I was almost halfway through cluing (an early version of) this when I noticed a short word in the grid duping part of a longer entry. See if you can guess what used to be at 1-Across before I had to rework that section... (Also, does anyone else have trouble deciding whether a ?  is warranted for a clue? There are some obvious, punny cases, but other times it feels like it comes down to a matter of how easily I think a solver will spot a misdirection or some kind of unexpected usage, and that's hard to do sometimes.) Anyway, enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

Tried a central stack of 11s this time, and ended up with some 9-stacks in the corners, as well. Some clues are on the harder side, but hope this won't be too challenging overall. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

I've been having fun making different kinds of themeless layouts lately, in the process of trying to get better at gridding more efficiently. This one has some 9-stacks in the corners and several 10s scattered around the center, and with not too many threes overall. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

Felt some random inspiration to make a triple-stack of 15s and ended up with this puzzle. Hope you're up for a challenge... Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

I'm pretty excited with how fresh and  clean this puzzle turned out, although you, dear solver, will be the true judge of that. Some tricky clues here, but also some fun and easy ones to help you crack in. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

Sharing another challenging themeless puzzle before I get swept into the swing of the spring semester next week. This one started with the spanner at 36-Across, followed by the top-right and bottom-left corners, and then the main diagonal sections fell into place later. I can also declare that this one has ZERO golf content, in case that's been bothering you about my recent puzzles (sorry, I'm building a wordlist). Instead, there's lots of music references (especially Scottish bands, for some reason) and a bit of mathematics. And you should definitely check out 36-Down's lovely flowers on Instagram! Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

First post of 2024! (Challenge: can you estimate how many digits long the factorial  2024! is?) This one started with 1-Across and a hope to maintain some 10-stacks with multiple entry points. Keeping those big open corners, along with the central spanners, forced a few more 3s into the grid than I wanted, so I hope you don't mind a handful of acronyms amongst the 66 entries. Also, a few clues involve long quotations, so the PDF doesn't fit on one page; I'm recommending a browser solve for this one. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

Happy holidays! The season inspired a few entries in this grid, like 15-Across and 63-Across, but there's plenty of other fun stuff, including some recurring motifs in the clues. The word count and grid shape might make this one play a little more easily than usual (lots of 3s), but I'm calling it "hard" just in case. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

Looking for another 15x themeless puzzle? Here ya go! This one has a few criss-crossing 15s and some 9-stacks in the corners. And I've been adding lots of stuff to my wordlist lately, trying to get new things into these puzzles (like 59-Across and 5-Down here). Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

I'm still trying my hand at 15x themelesses, but the last few have been fairly challenging, so I tried to grid & clue this one more towards  medium  difficulty. I rather like this grid shape and the flow it produces, and I was happy to squeeze in a bunch of music references and Boston-area stuff, too. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

This never happens these days, but I'm back later in the week with another themeless! I threw this one together while away on vacation 🦃, so please pardon any typos or other unintended challenges. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

Still ridin' the themeless train! I started this one with the three 15s running across (and their clues), then just tried to keep the corners wide open and free of "cheater squares." This is probably one of the more challenging themelesses I've made, especially lately, so I'm labelling this extra hard . Let me know how it goes... Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

Felt like using 16s in a themeless for some reason, especially those two stacked in the middle. Ended up with this even-by-even grid: 14 rows and 16 columns. Would you call that 14x16 or 16x14 ? (I'm inclined to the former, by mathematical convention .) Anyway, enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

I started making this with the 15s across the middle, and somehow it turned into a taller (16 rows) grid with lots of little nooks. And with 75 words, I had a lot of fun writing all these clues, where you'll find some recurring references and other silliness. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

Just another 15x themeless this time. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

Been on a 15x15 themeless kick lately, both in solving and constructing, so here's another one from me. Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

Took a few weeks off, but I'm back with a 15x themeless! Construction started with the 1-Across/54-Across combo, then some of the criss-crossing 15s, and then everything else fell into place. This ended up with a pretty low word count (an ol' 66er ) so I tried to crank up the clue difficulty to match, hence the categorization as "extra hard." Please let me know if this ended up too  hard (or still too easy?). Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

There's a triple stack of 15s in this puzzle, and the entry right in the middle is where my construction started (and where your post-solve listening should begin). I'm thinking this will be kinda challenging in some spots and not so bad in others, but I'll give it a "hard" label to be safe.  Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

Just a small themeless puzzle this week: a 9x9 grid with a few crisscrossing 9s. One entry was inspired by a recent conference I attended (which you should check out, but only click this link after solving the puzzle so you don't ruin it). Enjoy the solve, and share if you do! puz pdf fullscreen solution

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 ]