Nautilus Puzzles

This is one of a few themes that came to me during ACPT, one of the most fun, bonkers, intense, and enjoyable weekends I've had in a while. I was the guy standing around trying to act like I knew people! I'm not good at introducing myself, especially when I immediately lose my nametag! See you all next year, when I'll have different hair. This year, my goal was top half: I got 111th, which feels like a sign that next time I'll be gunning for top 100. (EDIT: LMAO I've been telling people I got 111th, but somehow got confused: I finished 149th! Maybe I'll shoot for 111 next year and work from there) Thanks to Frisco for sharing a playlist full of music that fit this theme. This one should play on the easier side. Enjoy! PDF PUZ

For the last Themeless Thursday, I attempted something I've always wanted to try: a Sunday-sized themeless! And... it was very difficult, even more so than I expected. So, with slightly more words and black squares than one would expect, this is a bit of a sub-par themeless, even if I enjoy the spanner I was able to fit in there. Focusing on themelesses has definitely helped my filling abilities. In terms of clues, though, I feel like this one's still a little lacking. I'll try to return to themed puzzles as much as possible for the next while, though. In the meantime, I will see some of you tomorrow (!) at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament! Au revoir! PDF  (might not work) PUZ

Boy, March flew by quick! Have another Themeless Thursday; this one's a bit on the spicier side. One more to go! PDF PUZ

Slightly late on this one. Sure hope that me setting a basic goal for the month and already slipping isn't representative of anything. Well, you know what they say, It's Always Thursday Somewhere ™. So, any West Coast solvers, enjoy! A bit easier on this one; see you next week! PDF PUZ

Another week, another Themeless Thursday! I really like this one; as janky as some of the fill is, I'm a big fan of the words I managed to squeeze in here. A certain prominent paper rejected this one, mentioning as points against it the fill at 7-Down and the clues for 8-Down and 66-Across, some of my favorite parts of the puzzle... which felt like a good sign this one belongs on the blog. Enjoy! PDF PUZ

Welcome to Themeless Thursday! That's right, every Thursday in March, you'll get a brand new themeless puzzle from yours truly. After starting constructing with a lot of themed puzzles, I've been practicing themelesses for a few months now to work on bringing down wordcount and improving my cluing, and I've picked the very best to share with you all. There's a lot of Thursdays this March, so enjoy! This particular puzzle's construction started with the grid shape. Hot take: I think a cool-looking grid is underrated! Like chefs on the Food Network say, you eat with your eyes first; the words in the puzzle can be a delicious meal, but there's something nice about starting off by looking at a pretty, interesting grid. Sure, it also makes sense to start with some good seed entries, try to fit some interesting contrasts into your dish like an episode of "Chopped," but I find I often have enough good ingredients in my word list to make something good jus