Crossword blog for Rose Sloan aka acommonrose. Expect a mix of random trivia, queer nonsense, geeky references, and whatever else I like, as I try to make some crosswords.
I'm back with a hopefully relatively easy one this week. This puzzle has one of those themes that you may or may not be able to see depending on your background, which I think make for fun blog puzzles but are a little too niche to play anywhere else. Could I have come up with a version of this that has more than 3 themers? Probably, but I was traveling this week, and I struggle a lot with mirror symmetry as is, so I figured I'd keep this one simple.
It's a long weekend, so technically I am still keeping to my one puzzle per weekend schedule! I am also pleased to present the first collab of my summer puzzle project, with none other than Norah Sharpe. I'm always happy to collab with Norah, so I was delighted when she came to me with this grid. We clued it on the tough side--I expect this to play like a Boswords stormy.
Norah says:
“Four years or so ago I committed to a big blog project of my own and Rose was one of many people who stepped up to help me make it happen so donating this grid to this blog is a long overdue reciprocation. I seeded this grid with 13-A in Rose’s honor. Enjoy!”
Thanks to Will for test solving. (I'll probably be back to my test solver-less ways soon, but given the difficulty, it was really good to get another set of eyes on this one!)
As I mentioned last week, I'm trying to post a puzzle every week this summer! Here's the second one. This one's a themeless. I seeded it initially with 12A (which I'm participating in this year!) and secondarily 24D, which I think are a fun pair for a themeless. To make it, I did what all good constructors do: spent several days failing to come up with a good grid, gave up, and then stole and slightly modified a Robyn Weintraub grid that filled beautifully. I also found cluing in a few days really difficult, and I think I leaned heavier on trivia clues than usual, but the puzzle is done, and I think it is still solvable!
So those of you paying attention probably noticed that I didn't really make any crossword puzzles (here or anywhere else) in the past year. Those of you paying closer attention probably noticed I vaguely alluded to new puzzles coming. The backstory behind this all is that last August, I both moved to Boston and started a new job, which left me with relatively little time and energy for puzzle making. But, as is the way with academic jobs, I have minimal work commitments during the summer, so now is the time for me to get back into making puzzles. And the best way to get back into making puzzles is surely just to... make a bunch of puzzles.
So here's the plan: every weekend between now and Labor Day, I will post one new full-sized puzzle to this blog. That's it, that's the plan. I realize this is not a crazy large number of puzzles, but since I've spent literal years making some puzzles, I really want to see what I can do in one week! This plan does of course come with caveats:
Yes, it's another crossword! From me! Not even that long after the last one! Hoping to have some full sized puzzles up here soon too, but today I have a midi puzzle that I made with my sister. (This is the first puzzle she's made!) We got the idea for this puzzle last winter after doing another puzzle about local news that we didn't like very much. We then spent nearly 6 months failing to clue this puzzle, because she had to have the true A Crossword Rose constructing experience.
Title comes from this (spoiler-y) Tweet.