PUZZLE #43: Themeless 10

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Solution to the last puzzle

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! Here's a themeless for the occasion, as my gift to you. It's solvable with friends and family, or curled up next to a roaring fire with a warm blanket and the company of yourself. Whatever gets you in the ~spirit~

Also, my nine-year-old cousin saw me cluing the puzzle, and offered some clue suggestions in the process. He wants you to know that the clues for 29-Across, 55-Across, and 27-Down are all him. Kid's got a future in puzzles, I tell ya.

Hope you enjoy!
-Paolo

PUZZLE #42: Winter Air (and results to Puzzle #41)

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Last time, I hit you with a combination variety puzzle and meta. The format was a "Double Play," where every square contained either one or two letters. The completed grid is below:

Now for the meta aspect— solvers were told to look for an apt pair of songs with equal-length titles. There were four key clues:

13A [HINT FOR THE FIRST SONG], ABBA THE VISITORS

32A [HINT FOR THE SECOND SONG], THE BEATLES LET IT BE

6D [WHAT THE FIRST PART OF EACH HINT NAMES], ARTIST

30D [WHAT THE SECOND PART OF EACH HINT NAMES], ALBUM

So, the apt pair of songs is a song off the ABBA album "The Visitors," and the Beatles album "Let It Be." Solvers took to researching the albums, and 56 intrepid solvers found the correct pair of songs: "One of Us" (ABBA), and "Two of Us" (The Beatles).

This week's randomly-selected winner is... Patrick Jordan! For his efforts, he gets a free subscription to The Inkubator (which will release the first puzzle mid-January, so there's still plenty of time to get in on a subscription if you haven't already). Thanks to everyone who solved, gave feedback, or welcomed me back; I really appreciate it all.

Now, for this week's puzzle. Am I a fan of the puzzle's theme? I'd say so. Am I fan of the puzzle's theme inspiration? Not at all. Therein lies the crossword-maker's paradox.

Hope you enjoy the puzzle!
-Paolo

PUZZLE #41: Double Play (Variety puzzle + CONTEST)

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

Hello again! After three months of silence to the day, Grids These Days is back, and with a fresh puzzle to start the new month.

This week's puzzle is a variety crossword that I'm going to call "Double Play" (it's a modified version of squeezeboxes, seen if you scroll down on the linked page). The gimmick is pretty straightforward: each square in the grid contains either one or two letters, like in the example below:

There are two versions: normal (multi-word tags are included) and harder (no tags)—choose whichever version you're feeling. Also, this is a metapuzzle! When you're finished filling in the grid, you should be able to come up with an apt pair of songs with equal-length titles.

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 subscription to The Inkubator crosswords, a fantastic woman-edited, woman-constructed project by Laura Braunstein and Tracy Bennett (or, if you already have a subscription to the Inkubator, a gift subscription for a person of your choosing OR an extension to your subscription OR talk to me and we can make something work). Send in your answers by 11:59 p.m. ET on December 14, 2018 for a chance to win. Enjoy, and best of luck!

Feels good to be back,
Paolo

(P.S. you should follow @gridsthesedays on Twitter)

PUZZLE #40: Performance Spaces

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

Quick post today— I've been spending a lot of time around creative/artsy/performance spaces lately, so this crossword seemed fitting.

Hope you enjoy the puzzle!
-Paolo

PUZZLE #39: Moving In

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Autobiographical puzzle, since I just flew out of San Diego yesterday. Feels weird, but I'm ready to start ~collegiate~ living.

Also, congrats to Stella Zawistowski, winner of Lollapuzzoola 11, as well as her co-finalists, Glen Ryan and Sam Ezersky! Solving powerhouses, the three of them. The tournament may be over, but if you missed it, you can still solve the puzzles here.

Hope you enjoy the puzzle!
-Paolo

PUZZLE #38: No Love Lost

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

First, some sad news: McDonald's cancelled their sponsorship with me because, in their words, "why did we even spend money on brand integration with a teen's crossword blog in the first place." No matter-- sponsorship or not, I'm gonna keep making puzzles, and I defy any big-budget company to stop me.

I originally had a different puzzle slated for today, but I got inspiration yesterday that I had to follow through with. Hope you enjoy the puzzle!

-Paolo

P.S. Lollapuzzoola 11 is happening in two weeks. Insanely good puzzles guaranteed, so be sure to sign up.

PUZZLE #37: "And Now, 71 Words From Our Sponsors"

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

I don't know how to announce this, so here goes: I've agreed to do introduce brand integration to Grids These Days. Running this site has been a great and rewarding project, but I'm going off to college soon, and artistic satisfaction doesn't pay tuition bills. I know it might be a weird and confusing transition, but rest assured I'm taking pains to make it as unobtrusive HOT AND FRESH DOLLAR MENU DEALS as possible. Let me know if FREE FRIES EVERY FRIDAY WITH DOWNLOAD OF THE APP it becomes MOUTH-WATERING EXTRA VALUE MEALS distracting.

-Paolo