Puzzle #28: Guest themeless by Brooke Husic and Claire Rimkus

 

As if the Sunday when Puzzle Mania drops isn't exciting enough, boy do we have a themeless for you! This gem by Brooke Husic and Claire Rimkus is a stunner from start to finish, with enough "?" clues to keep you on your toes the whole way through. I'm so grateful they sent this my way, and couldn't be more honored to run it today! I'd say "hope you enjoy," but I already know you will.

Here's Brooke and Claire: If you liked the Husic/Rimkus collaboration debut in the USAT on Tuesday, we hope you also enjoy this substantially trickier themeless offering with a possibly gratuitous amount of ? clues (13; we counted). We're super grateful to Amanda for her willingness/excitement to run this. In other news: Happy Hanukkah, consider donating a dollar or five to this transition fund so we can be blessed with an Agardian themeless, and stay safe out there.

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Puzzle #27: "Who is the G.O.A.T.?" by Amanda Rafkin & Evelyn Rubin

 

What a huge honor and pleasure it was to make this puzzle with "Jeopardy!" champion Evelyn Rubin, who shares Alex's Canadian origins. Ross Trudeau made the introduction since both me and Evelyn are bigtime "Jeopardy!" stans, and then we were off to the races brainstorming how best to tackle this tribute puzzle. I've bonded with innumerable people over "Jeopardy!" as I know Evelyn has too and, as an LA resident, I've also had the privilege of getting to attend a few tapings after many years of fandom. This puzzle is not intended to trick you or be wildly difficult in any way -- it's meant to simply be enjoyed and, hopefully, take you down memory lane in some capacity. There are still (what we think are) some fun clues, but the primary purpose of the puzzle is to represent the love and respect that both Evelyn and I have for "Jeopardy!," which we know so many others in the crossword community share. We hope this is an enjoyable addition to your Sunday solving lineup. Alex also loved crossword puzzles, so that only adds to our joy of being able to make this puzzle and put it out into the world today.  💗

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Guest Midi by Evelyn Rubin

I'm very excited to be able to share this midi puzzle with you today, made by the very cool and very smart Evelyn Rubin! This was Evelyn's first midi puzzle, and as you guys know I love a good midi, so it was really fun to see it come together and then to also see how many fun clues she was able to get in there! You'll be seeing a collaboration here between me and Evelyn very soon, as we recently worked on a puzzle together about something near and dear to both of ours hearts. We spent a couple hours on a video call working on it, and it was seriously an enormous pleasure. You'll definitely be seeing her name around, and I'm personally thrilled for this!

Here's Evelyn: I'm thrilled to have my first midi debut here!  I'm very grateful to Amanda for the opportunity and for being so supportive of this endeavour.  Her constructive feedback and positive nature made this lots of fun and I'm looking forward to our next collaboration.  I also must thank Ross Trudeau for making the introduction and for being such a wonderful collaborator to us both. 

This is my first time using diagonal symmetry, and I actually prefer looking at this puzzle with my head tilted to the left.  While 15-Across was the starting point for this theme, the 5-Down clue is close to my heart for a completely different reason (google my name and the answer if you're interested).

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Puzzle #26: Themeless Puzzle

 

If this grid looks a little funky to you, that's because it's a 14x14 -- just a hair smaller than your typical full-sized grid. The reason for that is because this puzzle started with the 33-Across entry and I figured I might as well make it a grid-spanning entry and adjust the dimensions of the puzzle accordingly because why not? As a person who is forever a decade behind on popular television, I just recently started watching Game of Thrones. I found the 33-Across phrase humorous at the moment, for reasons I've included in its clue. Hopefully this puzzle will be not too-challenging and enjoyable way to close out your holiday weekend. Until next time!

Amanda

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Puzzle #25: "Wait...Where's The Turkey?" by Amanda Rafkin & Ross Trudeau

 

Happy Thanksgiving, dear solvers! While full-sized grids are usually reserved for Sundays, this week comes with a special bonus puzzle by me and Ross Trudeau. It's so special in fact...that it's not solvable in any of the solving apps! This one you'll have to use that puzzle printer of yours to print out. So grab the folks in your bubble and gather round. We'd love to see the pics of your gravy-stained puzzles and/or your favorite solving nooks. Happy eating everyone, and be safe! 🦃🍂

Wait...Where's The Turkey PDF

Wait...Where's The Turkey SOLUTION

Puzzle #24: Themeless Puzzle

 

Sometimes I sit on a themeless grid for months before it comes together; other times, it all manages to come together in seemingly no time at all. This puzzle falls into the latter category. I intended to finish this last night and set it to publish early this morning, but alas I had one glass of wine and fells asleep at 8:30 last night, which is not embarrassing at all. As a clue writer I tend to be rather verbose, which makes me the perfect target for editorial trims. And while I am learning my lesson and beginning to self-correct, here on this blog sometimes I take the liberty of writing clues that are as long as I want simply because I can. I hope you find both this puzzle and your Sunday enjoyable. Until next time! 🙂

Amanda

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Midi Puzzle

 

We're right in the heart of football season, so I started this puzzle off with 8-Across and then went from there. 5-Down is a great example of something that, both as a constructor and solver, I wasn't familiar with but was happy to learn. Given that I would not consider this an inferable entry, I tried to make all of the crossings as fair as possible. 1-Down is going to tell you everything you need to know about middle school Amanda. If it brings on some nostalgia for you as well, then we are birds of a feather. Happy solving! 🧩

Amanda

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