PUZZLE #66: Something Different

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

Hello!

I know my last post said "I promise the next puzzle will be more straight-down-the-middle," but... this puzzle is about as non-straight-down-the-middle as you can get. My bad! Normal puzzle next time, I promise.

This week's offering is a Something Different puzzle, which is a crossword where most of the entries are made-up. For example, the answer to the clue [Like Cole Sprouse's "Riverdale" character] would lead to JUGHEADESQUE, and the answer to [Havoc wreaked by the villain of "Cats" (2019)] would be MACAVITY CALAMITY. Two things that make this puzzle non-impossible to solve: the made-up answers are generally clued straight, so they can be inferred from the clues. And, most importantly, the short words in the grid are (mostly) normal, so they can act as good toeholds.

If you like this puzzle, check out some other good Something Different puzzles here, here, and here, as well as a whole folder of them here.

Hope you enjoy!

Expect the unexpected,
-Paolo

P.S. Boswords is coming up tomorrow! Will be there virtually—there's a stacked constructor lineup, so if you're not on that already, get on that train