ish

I am holding a mystical sphere, etc etc. Not a "Grid Charlemagne," despite the associated tune (that's next week, hopefully). This is one half of a pair of puzzles I'm releasing together called "Double Dragon." They're not really connected beyond their titles, and a slight bit of Gamer Girl content in both. This is the themed one of the two; it might be a little niche, but it's fine, I bet. Have fun. Applet, as always, beneath the cut.

#32: Pod Casting

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: medium

Totally '90s tribute puzzle this week. Big shout-out to my mom, whose subscription to AARP Magazine - usually an alarming reminder of the mortality of the most important woman in my life - gave me a great cluing angle this week. And while we're here, let's also give a shout-out to my wonderful boyfriend, who watched me sketch this grid out on the back of a newspaper mumbling phrases to myself like "pinwheel arrangement" and "optimal initial Js" while sitting cross-legged on a stool at a pizza parlor and thought, "yes, I am going to continue dating this woman." And hey, shout-out to you for sitting through this crap too, when you could be doing the latest Brooke Husic puzzle instead. Just kidding, you can do both. (Please do Brooke's latest, it's awesome.)

Anyway, applet under the cut. I'll have a "bonus puzzle" for y'all on Monday. (Don't get too excited, it's just a rerun. Uh, not a "rerun" per se. You'll see.) Enjoy.

#31: Hat Trick

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: medium

Hey, it's been a while. Two whole months without a QVXword? Perish the thought. Well, I want to get some new puzzles up in advance of what I suspect will be a huge traffic bump off people spamming the link to this site in the Boswords chat sometime in the next month. Plus, I gotta do something special for the one-year anniversary of QVXwordz, right? More on that later.

Anyway, this is a rather gentle, lightly themed puzzle that plays a little more like a spooky seasonal themeless. The grid shape is inspired ever so slightly by Ross Trudeau, who frequently does puzzles with this sort of mirror grid setup - including very recently in a lovely collaborative puzzle done with me and the equally great Sally Hoelscher. (If you haven't solved that puzzle, called "The Space Between Us," do it! It's very fun.)

Anyway, applet under the cut. Will Eisenberg and Frisco gave very useful feedback that made this puzzle just a little fairer. Enjoy! And see you next week.

#29: I Studied Philosophy for Four Years and All I Got Was This Lousy Crossword

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: easy... maybe

No, I'm not bitter that I didn't major in comp sci, what gave you that impression? Jack the difficulty rating on this one up to "medium" if you can't tell Plato from Play-doh. Actually, even if you took Philosophy 101, or just watched The Good Place, one of these entries might still be a headscratcher (but is totally worth reading up on after you finish, imo). Anyway, probably going to do a themeless next week because I have some hyper-current seed entries I want to burn; hope this puzzle is a nice reprieve from that. Anyway, enjoy the puzzle. Applet under the cut.

#28: Go the F to Sleep

 

NSFW WARNING!
This puzzle has some distinctly 18+ stuff in it.
If you're underage or squeamish about sex,
no judgment - but you might want to sit this one out.
[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: hard

Hello to the new solvers linked here by Crucinova! You picked a not-so-great time to come on over. For the uninitiated, Crucinova is a new crossword subscription service that launched literally a few minutes ago, and the first puzzle they've posted is a themeless by yours truly. If you, the Crucinova solver, are looking for another interesting themeless in that vein, you might want to check out one of the other themelesses on this blog before you tackle this one.

Anyway, this puzzle is a bit raunchier than the normal QVXwordz fare, enough so that I put an NSFW warning on it. I'm sure you'll agree it's very good, though. Applet under the cut; enjoy.

#24: A Little Ditty

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: medium, bordering on easy?

Do you ever come up with a theme idea and shelve it because it's a little too niche, and then wake up and check Twitter to find that suddenly the niche thing you're referencing has become a huge cultural point of mockery? Well, Christmas came early this week, that's all I'm saying. The grid this week is a little funky (14 by 14, mirror symmetry, those... you'll see what I mean) but I think it's kind of charmingly funky. Deee-Lite funky, not Lyte Funkee Ones funky. Dig? Anyway, applet under the cut. Dig!

#23: X Gon' Give It to Ya

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: medium

First of all, for the 500(!) new people who checked out last week's themeless per the Biz Quig's recommendation, hi! I'm Quiara, I make puzzles every Thursday (and usually minis every Monday), and sometimes they're pretty good. We operate on pretty similar wavelengths, most of the time, so I'm sure if you stick around you'll find something you like.

So anyway, this puzzle. Would you believe that it was concepted a week or two ago, and intended neither as a DMX tribute nor as a shameless round of one-upping Ricky Cruz's Boswords themeless?! It was originally called "All My Exes." But then, like, why not pay tribute to a dearly departed legend? (True story, in my past life as a journo I once worked not one but two DMX quotes into the headline and text of a tangentially related article. It was all downhill from there, folks.)

Anyway, enjoy the puzzle. See y'all next week. Applet under the cut.

#21: 21

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: medium-hard (Thursday?)

No April Fools puzzle for 4/1,* but hey, it's 4/3/21, and look, it's puzzle #21, and it's titled 21, and the theme has something to do with the numbers 2 and 1, and there are two (2) dupes in one (1) of the entries. All of which was completely intentional, f'sure, f'sure. Anyway, this theme wouldn't fly in any major outlet, but it's very cute, IMHO. And it's a pangram! Anyway, hope y'all digit (number joke). Applet under the cut.

*Although, with last week's Something Different and the most recent Monday Mini, this site has had plenty of April Foolery for 2021.

#19: Shiny Happy People

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: easy, for once(?)

Blame Malaika for this one. No wordplay, just a nice straightforward themed puzzle. I think it's pretty easy, for once, but YMMV (particularly on the northeast and southwest corners which have no theme content).

Applet under the cut. Enjoy.

#15: Will Wonders Never Cease?

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: medium-hard (Thursday/Friday)

I mentioned in the first post that many of these puzzles would be rejects from mainstream outlets, but this is the first one that actually fits these criteria. The puzzle you're about to solve was shopped around as a Valentine's puzzle, which got rejected because 1) some of these entries are a little tricky and 2) the theme isn't immediately obvious. Or rather, I have to tell people (ROT13) ybbx ng gur ynfg jbeq bs rnpu gurzre, and then they get the theme immediately.

Anyway, thanks to David and Quin for solving. Quin actually gave QVXwordz a shout-out on his new blog, which was very flattering. Anyway, applet under the cut - enjoy, and happy Valentine's!!

#14: Buzz Cuts (Midi)

 

[PDF][PUZ]
difficulty: medium (YMMV)

This puzzle is sure to delight anyone at the extremely narrow overlap between entomologists and music geeks; hopefully there's something in there for people who are neither. In my humble opinion the three marquee entries here are all stone cold classics in their own right and definitely get a hearty thumbs up from me.

Speaking of "hearty thumbs-up," lots of cool new blogs in crossworld: I have loved Mollie Cowger's puzzles ever since she did a themeless with the 1-Across entry PIZZA RAT, and her new blog Crosswords from Outer Space does not disappoint on that front. Also, Lyle Broughton (whose theme feedback has been extremely useful) has a new site called Jack of All Squares, which has this wonderful/revolting puzzle I am indirectly responsible for.

Anyway, enjoy the puzzle. Applet under the cut.

#11: First We Run...

 

[PDF][PUZ]

difficulty: medium

No mini yesterday, because this puzzle cannibalized what would have been that puzzle's extremely timely seed entry. Applet under the cut. No apologies for earworms.