In my previous puzzle post ( BWS Puzzle #12: Network Programming ), I mentioned that the final grid there was "pretty heavy on the 3 letter entries". In fact, out of 54 total words in that puzzle, 22 of them were 3s; that's just over 40%. Yikes! Consequently, I set myself a challenge for this next puzzle:  no 3s whatsoever!   I thought that might be difficult in a big grid, so I'm starting small with a 10x10 themeless. You can see the histogram of word lengths in the image below. There's an abundance of 4s and 5s this time, along with a handful of 7s and 10s. You may also notice some pleasing symmetry in the grid: each corner is a 4x5 or 5x4, and the four central squares are each crossed by exactly two 7s. As usual with these midi themeless puzzles, I picked a few of the 10s based on stuff that's on my mind or happening recently. In particular, 4-Down and 14-Across come from a recent dinnertime conversation, and I was delighted to notice that they could cross...

I've enjoyed making these 10x10 themeless puzzles, so I'm trying to share a new one each weekend just for fun. I hope the clues and entries give you a few laughs and a few (but not too many) head-scratching moments, and maybe even teach you some interesting things, I'm also still playing around with grid designs and word lengths and things like that. This one (image above) has regular ol' rotational symmetry but, in contrast with the previous midi themeless puzzle (which had word lengths of only 3, 5, 9, or 10), it has a whole range of word lengths (10 x 3s, 6 x 4s, 8 x 5s, 4 x 6s, 2 x 7s, and 4 x 10s). All of the 10s are inspired by recent events: 22-Across and 3-Down are things I'm teaching about in one of my classes right now, 6-Down is inspired by a clue in last week's puzzle (spoiler alert, but if you need a hint: check 14-Across there ), and the idea for 13-Across and its clue came to me while thinking about something happening this week. You might also n...