PUZZLE #81: Themeless 21

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

It's Themeless 21, and the last puzzle before 2021, so why not make it a 21x? I wrote a few versions of a 2020 recap for this post, but they all boiled down to "if you're a solver, constructor, streamer, tournament runner, or any combination of those, thanks for making the crossword community the way it is." So I'm just going to say that.

As far as this puzzle goes, shoutout to Ada Nicolle, Sid Sivakumar/Brooke Husic, Ricky Cruz, and Evan Birnholz for their excellent work on 21x themelesses, which very much paved the way for this one.

Also, the pdf has a new look—many thanks to Nam Jin Yoon's excellent new puz-to-PDF tool for the new layout! 

See you in 2021,

Paolo

PUZZLE #80: Malaika's Midi (by Malaika Handa!)

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

Hello! Excited to be posting this guest puzzle by Malaika Handa, a rockstar constructor who recently started her own site (which just launched recently, but is already providing incredible content). Many thanks to her for sending it my way—you can see below that our interests and voices overlap in a lot of ways, and I'm honored to have this puzzle on the site! A few words from Malaika:

It is so exciting to be featured on Grids These Days! I love the chaotic-good energy of this site / Paolo and hope this puzzle channels some of it. Speaking of chaotic ideas, for some reason I thought it would be fun to cobble together a collection of every mathematically possible 7x7 crossword. (A pretty hefty project given that I've only been constructing for three months... But it's good to aim high, right?) If you're interested in contributing one, email me at handamalaika at gmail dot com!

I for one am excited to see the 7x7 project develop, so be sure to check out the link. If it's anything like this puzzle, the project is going to be bangers only.

Hope you enjoy the puzzle!

[UPDATE: Thanks Steve Mossberg for pointing out the download links led to the wrong puzzle! Fixed now]

PUZZLE #79: "Like Trying to Solve a Crossword and Realizing..."

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Quick post, timely puzzle, hope you enjoy!

-Paolo

PUZZLE #78: Themeless 20

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

Writing this in the seven hours before my math final paper is due, so this is gonna be quick (unrelated, if you know a lot about the Petersen graph please comment below).

Boswords Fall Themeless League just wrapped up, and it was a great time with a great set of puzzles. The puzzles are still here for purchase, and with such a stacked constructor lineup, there's no reason not to snatch them up.

Anyway, tried for a low word count grid today—hope you enjoy!

-Paolo