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.

 

#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.

#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.