It's a Wild World (with Dan Schwartz)

 Today I have a collaboration with friend of the blog/excellent cryptic solver/amazing cat owner Dan Schwartz! We collaborated months ago on another puzzle that is very good and fun (in my totally unbiased opinion), and I hope you find this one very good and fun too! (And while you're at it, check out Dan's blog for more excellent puzzles.)

Dan came to me last spring and asked if we could use one this puzzle's themers somewhere. I spotted a theme it could belong to, and the rest of the puzzle came together from there. We initially tried to target this one for mainstream publication, so the clues may be a little less unhinged than usual (though still full of our personalities and interests). After a few rejections, we've decided it fits better as a blog puzzle, particularly since the themer that inspired the whole puzzle might be better known to blog audiences than newspaper audiences.

From Dan: "I had never seen 20-Across in a crossword before, and asked Rose if we could make a puzzle around it. She came up with this theme for it because, again, Rose is an incredible genius. I hope you enjoy this puzzle, we certainly enjoyed making it!"

Puz | Crosshare

Good News

note: just because you can make a tribute crossword puzzle about somebody doesn't mean you have to

— christopher adams (@arctanprime) September 8, 2022

 Hi, everyone. Still busy, but I had an idea for a fairly topical puzzle, and I decided to get it out there. This puzzle is for those of us who are too online and also love it when bad things happen to bad people. If you don't fall into both of those categories, this is probably not the theme for you (but overall, the cluing is mostly standard A Crossword Rose fare).

This is not test solved and was proofread exactly once, because I wanted to get this out quickly. If you spot a typo, please let me know. If you spot a clue with no typos that makes no sense, feel free to keep that to yourself.

Crosshare | Puz

Pleasant Company (with Shannon Rapp)

 Today I'm very excited to be posting a collab with my friend and frequent collaborator Shannon Rapp, who you might also know as Norah Sharpe, her alter ego on her blog Norah's Puzzles (a very good blog with very good puzzles). You may also know her from her work on Daily Crossword Links (which you should definitely be subscribed to), from her puzzles at Lil AVCX, or from one of our many previous collabs. The theme of this puzzle is very nostalgic for both of us, and I was super excited when we realized we could make a theme out of it! We made this puzzle a few months ago (so, no, I wasn't lying in my last post when I said I'm super busy in the near future), and I'm very happy to be sharing it now.

From Shannon:

"Hi friends! For me, this puzzle brings back memories (circa 1991) of sprawling out on the floor surrounded by catalogs and books, trying to imagine life in simpler, or at least different, times. I hope you enjoy it!

I think it's important to talk about rejections, and hopefully it's instructive for the construction-curious to hear a little of the backstory. We started making this puzzle in April. It got two rejections before we decided to post it today. It's a fun puzzle! And we think it's pretty good, but good and fun puzzles get rejected all the time for all sorts of reasons. And for this one, it was simply about the type of theme. I'll let you see what that means for yourself, no spoilers! 

In happier news, Rose and I have a joint scheduled to run in late September, so watch your inboxes and your Daily Crossword Links!"

Puz | Crosshare

Trading Places

Today's puzzle is a lightly themed 13x, which somehow makes it at least the third 13x puzzle I've made. Honestly, I don't know why I keep making 13x puzzles (beyond the obvious of having seed entries that work best with a 13x grid), since they're in the sort of awkward position of being too big to be a midi but too small to be a full-sized puzzle, but they've worked out okay for me so far. Anyways, this one came about because I noticed a similarity between two entries in here, and I had to do something with it.

While you're here, please check out the collab I did recently with Lila Goldenberg--it's a midi filled with fun clues and Taylor Swift references. Otherwise, I'm mostly taking a break from constructing this summer due to some life stuff keeping me busy, so this will probably be the last puzzle here for another month or two (unless I'm struck by another idea, which is always a possibility).

Thanks to my sister for a test solve.

Puz | Crosshare

Now You See Me...

 Happy Pride! Welcome back to my blog, where as long as there's bi discourse online, I'll be trying to turn it into a silly crossword theme. I actually had the general concept for this one a year ago, but it took me until recently to nail down a solid theme set (and to have the gridding skills to make this work with a vertical revealer).

In other crossword news, if you happen to know anyone who's a Skokie Public Library patron and wants to learn how to make crosswords, I'm leading a library event next Thursday (aimed at true beginners) where I'll demonstrate how to make a puzzle. I also have a themeless dropping next week with Inkubator that also has a bunch of queer content, so now's a great time to subscribe to them if you're looking for more puzzles to do for Pride!

Thanks to my sister for test solving. Enjoy!

Direct Crosshare link | Puz file

E•MO•TION: Side B (with carly they themsen)

 O HELL YA

You ever find a perfect set of spanners for a puzzle? Well, not to brag, but Carly and I might just have done that. This puzzle is a bit of a spiritual successor (a B-side, even) to Carly and Kate's puzzle run away with me, and since I am all for the "put Carly Rae Jepsen songs in crosswords" movement, I was delighted to team up with Carly for this collab! The result is a super fun semi-themeless puzzle full of good music and chaotic energy.

I'll let Carly say the rest:

"hiiiiiiiiiiii thanks for clicking on this puzzle!

rose was so nice to invite me to work on this, and she edited a lot of my weirder clues to make them more palatable without breaking their spirit. thanks rose! [: 

 fun act about this puzzle, the spanners actually filled out like that on accident, they weren't seeded

just kidding! haha i pranked u xD 

enjoy!"

Puz file | Direct Crosshare link

Keep It Up! (with Dan Schwartz)

Today I'm very excited to post a collab with ACPT star, Twitch cryptic solver, and adorable cat owner Dan Schwartz. You may know him from his Twitch channel danandbabka, where he solves puzzles with his cat Babka. After seeing his Tabula Rasa clues and meeting him at ACPT, I knew I had to make a puzzle with Dan, and this experience did not disappoint! He came up with both of our 15s in the theme, and I think there's a ton of good stuff from both of us in this puzzle. (And a secret shout out to this Robyn Weintraub puzzle from 2014, which we more or less stole the grid shape from after a great deal of struggling to find a grid that worked.)

From Dan:

"I met Rose at ACPT and she said she'd like to collaborate on a puzzle if I had any ideas. I sent her something extremely dumb and she turned it into something great because Rose is a genius.  This puzzle was really fun to make and I  hope everyone enjoys it! Thank you again to Rose!!"

On a logistical note, if you can use the Crosshare applet (or print/download from the applet) instead of using the puz file, please do--we're including the puz for the sake of the bots, but we had to change a few clues that puz couldn't support. And thanks to Kate for test solving! Her blog just hit its one year anniversary, so if you inexplicably haven't done her puzzles, 1. how are you even here, and 2. please do them immediately.

Puz file | Direct Crosshare link