PUZZLE #97: Themeless 31 (with erik agard!)

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

collab season continues apace! feeling lowercase vibes for this post in honor of this week's co-constructor, who you might recognize from editing the USA Today/solving faster than humanly possible/being on the whole one of the nicest and most talented people in crosswords. this site owes many many things to him, so this was, to say the least, a great moment and an immensely fun collab. more from erik below!

what can i say about paolo that isn't already being said hundreds of years in the future by the puzzle historians teaching courses on his work? maybe just that i look up to him for being one of the most grounded, consistently kind people i've met. i'm thankful for the chance to write some clues for this puzzle and i hope i did it justice.

thanks to david gold, adam aaronson and ada nicolle for test solving; hope you enjoy the puzzle!

PUZZLE #96: Themeless 30 (with Kate Leiserson!)

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

Another collab! This time with Kate (i.e. kateschmate of crosswords schmosswords), who's been using her site to publish a series of what we at Grids These Days call "bangers." Many thanks to Kate for her fun/fresh/thoughtful work on this puzzle—she's a joy to work with, and it shines through in the puzzles she has a hand in (when I opened the file she sent on my phone, there were clues that made me stop mid-walk and say "oh wow"). More from Kate:

What has two thumbs and doesn't mind using them to poke at crossword legends on Twitter and ask for a collab?! I like to think that our collective work on this puzzle was what in the woodworking world we call "a good fit" (technical term). This is like the ball pit of grids - working on it was pure fun. I'm so chuffed having had the chance to work with Paolo, and I hope the result is a delight for solvers!

Thanks to Kate for everything (and Ada for test solving)! Hope you enjoy!

PUZZLE #95: Themeless 29

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

Quick post—lotsa crossword news going on, really sweet overall! 66 words, 0 themes, hope you enjoy!

-Paolo

P.S. Excited as always to have today's 7xwords puzzle!

PUZZLE #94: Themeless 28

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle (+ explanation of the meta)

There's a full writeup (in the link above to avoid spoilers in case anyone's still working on it). Thanks to everyone who submitted, and everyone who sent kind words in your answer emails—it always means a lot. Out of 50 entries, the randomly selected winner is Malaika "7x7 overlord" Handa! Congrats to Malaika, and everyone who solved!

And, an announcement: I'm excited to be joining the Atlantic puzzles team as assistant crossword editor! What does that mean for the future of this site? Who knows, really. Free time's going to be a big limiting factor, but my goal is to keep posting for a little while, since (a) I have a lot of unclued grids I'm sitting on, and (b) I just wanna get to Puzzle #100. 

Big-stacks themeless today. Hope you enjoy!

-Paolo

PUZZLE #93: Progress Bars

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

Meta this week; first off, many thanks to Ada Nicolle and David Gold for test-solving! Second, no points for guessing what thing from this week inspired the puzzle. Email your answers to pascopuzzles [at] gmail [dot] com by 11:59 A.M. Pacific time on Saturday, May 29, 2021 for a chance to win a crossword subscription of your choice. Best of luck, and don't forget to look at the information below!

The meta answer is nine letters long.

These clues might be helpful:

"Cosi fan ___"

Grand ___

Honor

Olympic equipment pieces

Online admin

Saw

Shade of purple

Silent performers

Strain

Hope you enjoy the puzzle, and happy solving!

-Paolo

PUZZLE #92: Themeless 27

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SOLUTION to the last puzzle

Another themeless today—aimed for a medium-ish difficulty on this one, for ~variety~. Hope you enjoy!

Also, I don't have a tip jar on this site + I'll always be posting puzzles for free, but if you want to show appreciation, consider a donation to any of these funds for AAPI Heritage Month. Only if you're able, of course, but there are a lot of funds that could use donations

-Paolo

PUZZLE #91: Themeless 26

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SOLUTION to last week's puzzle

Typing this with the online ACPT in another tab, so this is also gonna be a short post, but: been a fun first ACPT, great puzzles, great people, great presentations, highly recommend!  

This is the puzzle I brought to the Virtual Puzzle Table, so some people have already gotten the sneak peek of this puzzle. If you haven't solved it yet, check it out! If you have solved it—idk, solve it downs only or something? (Many thanks to official ACPT comedian Ada Nicolle for test solving!)

Hope you enjoy,
Paolo

(luckily there is no chance sid will have to do this)