#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.

#30: It's No Paddington 2 (Themeless #13)

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: middle-of-the-road

You know, I figured I'd take a stab at making a gentle puzzle for once. This one turned out to be pretty topical. Thanks to Norah and Frisco for testing and confirming this is less tricky than normal.

Lots of exciting stuff happening in terms of me and crosswords. I was working the help line at Lollapuzzoola last weekend (alongside the lovely Jaime Stearns), so I got to watch 300 people beg for help on Brooke Husic's beautiful Puzzle 4 in real time. On top of that, I've been busy on other indie venues - last week I did a guest puzzle on Tim Croce's blog *and* a bonus puzzle for AVCX subscribers that sort of functions as a sequel to last month's "Go the F to Sleep." And I have an Atlantic puzzle dropping this Sunday. All very cool.

Anyway, enjoy the puzzle; share it if you like it. Applet under the cut.

#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.

Guest Puzzle: In a Word by Robin Yu

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: terse

I've taken most of July off to reap the fruits of Hot Vax Summer and/or celebrate my birthday - sorry for not saying this back on the 1st - but we'll be back to regular puzzles next week with a relatively easy themed puzzle. In the interim, we've got a guest puzzle from Robin Yu. If you're on the "Crosscord" - and why are you not, if you have a Discord account and like puzzles? - you might have seen a version of this puzzle on there, but it slipped under the radar. Undeservedly so, because it's one of my favorite puzzles of 2021 so far. (More on that a little later.) So with Robin's permission, and with some pretty minor editing, his puzzle is now getting the full audience it deserves.

Applet under the cut - enjoy.

#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.

Guest Puzzle: Tribute Demi by Tyler Hinman & Brooke Husic

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: it's brooke and tyler, what do you think?

In lieu of your weekly quote of QVX-stacy, please enjoy this offering from two colossi of crossworld: Tyler Hinman, who you may know from his Twitch streams and/or epic ACPT victory this year, and Brooke Husic, who you may know from her xwords by a. ladee site and/or Boswords championship puzzle last spring. (Oh, and Will Nediger test-solved it - just another indicant of this puzzle's pedigree.) When you're done with the puzzle, you can check out the song being referenced here.

I have a pair of puzzles coming out next month for puzzle subscription services, incidentally, so keep your eyes peeled for those. See you next week. Applet under the cut; enjoy.