Words: 68
Average Length: 5.56
Some cheek, some politics, lots of puns, a brilliant author (21/23 Across), another brilliant author (Shakespeare), and Ken Kesey. Enjoy!
Categories
Tag: Themeless Crossword
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Themeless 111
Words: 75 (16×15)
Average Length: 5.49
The seeds for today’s puzzle were the clue/answer combos at 3 Down and 9 Down, along with 35 Across (I’d heard “I Will Follow You into the Dark” just before sitting down to construct) and 42 Across. I was able to include quite a few unusual longer answers, but at a price: there are three pieces of 3-letter fill (8 Across, 45 Down, 66 Across) that are downright dreadful. Please forgive me!
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Themeless 110
Words: 72
Average Length: 5.31
4D and 19D were the seeds for today’s puzzle. I don’t remember where I first heard 4D – possibly as an answer on Jeopardy or in a shipboard trivia game – but I’m surrounded by them, as reflected in the décor of my house. And 19D is just plain true, as I find out a couple of times a week.
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Themeless 109
Words: 72
Average Length: 5.36
I had lots of fun cluing this one – consider that fair warning to expect a bit of silliness. The seed was 37 Across, which originally was going to be one of a suite of answers for a themed puzzle. I couldn’t come up with enough other decent themers, so it’s been repurposed here.
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Themeless 108
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Themeless 107
Words: 66
Average Length: 5.91
No (or at least not much) disrespect meant by 1 Across; some of my best friends drive BMWs. Still, if the driving glove fits ….
If you take umbrage at 14 Across, so be it. The time for pulling political punches is long past.
Come back Tuesday for an extremely silly mini full of puns, anagrams, made-up words, and absurd definitions. See you then!
Categories
Themeless 106
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Themeless 105
Words: 68
Average Length: 5.38
The seeds for this puzzle were 19 Across (a book I found helpful in learning to write clearly), 31 Across (a concept needlessly occupying scarce mental real estate from a bio course 50 years ago), and 49 Across (a lyrical, beautiful, slim, fictional thought experiment).
Categories
Themeless 103
Words: 72
Average Length: 5.19
The two seeds for this puzzle were the German loanwords at 14 and 23 Across, supplemented by 8 Down, which fortuitously appeared when I was playing around with another possible entry. Only as I took one last look through the entries did I realize that I have a partial duplicate (4 Down and 34 Down); please don’t report me to the crossword police!
Words: 12 (6×6)
Average Length: 4.67
This was a mind-wandering-before-falling-asleep puzzle, when the idea for 1, 2, and 3 Down popped into my head. Over breakfast the next morning – after my normal routine of Wordle, Connections, the Atlantic puzzle, the NYT puzzle, and Simply Daily’s Easy Cryptic Crossword – I filled the grid. Since the seed answers may be hard to get, at least at first, I clued this puzzle to play easier than my usual.
