Puzzle #20: All Bottled Up

 

This is another puzzle of mine that I made quite some time ago. Like the one from two weeks ago, it's probably one of the first puzzles that I made on my own. As usual, I touched up some of the clues but the grid has largely remained unchanged. Upon revisiting it, I noticed that it doesn't have the long down slots that I image I would have included had I made the grid now, but overall I don't have as many nits to pick with it as I usually do with some of my older puzzles. One of the strangest thing about constructing puzzles for the major outlets with significant queue times is that, by the time you get to see your work in print, a year or more has gone by and you're a much different constructor. It's almost like digging up a time capsule, which is both really cool and also a really unusual thing to experience in the "public eye". I have no complaints, but it is a funny thing that I think about sometimes that feels (perhaps) unique to the world of constructing crossword puzzles. I hope you enjoy today's simple (and hopefully fun) theme. Cheers! 🧩

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Guest Midi by Brooke Husic

I am so ridiculously excited to be featuring constructor, human, and friend extraordinaire Brooke Husic today on Brain Candy. I became an uber fan basically as soon as she arrived on the constructing scene, and the more I get to know her as a human, the more of a fan I become! She's wickedly smart and talented and is also a totally great friend, which is basically the ultimate hat trick of being a person. If you don't already, you can keep up with her on Twitter at @brookehus (for science-related stuff) and @xandraladee (for crossword-related stuff). I especially recommend this right now since she has a very exciting announcement coming tomorrow. Huge thanks to Brooke for gifting me/us with this puzzle, and I'm endlessly excited to see and enjoy all the things that are coming next for her!

Here's Brooke: Thanks so much to Amanda for running this! Brain Candy is amazing/trailblazing and I'm in awe of Amanda and her wordplay/cluing skillz. I really was trying to cram a lot of stuff in here so my low points are a little lower than usual (I'm looking at you, 5-D, 22-A, and 35-A. But I loved the chance to mention The Resistance in the 35-A clue, which is a terrible game to play with me if you want to ever be friends/enjoy my company), but hopefully aren't disruptive to the experience. Thanks a ton to Matthew for test solving.

P.S. I'm super here for woman rappers who mention their height. 18-Down does it in "Morning" and Missy Elliott does it in the "theme song" of my puzzle the other week @ Grids These Days. If you know any other instances of this please @ me.

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Theatre Thursday #20

 

I cannot believe that this is already the 20th Theatre Thursday puzzle! How on earth...!? If you came late to the party, you can find all of the older puzzles in the "archive" in the sidebar; if you've been with me from the start, I hope you've enjoyed the journey as much as I have! Today's puzzle was built around my second favorite human of all time after Julie Andrews: 21-Across. Even if it did take a Disney movie to do it, I'm so glad she's seen a very well-deserved move into the "household name" sphere of pop culture. (The one downside is that now I have to fight a trillion people to go see her, whereas before I only had to fight other musical theater maniacs like myself)! But what are you going to do? Talent deserves to be recognized, so here we are. After the Wicked ship had sailed, I thought I had perhaps missed my opportunity to ever see her live in a Broadway musical...but then along came If/Then, resurrecting all my hopes and dreams. In total, over the past 15 years I've seen this glorious human four or five times in concert, twice in a musical, twice in a play, and again at her Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony. Suffice it to say, I think she's the best. Maybe you do too. If so, enjoy today's puzzle. And if not, maybe do a little more research 😉🧩

Amanda

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Midi Puzzle

 

If you've never heard of the Nevis Swing (as featured in 11-Across and in the above GIF), give it a Google. Ideally with video, to really capture the nightmare that it is. I can barely complete this post because that image alone is making me woozy. (I very much do not care for heights). Similarly to how I feel about skydiving, I am 100% certain that I would die of a heart attack if I tried this. But god bless anyone who is capable of indulging in such adventures. I am the exact opposite of an adrenaline freak, which I guess would make me a...GABA freak? (the neurotransmitter that reduces neuronal excitability). Anyhow...this puzzle started off with 12-Across. A different and equally valid phrase starting with the same word showed up as a fill option when I was working on a puzzle for a mainstream outlet, and I found myself discouraged by the fact that I felt I couldn't include this phrase in the puzzle. While I didn't include that exact phrase here because I couldn't figure out exactly how I'd want to clue it (perhaps some other time), I was happy to include something related since it is, after all, a perfectly normal and real element of life. Happy solving! 🧩

Amanda

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Puzzle #19: "Try This Coat!" by Thomas J. Heins, Will Eisenberg, and Olivia Mitra Framke

 

I'm super excited to be posting Brain Candy's first ever three-way collaboration -- a puzzle by Thomas J. Heins, Will Eisenberg, and Olivia Mitra Framke! When they pitched the idea to me, it brought a big smile to my face and I think all of you fellow crossword lovers will find yourselves equally amused! Big thanks to these three lovely people for giving me the pleasure of running this puzzle. Now I'll turn things over to your constructors:

Will: This theme emerged out of a discussion (okay, out of me strong-arming Thomas and Liv into making a puzzle with me) on the Crossword Discord server, aka Crosscord, which can be joined here: http://discord.gg/zHnQtGG. I can be found on Twitter at @TLMBERWOLVES, and on Discord as Lebronswanson.

 

T.J.: Thanks to Will and Liv for having me on; I'm thankful to have had the opportunity for my first collab.

 

Olivia: The second I saw the idea for this theme being discussed in Crosscord I absolutely loved it. I hope you will too!  

 

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Variety Crossword: Get The Picture?

 

Today's puzzle was born out of a crazy idea I had when I learned that the Amuse Labs platform allowed you to include photos with your clues. Because I'm a little bit of a nut, I asked myself whether or not I thought it was possible to clue an entire puzzle using only photos and no words. Because I imagine the novelty would wear off pretty quickly (plus there's no room for fun word play), I decided to give it a go in the format of a mini puzzle. So...here we are! Some of the photos are very direct and are pictures of what the word is, other photos have something in them that's described by the word in the grid. So keep your eyes peeled and, hopefully, have fun! Back tomorrow with an awesome 3-way-collab guest grid that should give a good laugh to all you folks in the puzzle community.

Amanda

Theatre Thursday #19

Today's puzzle focuses on a show that I'm currently having some deep-seated FOMO around -- The Band's Visit. I had been dying to see this show since it opened on Broadway, and it was supposed to finally be in LA in May. I think at this point we all know what the outcome of that was. The Band's Visit is a very unusual musical by many standards: where many of the shows that come through Broadway are large and extravagant, The Band's Visit is quiet and subdued; the style of music is wildly unique and unlike most anything else you'll hear from a Broadway cast album; and the level of intimacy is extraordinarily high. Despite it's departure from the norm, The Band's Visit is one of only four musicals in history to win the unofficial "Big Six" Tony awards (Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical, and Best Direction of a Musical). It also won the 2019 Grammy award for Best Musical Theater Album.

The story itself takes place in an Israeli town where every day feels the same. Local cafe owner Dina has long given up her dreams of finding romance and spends her days daydreaming. But when a band of Egyptian musicians show up lost, she and her fellow locals must take them in. This results in a magical night in which all are able to overcome their cultural differences and find companionship through an undercurrent of shared melancholy, leading to a permanent change in the town and its people. Watch the cast of The Band's Visit perform a Tiny Desk Concert here. The music is truly beautiful, with a beloved classic being Omar Sharif. Give the album (or these videos) a listen if you're not already familiar. I think you'll find yourself enchanted 🎭🧩

PS: There is a picture in one of the clues, so take a peek here in-browser first if you're planning to solve the .puz file.

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