Got a puzzle in the New York Times! Play it here ; if you don't have an NYT subscription, you can probably figure out other ways to find it. This feels like a good opportunity to go a little more in-depth on my construction and publishing experience; some notes below! On constructing: This puzzle started with the oversized groups of black squares in the corners, because I liked the look of those big pools of ink. How the crossword looks before you solve it is part of the experience! (I think it's like the plating of a dish at a restaurant, in an awkward metaphor I've tried to force before.) With this many black squares, I could afford a pretty low wordcount, and I'm pleasantly surprised at the quality of fill I was able to get. (ENIGMATOLOGY, most famous as the invented major of a young Will Shortz, was a happy accident, not an attempt to curry favor!) I started filling from the top down; I'm a big fan of conversational fill, and SOIGATHERED is one of those phrases
I've been posting a puzzle a month pretty consistently to this blog, but my favorite month deserves another banger. This one is again inspired by finding a 15 in a dank meme, please don't take it too seriously. For those of you missing Midi Monday Month, I'm very happy to say that you can catch midis by me semi-regularly in the Modern Crossword , only at the Puzzle Society! Keep an eye out on Thursdays and Fridays, but also keep your eyes on the Puzzle Society generally! It is rapidly becoming my favorite puzzle site, combining my two favorite things: quick puzzles and elaborate lore . Experimenting with a direct link to the fullscreen applet for this puzzle, which should make things easier to solve on mobile: let me know. Also, shout out to AmuseLabs for letting us use custom completion audios: sound on for this one! PDF PUZ Fullscreen applet
Thanks! Really look forward to your puzzles ever since I did the one published in the LA Times.
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