Crossworld Monthly Roundup, January 2022

Why should Will Nediger have all the fun with these end-of-month roundups? I solved 225 puzzles in January - about 70/30 mainstream/indies (although that "mainstream" count includes things like Vox and Vulture so it's really more like 50/50) - and I had many, many thoughts about them. So much so that I think these roundups are going to replace the first Thursday puzzle of each month. Most of these thoughts will go under a "read more," but let's take a minute to appreciate my favorite above the fold:

My Favorite Puzzle Of January 2022 was... 2 x 22 by Brendan Emmett Quigley! Let's take ten while you solve it. (I will be fairly liberal in spoiling puzzle themes and clues here - consider this your warning.)

You're back? Good. So, rebus puzzles are fun[citation needed], but they usually don't play well with online interfaces. This puzzle hits on a fairly elegant solution for that: have the CHI rebii in the grid represented by the letter X. (I admit that until I sat down to write this grid out, I didn't realize that the "22" in the title is referring to chi being the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet.)

Now, having the letter X sub in for other letters/bigrams/words is pretty well-trod ground: just this month there was the 1/18 Universal by David Alan van Houten, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Matthew Stock's NYT debut from Jan. 7 of last year. What makes this grid awesome is, first of all, the sheer quantity of theme content: the puzzle's five themers, with their 10 [CHI]s, make up over 30% of this grid's squares (57/187 - yes, I counted). And these are pretty great themers too: who could hate [CHI]CKEN [CHI]MICHANGAS and PIT[CHI]NG MA[CHI]NE? But what really makes this grid shine - and I know this is not a common opinion - is just how much cross-referencing is going on here. Four of the Xs going down in this grid are keyed to other entries in the grid, which goes a long way in making stuff like TEX/MEX and TO A/HUGE EXTENT cool, and they make everything in the grid feel super connected. And despite the 11 Xs here, Brendan still makes room for Ben GAZZARA in the grid! Just a masterclass in grid architecture.

More highlights (and nadirs) under the cut...

#36: The Black and White Puzzle (Themeless #16) (ft. Kate Chin Park)

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: medium-hard

Don'tcha love Kate Chin Park? Did you know that Kate is constructing a puzzle for Boswords' Winter Wondersolve? You should register for that, IMO. If you go to the Boswords website and register right now you can see a picture of Kate squirming in pain as she puts ketchup on a burrito.

Kate and I did this puzzle a couple months ago and I am posting it here now because, quote, "guesting on your blog really ups my cred." (Lies! But I'll take the compliment.) Anyway she's the best, this puzzle is very good, etc etc. Please enjoy; 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.

#34b: Babysitting Dragons (Themeless #15)

 

[PDF] [PUZ]
difficulty: hard

Double Dragon pt. 2. Not a lot to say on this one, other than that you should check out the puzzle Ada Nicolle and Jenna LaFleur did together which I shamelessly stole the layout on this puzzle from. Thank you to the test solvers on this one and the previous one. Ajay, Kate, Will E., um, Noah I think, some other people? This past week was a blur. Our bathroom doesn't work, it's a whole thing. A whole smelly thing. I'm glad you can't smell me over Zoom. OK, bye, hope you likey, applet under the cut; mini next week, I pinky swear.

#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.

QVXwordz returns for 2022!

 

Wow, is 2021 over? I can hardly believe it. Actually, I totally can believe it because 2021 was terrible. But after a month of inactivity on QVXwordz, my AAs are recharged and I am totally ready to get back to regularly posting here.

I should note that there were in fact many Q.V. x-words published in the past month, albeit not here; I had the December 19th 7xword, for instance, and earlier this week I did a 21-by-21 themeless for Crucinova (see the grid above) - a Crucinova subscription is, IMO, totally worth it, so consider getting a free trial there JUST for my puzzle, which will be eminently worth it. Oh, and speaking of subscription services that are eminently worth it, the AVCXpansion Kickstarter met its goal, so in a month or two AVCX subscribers will receive an additional themeless puzzle in their inbox every week, edited by the likes of me, Chris Adams (of arctanxwords fame), Max Carpenter (of donkey puzzle tree fame, and Sid Sivakumar (an esteemed constructor with no namesake URL). As a teaser for that additional weekly themeless, I did an AVCX+ sampler which you can download for free! Hell yeah.

So what's going to become of QVXwordz now that I have a weekly puzzle job? A lot of stuff! I'm going to go back to the stated schedule in the header. Every Thursday you'll get a full sized puzzle, probably; and every Monday you'll get a mini. Except that I will be retiring the "Mini Monday" name, or the "Monday Mini" name, or whatever it was called, and the rebranded mini will be appearing in a new and exciting format, cross-posted on social media. Very cool! Watch out for that on the third.

Also to be posted on QVX in the coming months? Well, I've wanted to write longform about puzzlemaking, and this feels like a good forum to do it. We'll start sometime this week with a round-up of my favorite clues from indie puzzles of 2021. And then, I dunno, maybe I'll give some pointers on how to do clues? Not entirely sure.

Anyway, hopefully you'll have 100+ puzzles posted on QVX in the coming year, and they'll all be awesome and great. What can you expect? I'll tell you what you can expect:

- a puzzle that is over 10% Qs (and no, it's not a 3x3, har har; is that even possible? probably)
- a guest puzzle by an esteemed crossword luminary and guy I've had dinner with
- a variety puzzle that, according to joon pahk, is "not a puzzle type that has existed yet (to my knowledge), but i have to say i like the idea!"
- a truly jaw-dropping masterwork of holiday grid art that will make Liz Gorski's "connect the circled letters to make a Christmas tree" puzzles look like amateur hour

...and many more! Huzzah! Not to mention, many puzzles at various other outlets, probably. Particularly at AVCX. Did I mention that if you spend $250 on the AVCXpansion kickstarter, you can still purchase a portrait by yours truly (see below), and/or a contestant slot in a special game of Only Connect written by our trivia team?? What a deal. You'd have to be a real fucking clod to NOT blow your wad (of cash) on this bonkers set of incentives. OK, you do that right fucking now, and I'll see you back here on Monday. Arrivederci! No applet under the cut, just good vibes for 2022.

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.