PUZZLE #22: Themeless 6

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Welcome back, solvers! It's been a few months since the last themeless; here's a puzzle to break the theme hegemony.

If this still doesn't satisfy your themeless fix, check out this erik agard collaboration. You know as well as I do that the man's a crossword wizard. Just look at that puzzle's 1-Across clue (which was all him) and let your jaw drop.

Anyway, enjoy the puzzle!

PUZZLE #21: "Yes, And..."

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Hello! Late puzzle, but better late than never.

This is a puzzle from the "write what you know" division. Last Friday, I played in a showcase for my school's improv team for the first time. Long story short, it was insanely rewarding, I loved it, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. So, here's a puzzle based on that, titled after the golden rule of improv.

Hope you enjoy!
-Paolo

PUZZLE #20: Steep Descent

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Hello again, solvers!

First: to bring closure to the story arc introduced in the posts for puzzles #17 and #18, I am pleased to announce that I have finally finished the second season of "Stranger Things." I'm still emotionally drained after that finale, but I won't burden you with that. (but also WOW what an episode)

About the puzzle: wackadoodle theme, but what is the vibe of this site if not "wackadoodle." Puzzles like this really demonstrate why I'm liking the freedom of indie crossword construction-- you'll see why when you solve it.

Hope you enjoy!

-Paolo

PUZZLE #19: Roamin' Empire

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SOLUTION to last some week's puzzle

Hello!

Sorry for the puzzle absence over the last two weeks; school got really busy, and I burned through my backlog of crosswords pretty quickly. The good news is, now that Thanksgiving break is here, I've had the time to make a few puzzles to get back into the routine of things. Things should be good for the next week or two; if not, I'll let you know. No secrets between us, I promise.

Thanks for understanding, and enjoy the puzzle!

Best,
-Paolo

PUZZLE #18: Play Again (and last week's meta results)

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Hello, solvers!

Last week's meta was a layered one. 31 solvers sent in the correct answer-- but how did they do it? Let's find out!

In this "Stranger Things"-themed puzzle, solvers were prompted with "Researchers of this grid have discovered the existence of an alternate dimension, which some have called the Upside Down. The scientific world is abuzz-- but there's rumors that they also discovered something else in the puzzle. What did they find?" In doing the crossword itself,  two things became clear:

1. The bottom half of the grid is a mirror reflection of the upper half. More tellingly, though, the down answers in the bottom half of the grid had to be flipped (indicating that this is the Upside Down), as were the clues for that section of the grid (at least in the pdf).
2. Two answers (COME THROUGH and ONLY CONNECT) had starred clues.

So, where to go from there? Nudged by the two starred answers, solvers noticed that the "normal" side and the "upside down" could be connected. When certain letters are added between the two halves, words are created in the Down direction that work equally well for the given clues. More specifically:
[Common means of getting to work] could clue CAR or CARPOOL
[Operating smoothly, say] could clue WELL or WELL-OILED
[Place to crash] could clue BED or BEDROOM
[Place to grab lunch] could clue CAFE or CAFETERIA
[Beat a retreat] could clue RUN or RUN AWAY
[Chap] could clue GENT or GENTLEMAN

The added letters, as shown above, reveal the PORTAL that connects our dimension and the Upside Down (and, incidentally the meta answer). It was a big part of season one, but I've only seen two episodes of the latest season. So, I don't know how relevant it still is, but whatever. Also, I'd like to extend a thanks to all the entrants this week, for not spoiling the new season. What a courteous bunch you all are. Of those entrants, this week’s winner is... Nathaniel Lee! Congratulations, Nathaniel, and thanks to everyone who sent in comments. They’re very much appreciated.

Smaller puzzle today; I've been busy at school, so here's a lil' grid with a lil' theme. I really like it though, and I hope you do too.

-Paolo

PUZZLE #17: Highway to the Stranger Zone (CONTEST)

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Happy Friday, solvers! I know a Friday release doesn’t follow the normal schedule, but you’ll see the reason for its odd timing.

I wrote this puzzle to coincide with the release of season 2 of "Stranger Things," and I’m very excited to share it with you now. And it’s a meta contest! You should know the metapuzzle drill by now (and, if you don’t, click here for a refresher), so let’s just get started.

URGENT: Researchers of this grid have discovered the existence of an alternate dimension, which some have called the Upside Down. The scientific world is abuzz-- but there's rumors that they also discovered something else in the puzzle. What did they find?

Just FYI, the .pdf has an extra thematic element. I’d recommend you at least look at it before solving.

When you have the correct answer, send it to pascopuzzles [at] gmail [dot] com. One randomly-selected solver will win this week’s prize, a free copy of a forthcoming puzzle project I’m working on, which I’ll send on its release date. Plus, they have the option to suggest any word for me to use in a future puzzle (within reason, of course). Send in your answers by 8:59 p.m. PT on November 4, 2017, for a chance to win.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be watching the entire new season working on college applications.

Best of luck,
-Paolo

PUZZLE #16: Jumpscares

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Hello, solvers!

We here at Grids These Days are very into the whole Halloween deal, so here's a puzzle in the spookiness spirit. I myself had to take several breaks when constructing this puzzle, because I would just spook myself out so much. Hopefully the same doesn't happen to you. Enjoy the solve!

NOTE: The next puzzle will go up this Friday (10/27/17) instead of its normal Sunday date. It's also a meta contest, so be aware of that as well

-Paolo

PUZZLE #15: Alternative Music

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Welcome back, solvers!

Got the inspiration for this puzzle while procrastinating on YouTube, so I switched to procrastinating on Crossfire and made the grid you see right here. After you solve the puzzle, check out a few of my favorite examples of the revealer right here. (SPOILERS, of course, so make sure you solve the puzzle before you click through the links)

Hope you enjoy!
-Paolo

PUZZLE #14: Themeless 5

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Welcome back, solvers!

My test solver said the grid looked "a little wack," and I can't say I disagree. There's a reason for the wack-ness, of course, but you'll just have to solve it and judge for yourself. Sorry, also, that my posts are getting shorter-- college application season is in full swing, and I'm waist-deep in essays to write. I think I have enough of a backlog to maintain a once-a-week schedule at least until the next school break, which is promising. Thanks for bearing with me through this-- hopefully the puzzle quality doesn't dip because of business getting in the way.

Enjoy the solve!

-Paolo

PUZZLE #13: Slide Effects

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Happy Halloween month October, everyone! Time to take in the fall scenery, go hogwild with pumpkin spice everything, and plan out Halloween costumes! I, for one, am excited to be rerunning last year's costume, because I'm a #responsible, #conscientious student who lets nothing go to waste.

Themed puzzle today. Like the last themed puzzle I did, I tried to crank up the theme density. Lemme know how this one panned out!

-Paolo

PUZZLE #12: Themeless 4

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Welcome back, solvers!

72-word grid today, pitched a bit easier than your average themeless. Eagle-eyed solvers will notice that 50D has a different clue in the pdf and puz files. Apparently puz files have limits on clue length, so I had to do a quick rewrite there. Also, no points for guessing which entry I started with-- you know it was 52A. By this time, you should know that pop culture deep cuts are extremely my bag. (And, if you haven't seen the work referenced, I recommend you check it out.)

Also, new crossword site alert: I Dreamed A Theme. The title alone gets it points in my book, and the puzzles aren't too shabby either. Check it out!

Hope you enjoy!

-Paolo

PUZZLE #11: Flat Tops

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Hello, solvers!

Really quick post, because school's getting way more time consuming. Easier puzzle this week; the relatively simple nature of the theme made me want to jack up the theme density, so here you go. Hope you enjoy!

-Paolo

PUZZLE #10: Themeless 3 (GUEST PUZZLE BY NATE CARDIN)

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Welcome, solvers!

We're onto double digits, folks. To celebrate, we're bringing in a first for Grids These Days: a guest constructor! This week we have up-and-coming constructor Nate Cardin taking the helm; you might know him from his recent MGWCC guest puzzle, which we talk about more below. Anyway, he's here with a sparkling 72-word themeless. There's a lottt of good stuff in the grid; I'm honored to be running it, and excited for you to solve it. But first, an exclusive interview with the constructor himself. Take it away, Nate!

PP: Tell me a little about your background; what do you do outside of crosswords?
NC: I'm a chemistry teacher and coordinator of diversity, equity, and inclusion at a private high school in Los Angeles.  That dual role allows me to tackle many of my passions simultaneously - promoting science education, working with young people, and advocating for more diverse, equitable, and inclusive communities.  Outside of work and crosswords, I enjoy exploring museums with my husband, watching every episode of Survivor (yes, every), and pining over Lego sets that are way too expensive for me.

PP: How'd you get into crosswords in the first place?
NC: I've gravitated towards puzzles from as early as I can remember!  I loved solving anything I could get my hands on, but I'll admit that I grew increasingly bored/unsatisfied with crosswords as I got to college and then grad school.  It seemed like skill with crosswordese was prized over wordplay, creativity, and joyful wrestling with language - and that turned me off.  I wanted something new or different, and I wasn't finding it.  I'd always had the dream of writing/publishing my own crosswords, but I didn't see myself as belonging in that crossword climate and I assumed that publishing was something other people (but not me) got to do.  This was up until a year or two ago.  

Now, I see a different cross-world.  I'm excited about crosswords again and feel like I can belong.  Why?  Meta puzzles!  Discovering Gaffney's meta contest was a revelation for me - crosswords could be creative and imaginative, and you could ask solvers to stretch and grow to conquer new puzzles by relying on imagination or attention to detail rather than unrecognizable fill.  I quickly started writing my own metas with my colleague Mike (in fact, the first crossword I ever constructed was a birthday present for him).  We kept up with it and were each fortunate enough to have a meta published during Gaffney's Guest Constructor Month this year.  I've written a bunch of metas since then and have even ventured into writing non-meta puzzles, thanks to Andy Kravis's lovely and supportive Grid Wars.  This puzzle is actually a grid I constructed for one of his challenges.

PP: Your MGWCC puzzle was one of my favorite metas in recent memory, and it was your debut! If I can get all "Inside the Constructor's Studio" on you, what's the story behind the puzzle?
NC: My husband and I were watching RuPaul's Drag Race one evening and either the title phrase (Side Eye) or meta answer (Throw Shade) was tossed around, and I had one of those !!! moments where I realized that simply putting the letters from Throw Shade (an evenly-divisible phrase!) sequentially on each side of five I's in the grid could be a simple, tight way of connecting two related, current phrases.  From there, the challenge was constructing a grid with only those five I's in it that was as clean as I could get it.  One thing I really appreciated was the post-solve discussion among those who were/weren't familiar with the slang about what those terms mean, how they were or weren't related, and where they derive from (the black and then queer communities).  That piece of cultural relevancy and literacy is huge to me, and to have an indie community where we can discuss topics like that is so important.  I'm hopeful that the indie crossword community continues to develop in that direction, especially by giving platforms to constructors from all backgrounds, especially those who don't often get to be featured.

PP: What's your crossword constructing philosophy?
NC: I'm a fan of fresh, modern puzzles that show off the constructor's personality and I strive for that myself.  If I had to choose, I'd rather an experimental grid that feels alive than a stoic, by-the-rules construction.  Naturally, this makes me a huge fan of Erik Agard, Paolo Pasco (yes, I'm going to name drop Paolo on his own site), and others who keep their grid/clue vernacular fun and current.  As I grow as a constructor, I'd also like to make my grids increasingly clean and fun to solve.  (Shout out to BEQ for great and motivational consistency in his puzzles.)  When I'm gridding, if the question ever pops into my mind of "How can I get away with this fill?", I ditch the fill and try again.  I'm motivated by the creativity and joy that feature in so many indie crosswords these days!  A computer can fill a grid, but it takes a thoughtful constructor to make a grid that sparkles.  I always want to strive for that sparkle.

Excellent responses, excellent puzzle, excellent constructor. Enjoy!

-Paolo 

PUZZLE #9: Dab On 'Em

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Welcome back, solvers!

Back to themed puzzle territory with this one. You might be asking yourself, was this puzzle just made as an excuse to post the gif below? The answer is yes, it absolutely was. Inspiration can come from the weirdest places. 

Also, in Crossword Sightings in Media: linguistic podcast The Allusionist just released an episode about the crossword world, framed around live reporting from last month's Lollapuzzoola. It's intensely well-done, featuring interviews with some incredible people (the segment with Neville and C. Fogarty is a must-listen). Above all, though, I enjoy how well it captured that fun/nerdy/semi-chaotic Lollapuzzoola feeling. Plus, I'm mentioned at around the 10:30 mark, and you know how much we millennials love hearing our own names. Definitely worth a listen, for whenever you have a 30-minute-or-so block of free time.

Hope you enjoy, and until next week!

-Paolo 

PUZZLE #8: Themeless 2

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Quick post: themeless puz, different grid design. The seed entry is a pretty niche reference, but I have slowly incorporated it into both my vocabulary and life philosophy, so into the grid it goes. Gotta love the complete freedom offered by running your own site.

Also, check out Jenna Sais Quoi crosswords, run by new-to-the-scene constructor Jenna Lafleur! Her glutton for pun collab was choice; definitely a constructor to watch.

Enjoy, and until next week!

-Paolo

PUZZLE #7: Motion Capture

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Welcome back, solvers!

School's officially back in session, so get ready for my post lengths to shrink from five paragraphs to like two sentences. Things are gonna get hectic real fast, which means less time for crosswords, but I think I have enough of a backlog to keep the weekly-puzzle thing going. Fingers crossed!

I'd be remiss to not mention that yesterday was the date of Lollapuzzoola 10! Couldn't be there in person, sadly, but I heard fun things. Congrats to master constructor Andy Kravis on his first place finish, and to tournament-runners Patrick Blindauer and Brian Cimmet for cat-herding another successful event. (If you missed the tournament, I believe you can still order the puzzles here; trust me, they're all baller)

Finally, in a long-awaited-by-me development, Chris Adams has launched an indie site of his own: arctanxwords. There's some excellent stuff there already, and I highly recommend that you check it out. (I'd like to single out his "Everything Louder than Everything Else" puzzle; a real tour de force)

Themed puzzle this time. Enjoy, and until next week!

-Paolo

PUZZLE #6: "Suh-weet!" (and last week's meta results)

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Welcome back! New puzzle this week. But first, a recap of last week's contest:

A lot going on in the crossword; the first sign that something was up was that it came with a note saying that in a grand last-minute effort, I stayed up all night writing the puzzle. At first glance, it seemed like a crossword with a three-part insomnia theme, with the entries TOSSANDTURN at 17A, CIRCLES/UNDER/THEEYES at 28A/40A/47A, and LOSINGSLEEP at 60A.

But, as solvers noticed, there was more to the puzzle going on. The puzzle also had the disclaimer that since I didn't have time to get it test-solved (a lie, incidentally; I had like nine separate people test-solve this, shoutout to all of them), there might be more errors than usual. And, there were "errors" in the puzzle, but all in the same manner. Specifically, 31 clues contained an extra letter. Those clues (with the extra letter capitalized in bold) are:

[Code's form], VERSE
[Opposite of fEast], EAT
[Nonce more], AGAIN
["It's noT ___!”], USE
[Rover half], MOST
["Let's Make ____" (HalAl program, once)], ADEAL
[Animator's unLit], CEL
[Tracer Jesse], OWENS
[Spot for some cHats], LAP
[SEoul companion], BODY
[Mel ____ (boss, in slang)], JEFE
[HEader's vehicle, once], SNL
[Exeter's countRy], DEVON
[Tool that might attach to a basIs], AMP
[Busts or Soils], ART
[BAring up], EVOKE
[BatHes in a vintage horror flick], NORMA
[Irate indicator], PER
[DyNe containers], VATS
[Kind of fileT], RASP
[Girl in the faRm], SIS
[Coats over poEts], ENAMELS
[SWay], TELL
[Hear centers], COBS
[ProAm attendee], SENIOR
[SpurT, with “on"], URGE
[JeTer], BOO
[POut up, as a painting], HANG
[Mess with, as some pAunch], SPIKE
[CD-____], SPAN
[RoDe, to Caesar], OVA

Reading the extra letters, in clue order, gives the phrase CENTRAL THEMER IS A HINT RE WHAT TO ADD. The central theme entry is CIRCLES UNDER THE EYES, and successful meta solvers realized that it was a cue to add circles under the I's in the grid. The prompt asked for an eight-letter answer, and reassuringly, there were exactly eight I's in the grid. Circling the squares below the I's led to this:

The circled letters, read left to right and top to bottom, spell the meta answer STAY WOKE, as found by 52 solvers. 

This week's randomly selected winner is... joon pahk! For his efforts, he gets a reserved free copy of an upcoming project I have going on, and he gets to choose a word for me to put in a future puzzle. Congrats, joon, and thanks to everyone who solved/gave feedback!

Gentler themed puzzle this week. Enjoy!

-Paolo

PUZZLE #5: All Night Long (CONTEST)

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Welcome back, solvers!

We’re back with a new puzzle— and it’s a meta contest! The next two paragraphs are gonna be a rundown of metas, so if you're already familiar with them, you can just skip ahead. For the uninitiated, meta crosswords are basically puzzles within puzzles. They solve like regular crosswords, but there's a hidden extra layer that you have to discover for yourself, which typically leads to a final bonus word or phrase. Matt Gaffney’s Weekly Crossword Contest and Pete Muller’s Muller Monthly Music Meta are two excellent regular sources for these, and I highly recommend clicking through and browsing through the last few months of puzzles to get a feel for what metas tend to ask of the solver.

The meta element can be anywhere from easy (like this puzzle, where the solver had to see that the three longest entries ended with LATHER, RINSE, and REPEAT, thus telegraphing the meta answer SHAMPOO) to nigh-impossible (like this puzzle, where the solver had to see that each of eight starred entries contained an anagram of one word of a two-word country name, and that for each unused word in the country names there was an entry somewhere in the grid that was exactly one letter off, and that the changed letters can be arranged to spell meta answer SRI LANKA). I'm hoping this meta will be somewhere in between those two examples in terms of difficulty.

So, onto today's puzzle. When you have the correct answer, send it to pascopuzzles [at] gmail [dot] com. One randomly-selected solver will win this week's prize, a free copy of a forthcoming puzzle project I'm working on, which I'll send on its release date. Plus, they'll get to suggest any word for me to use in a future puzzle (within reason, of course). The submission deadline's 11:59 pm PST on Saturday August 12, 2017, so be sure to get your answers in before then.

Meta crosswords typically have some kind of prompt to lead you off, so here goes:
Full disclosure: this crossword was a total last-minute effort-- in fact, I was up from yesterday night until now just so I could get it done. Now, (a) I'm impossibly tired, and (b) since I just finished the puzzle, I haven't been able to get it test-solved like usual. So, you're getting the raw, uncorrected version. Provided you look past that, you should be able to find the eight-letter meta answer. 

Best of luck!
-Paolo

PUZZLE #4: Themeless 1

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

It's finally time for some themeless action! 70 words, 32 blocks. Here's hoping at least some of those 70 words will be fun. You can probably guess the marquee answer-- ever since I noticed it was a fifteen, I tried grid after grid in an attempt to showcase it. This is what I feel is the best of those grid attempts; in particular, I really lucked out with all the entries running together in the center here.

More Announcements!

• Glutton For Pun is releasing a five-day meta suite, and all the puzzles so far are excellent. The fifth puzzle comes out tomorrow, so now would be a great time to click through and catch up on the first four.
• Crossword tournaments! Boswords is going down on 8/6, and Lollapuzzoola on 8/19. Registration for both is still open, though Lollapuzzoola is only doing at-home registration right now. Both have stacked constructor lineups, and I'm looking forward to solving what they got. You'd do yourself a favor by checking out both of the links.

-Paolo

PUZZLE #3: Cleanup Efforts

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Solution to last week's puzzle

Welcome back! We're on week 3, and it's time to amp up the difficulty.

[MINOR SPOILERS AFTER THIS LINE]

A little background for today's puzzle: I made it right after watching the travesty that was the Manny Pacquiao/Jeff Horn fight. Watching the figure referenced at 39A led me to the revealer phrase, and a puzzle idea was born. Righteous indignation is great fuel for crossword-writing, apparently.

This puzzle lowkey inspired me to set up this site, since I loved the grid, but it was too wonky a puzzle to go to any publication. I might have been able to tweak it to make it publishable (bonus puzzle: what 15-letter phrase could be an alternate revealer for this crossword?), but I didn't want it to lose any of its Indie™ flavor. Such is the trade-off, I guess.

Hope you enjoy!

-Paolo

P.S. Excellent Chris King puzzle today, with a backstory unlike any other

PUZZLE #2: Core Training

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Solution to last week's puzzle

ERRATA: The cross-reference to "1-Down" in the 5D clue should be to 1-Across.
Also, the 40D clue should technically be something like [City with a University of Washington campus]

Hello again!

Thanks to everybody who checked in on the site last week; glad to see that I haven't yet scared everyone off with a torrent of young™ pop culture references. All in good time, of course-- hopefully, you see fit to keep dropping by. And, I'd like to extend a special thanks to everyone in Crossworld who's lent their support so far, and the people who linked to this site in some form or another; all of them are insanely good puzzle makers, and I would wholeheartedly advise that you follow those links and treat your self to their content.

Today's puzzle is another entry in the "easy puzzles with really low word counts" category. Like last week, it probably shouldn't put up too much resistance. (And, for those of you looking for puzzles with more of a bite, say no more; next week's puzzle is gonna ratchet up the difficulty a little.)

-Paolo

PUZZLE #1: "Game On!"

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Across Lite solver (for use with .puz files)

Hello! A few notes before we begin:

• I'm hoping to post a puzzle every Sunday, at noon PT. Just a warning, though: hopes of maintaining a weekly update regimen might fall apart once school starts, at which point I might switch to posting a puzzle every other week (or, worst case, on a whenever-I-feel-like-it schedule).
• The site has a Google Group, which you can join here. Provided I can get the group to work right, it should be a way to get the puzzles delivered via email.
• In terms of what kind of crosswords you'll see here: the sidebar explains the main vibe pretty well. I will add that themelesses are extremely a part of my Brand™, so expect a lot of those. Also, expect a lot of puzzles that are too weird/modern to submit to any publisher. As far as puzzle content goes: a working knowledge of Beyonce's discography and discontinued NBC sitcoms, while not required, will prove helpful on many occasions.
• Many, many thanks to the people whose influences have gone, directly or indirectly, into the making of this site. You'll find a more-or-less comprehensive roster of them to the right (under "More Puzzles"), but some people I'd like to thank in particular are: Sam Ezersky (test solver extraordinaire), erik agard, Chris King, David Steinberg, and Andrew Ries. All of them are crossword forces of nature, and you need to hit up their sites if you haven't already.
• If this posts on schedule, my brother's wedding will have been yesterday! This isn't crossword-related, but I just wanted to share that

Onto today's puzzle: 74 words, a simple theme, and a (hopefully) breezy solve. Enjoy, and feel free to email or comment below!

-Paolo

P.S. are you ready for some GRID WARS

PUZZLES COMING SOON

The first puzzle drops July 9, at 10:00 am PST.

-paolo p.