#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.

#10: Dummy Thick

 

[PDF][PUZ]
difficulty: medium (tuesday/wednesday)

I can actually pinpoint the exact day I met the crossword puzzle that changed my life. It was the start of my senior year of high school; I had been hanging out with friends on the Lower East Side, and I had fished The Onion out of one of those green newspaper boxes to read on my commute back home. Eventually I worked my way to the crossword in the back of the issue. I don't think I actually finished the puzzle - too tricky for my undeveloped adolescent cortex - but I did manage to figure out the entry smack-dab in the center of the grid, and I did a double take.

"What the hell?" 17-year-old Q thought. "You can put CIRCLE JERKS in a crossword puzzle? That's..."

I paused.

"...pretty cool, actually."

Nine years later, when I started writing down ideas for puzzles for my crossword blog, the first one on my list was a tribute to that puzzle which had put me on that path. So imagine my surprise last Thursday when I visited Brendan Emmett Quigley's website and came face to face with the very puzzle that had blown my mind as a teenager. Solving it a decade later, the puzzle is definitely showing its age (remember these guys? no? me neither)... but the impact it had on me as a teen cannot be understated. Certainly you can trace a fairly straight line from that to the fairly risque clues I'm writing now.

Anyway, long prelude to a pretty straightforward (if weirdly-sized) puzzle. Thanks to Steve Mossberg and ckstern for their feedback/test solves - and of course, to Brendan for inspiring not just this QVXword, but all the QVXwordz, now and forever. I hope you all enjoy it.

Applet under the cut.