I made this puzzle a while ago as part of a pack of themed puzzles for the Redstone  puzzle app but totally forgot they don't allow oversized grids, like this 16x15 one. So, I'll just share it here for y'all to enjoy, while also saying... You can now find a bunch of new puzzles from me  on the Redstone  app! Just like the last time I released some puzzles there , you'll find two packs: 15x15, themed, medium difficulty: This pack contains 10 puzzles with themes of various kinds -- some wordplay, some trivia -- but nothing super tricky. If a theme felt too easy, I tried to balance it out with some more challenging fill, aiming for a "medium" solving experience overall. 7x7, themeless, hard difficulty:  Each of the 25 themeless mini puzzles in this pack has a bunch of 7-letter entries (for fun and tricky cluing) and 3-letter entries (to help you get a foothold while solving). (If there's enough interest, I could make those puzzles available in puz or pdf for...

Long time no see! I'm sharing a new puzzle in the hopes of kickstarting my crossword construction machinery again after a long period of intermittent activity. I do have a few new crosswords out there since I last posted on this blog: 15x15 themed contest puzzle for the Joint Mathematics Meetings, January 2023 23x19 themed contest puzzle for MAA MathFest, August 2022 15x15 themeless puzzle in MAA FOCUS magazine, June 2023 (You can also find those in a big list on my website of all the mathy crosswords I've published.) Other than that, though, crosswording has been an occasional solving activity for me in recent months, but not so much a constructing activity. In part, I've been pretty busy with other work and life stuff: for instance, check out my book on voting methods , this teaching presentation , and this website ! I also have an amazing 5-year-old daughter who loved the  Grids for Kids puzzle pack  that came out recently. All that has made it...

Just a silly little puz this week with a few rhyming phrases. Not a lot to say about it, just have fun! In other news, I'll be participating in person at the Boswords 2022 Summer Tournament this weekend. Hope to see some of you there! And if you haven't yet, check out the Redstone Crossword Puzzle App ( App Store link & Google Play link ) for two puzzle packs from me: 1) twenty-five 7x7 themeless puzzles in the Minis-Midis & Hard categories, and 2) ten standard-sized themed puzzles in the 15x15 & Medium categories. I'm working on releasing another pack of both of those puzzle types, so stay tuned for more! In the meantime, the ko-fi "tip jar" is open, if you'd like to to buy me a ☕ and fuel more puzzle-making:  https://ko-fi.com/wordsxing    Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! Constructive feedback in the comments is always welcome. Download links:   [ puz ]   [ pdf ]   [ solution ]        Direct link: [ ...

Still working on my themeless skills, trying out different grid shapes and stacks and such. Here's a 70-worder with some fun stuff, I hope. In particular, I'm fond of the clues for 12-Down and 53-Across. In blog-related stuff, there are two new items in the sidebar menu: a "tip jar" of sorts to buy me a ☕, if you feel so inclined:  https://ko-fi.com/wordsxing   a blog roll of constructors and puzzle sites I recommend checking out and supporting (feel free to suggest more in the comments) And, in case you missed it, last week I mentioned that there's a pack of mini themeless puzzles of mine on the Redstone app, so check that out for a bunch of quick challenges. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! Constructive feedback in the comments is always welcome. Download links:   [ puz ]   [ pdf ]   [ solution ]        Direct link: [ open in new tab ]

If you haven't already, please support These Puzzles Fund Abortion : make a donation to any abortion fund and then email them to get 16 great puzzles with reproductive and social justice themes. Check out  the specific funds they support  or find more at  https://abortionfunds.org/   --- I was working on some mini/midi themeless puzzles a while back and stumbled on the 7x7 grid above: it has eight interlocking 7-letter entries, eight 3s around the border, and a couple 5s crossing in the middle. This means about half the entries are spanners (good for puzzle-solving intrigue) and, simultaneously, about half are short fill (good for making inroads to the longer stuff). So, I thought it would be fun to fill this grid over and over for solvers who are looking for quick, but still potentially challenging, small themeless puzzles... ...and now you can find 25 of those puzzles on the Redstone Crossword app! The app is available for both iOS and Android , and you can ...

I have been working on variations of this theme for a while and I think something like this could work as a full-size puzzle, but this is the best I have so far. Let me know if you have similar ideas and want to discuss! (In particular, I wonder if something involving the  Four Tops might work...) This is also a funny grid with theme answers in the long downs crossing a central revealer, and with non-theme answers of the same length sandwiching that revealer. Perhaps not the best layout, in general, but I think it works out alright for this puzzle. And I hope you enjoy some of the bonus fill, including those central non-themers and the 7s in the top-right/bottom-left corners. In other news, I made my print puzzle debut* with the Universal crossword this past Saturday 11/13! (The puzzles are only available online for a couple of weeks afterwards so I can't link to it anymore. And to be honest, I didn't even get to see it in print myself until a couple weeks later because I assu...

Happy Halloween! 🎃🎸👻🥁🦇🎵💀🎹 I thought it might be fun to celebrate with a concert, so this puzzle's theme entries are all appropriately-named bands who are putting on a Halloween show for you. I'm sure something like this has been done before, so rather than scouring lists of relevant band names, I stuck to whatever came to my mind from the bands that I know of. Sure, not all of them are widely known (and at least one of them is really obscure, although that one's my favorite of the bunch by far), but I think I put enough hints in the clues that you'll be able to suss everything out. You'll notice several other answers and clues pertaining to music, as well, to go along with the main theme. In other news, the most recent Sunday puzzle (10/24) over at The Atlantic is mine! Check it out on their site where it will be available for the next week only. (I believe it disappears two weeks after publication date, unless you have an Atlantic  subscription.) Although...

  This one almost looks and feels like a themeless puzzle, with this wide open grid. Indeed, just 6 blocks in a 7x10 grid amounts to 6/70 = 3/35 ≈ 8.57% of the grid, which is the lowest I've been able to achieve in any puzzle. Still, I think the shorter fill and knowing the rhyming theme will help you crack into the puzzle. Just now when I did the calculation 3/35 , I noticed a pattern in the decimal digits that is quite interesting and reminds me of another fantastic number: 142,857. If you multiply that number by 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, the result is a cyclic permutation of the same digits; for instance, 142,857 × 4 = 571,428, found by starting at the 5 and "wrapping around." I'll leave it to you to read a bit about this number and it's connection to 1/7, and then ponder why you think that same pattern shows up in the 3/35 calculation I mentioned. Finally, this is set to post on the Friday just before the 1st week of classes of my Fall 2021 semester. I expect to be p...