PUZZLE #69: Nice

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

Hello! Easy puzzle today. There's also an unrelated mini-puzzle (pdf, puz) that came from some of the brainstorming for this puzzle. Hope you enjoy at least one of these!

And, of course, any relationship between this puzzle's number and its title is a coincidence. 

(also! slight spoiler, so wait until after the solve, but if you haven't heard about the site referenced in 55-Across, check it out now it's so good)

-Paolo

PUZZLE #68: Themeless 16 (Pasco Pinwheel)

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

Shoutout to Sid Sivakumar of sidsgrids dot com, for being the first person to call the double-Utah clump of black squares a "Pasco" on this Chris Adams stream. Today's grid, with four Pascos in all, is my attempt to legitimize the term. Hope you enjoy!

-Paolo

Also, Adam Aaronson and I have yesterday's NYT! Check it out (and then hit up Adam's website)

PUZZLE #67: "I'm Spent"

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

Midi-sized puzzle with a mini-sized theme today. Got the grid for this one going right after Boswords (a fun tournament with great puzzles, all of which you can buy now), and clued it up as a mid-week bonus—as always, hope you enjoy!

-Paolo

P.S. Ria and I had last Sunday's Atlantic puzzle, so check that out as well!

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

PUZZLE #65: No Comparison

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A few things:

Crossword Puzzles for Kids is finally out! 60+ puzzles that are kid-friendly, but based on the emails I've gotten, adults can enjoy it too. I'm graciously biting Chris King's style here with an offer: if you buy the book this week, let me know at pascopuzzles[at]gmail[dot]com and I'll donate $2 to The Bail Project, a bail-paying organization active in many cities, including my hometown.

Speaking of crosswords and making change, Grids for Good is out! It's 42 puzzles by an all-star lineup of constructors, just for a donation. Definitely hit it up, zero of the puzzles disappoint.

And, onto this puzzle! I know I said the last puzzle had a quirky theme, but this one has its fair share of quirks as well. I promise the next puzzle will be more straight-down-the-middle—three quirky puzzles, and I'll feel like Jughead from Riverdale.

Hope you enjoy!
Paolo

PUZZLE #64: "Recess!"

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

A few bullets:

• Don't miss this Rebecca Falcon thread about a very important topic in crosswords
• Two days until the book drops! Buy one for the kid/kid-at-heart in your life.
• The offer here still stands—one donation, five puzzles. Will also commit to making a midi for everyone who qualifies, no exceptions, so hop on that train if that suits you. Thank you to everyone who's donated so far—ran the numbers yesterday and it came to over $12,000 (!!) so far. Hats off to the puzzle community for chipping in for a good cause.
• I would be remiss not mentioning some banger puzzle suites that have dropped recently: Ricky Cruz's "Crossing Words," Will Nediger's "Escape the Grid," and Eric Berlin's "The Social Distancing Puzzles." They don't miss, any of them.

Quirky theme in today's puzzle—thanks to Ria for help with some of the clues. Puzzle-wise, keep an eye out for more drops soon.

Hope you enjoy!
Paolo

PUZZLE #63: Write-Offs (by Ria Dhull)

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Guest puzzle today! Very excited to run this one—Ria Dhull's an up-and-coming constructor, a fellow Harvard student, and also my girlfriend. She has the same voice/spirit/eye for quality as a constructor as she does as a person in general—a comparison that only makes sense if you know her I guess, but trust me when I say it means "very fun and good and I'm a huge fan." I'm very, very lucky in many senses, least of which is that I get to run this puzzle.

Some words from Ria!
let me just start off by saying that this is super exciting for me because paolo is one of the best crossword constructors out there. being on his blog is a really big honor and i still don’t think im worthy but hi! im sure you guys were expecting a pasco puzzle today and i can’t really make up for it but here is something! don’t know how i managed to convince paolo to post it, but he’s the nicest person ive ever met so maybe that’s why. like, for example, i made him edit this puzzle at least ten times, and he was really really sweet and helpful every one of those times. on that note, i genuinely think this puzzle would be nothing without him. as a very very new crossword constructor, i would also be nothing without him.

She's lying, this puzzle absolutely is 100% worthy and I'm the one who should be honored. Hope you enjoy!

(P.S. Follow Ria on Twitter @ria_dhull)

(P.P.S. The offer here is still on the table—if you haven't donated, it's never too late)