Puzzle #5: Themeless

Happy Sunday, puzzle people! On deck today is a 72-word themeless puzzle, featuring my favorite guy at 36-Across. What more is there to say than that?  🙂🧩

Amanda

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Saturday midi

Today's midi puzzle is sort of a combination of a puzzle and a book/author recommendation. The two long across entries are both wonderful and insightful reads. I also cannot stop thinking about Claudia Rankine's book "Citizen", which would not fit into this puzzle but is an unbelievably relevant and important work that refuses to leave my mind lately. If you Google it, you'll see why. The Fountain Theatre here in LA recently did a virtual performance of the stage adaptation of "Citizen". You can check it out here. Happy Saturday!🧩

Amanda

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Friday minis

I don't know how this is already possible, but today marks the 1 month "anniversary" of when I began this site. 38 puzzles in 30 days! I hope you all have enjoyed the minis, midis, variety puzzles, and full-sized grids available here. I also hope that whatever your age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status (etc) is, you've seen something here that speaks to your interests and experiences in the world. And if not, I would love to hear from you so that I can continue to try to make puzzles that make everyone feel seen and included. Today's minis cross-reference one another at the 1-Acrosses. Enjoy, happy Friday, and thanks to everyone who has joined me on this puzzling journey. You all are so appreciated. 🧩

Amanda

Theatre Thursday #5

Today's Theatre Thursday puzzle is lightly themed around the 2005 musical "The Color Purple", which was an adaptation of the novel of the same title. The book portion of the musical was written by playwright Marsha Norman (who won the Pulitzer Prize in drama for her play "'night, Mother") and the music was written by songwriters Brenda Russell (5 Grammy nominations), Allee Willis (2 Grammys awards, 1 Emmy award, and co-writer of the "Friends" theme song), and Stephen Bray (ex-boyfriend of and collaborator with Madonna). The original Broadway production ran for nearly 3 years and was nominated for 11 Tony Awards. The show was remounted on Broadway in 2015 and ran until 2017, starring absolute queen and legend Cynthia Erivo. If her name sounds familiar, you might remember her from her stunning performance at this year's Oscars, where she sang the song she co-wrote for the film "Harriet", which she also starred in and was nominated for. Check it out here if you haven't heard it yet. And, as always, enjoy the solve. 🧩

Amanda

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Wednesday midi + variety

Congratulations -- you made it to the middle of another week! This is a big puzzle day for me because in addition to the 11x11 midi and variety puzzle posted here, I also have today's New York Times crossword with my forever-collaborator Ross Trudeau. That puzzle was actually the first one I ever made way back when, so it's fun to see it poke its head out now all this time later. Enjoy what I hope is a puzzling frenzy today 😄

Amanda

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PDF Left and Right

Tuesday Mini #4

Anyone else stan Jodie Comer these days? ✋I figured I'd take the opportunity presented to me by this puzzle to post a relevant photo. Here's a mini puzzle for some Tuesday afternoon solving!

Amanda

Monday Midi: X's and O's

Today's puzzle is a fairly easy, lightly-themed midi to kick off your week. Maybe you've been noticing what I've been noticing lately, which is that it's pretty challenging to focus and concentrate. Turns out the combination of quarantine brain plus anger, sadness, and outrage really do a number on cognitive functioning. I hope you're finding some effective ways to take care of yourself as we all navigate these unprecedented and extremely important times.

Amanda

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