Puzzle #12: It's out of this world

Hello friends, please enjoy this shiny new themeless puzzle. I wanted to be the one to debut 15-Across in the NYT, but Will Shortz thought otherwise and so I wrote some weirder clues and am dumping it here.

Puzzle #11: Don't Let Your Memes (16) Be Dreams

Looking through my seed list for ideas, I realized I had some good 16 letter entries. So obviously I had to make a 16x15 puzzle and give them a home. Hopefully you find them amusing too!

Puzzle #7: It's a food one (a thremeless)

Call me "Weird" Q Yankovic, cause it's The Food Album Puzzle. This "theme" did not occur intentionally, I must just be have been hungry when working on it. By my count almost 15% of the entries are food & drink related.

My intention was simply to make another thremeless like my last post, with four fun long entries (specifically 4-Down and 20-Across, I've been wanting to use those for a while). Some favorite clues include 8-Down, 18-Across (referencing the best Trek), and 44/50-Down.

Big thanks to Jake Eakle and Quiara for test solving this; they caught (hopefully) all of my typos and bad cluing angles.

Puzzle #6: Thremeless

This puzzle was inspired by Quiara over on the Crosscord, who shared this grid with no three letter entries. 4-Down was my seed, as I'd watched it recently on the Criterion Channel's Afrofuturism playlist. I initially hit cluers block and had trouble coming up with anything interesting, but I came back to the puzzle a bit later and was able to make progress. I'm particularly fond of the clues for 9-Across (set a reminder for 8 years from now!) and 10-Down, and I was excited to include the very timely clue for 38-Across.

Puzzle #4: This time it's a Midi

 Since I've only worked on 15x15 puzzles and 7x7s for my upcoming puzzle in the 7xword project (watch for mine on May 8), I thought it would be nice to work on a different size.

So today I'm presenting a 10x10 with diagonal symmetry I made over the last few days. My seed was 7D, which I was inspired to use by the two most recent clipping. albums. It also gives me a loose musical motif, with 12A, 17A, and 30A.

Other notes:

• I particularly enjoy the clues/entries for 1A, 30A, and 27D
• 9D references a very serious issue! Read more about it here.
  
• Alternate (easier) clue for 8D:  German city that translates to "eat"
• Alternate (harder) clue for 24D: Lynch's character on "Twin Peaks"
  

Puzzle #3: Adventures in Modern Symmetry

As I've been getting more into crosswords, especially indie crosswords, I have been slowly breaking down my reliance on with the more stodgy style I'm used to from the New York Times.

My first "discovery" was the experimentation people have been doing with symmetry (à la https://xwordsbyaladee.blogspot.com/), so I thought I'd try my hand at something similar.

Second, I realized from https://qvxwordz.blogspot.com/ that it's okay to use the first person in a puzzle. I really get annoyed when I have to use the impersonal style in academic writing as part of my other life, and so being freed of this restriction in my hobby (at least on my personal blog) feels great. 27-Across is my response to this (and a reference to my factually incorrect original clue), and I aim to make my voice more explicit in the future.

Other notes:

-- 4-Down is inspired by a King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard album that includes the answer

-- I'm delighted that I got to use the clue for 13-Down

-- I didn't know 54-Across before Crossfire suggested it, but it strikes me as something more people should know!

 

Puzzle #1: Big things have small beginnings

I think that I'll start here by posting one of my themeless puzzles. I started with some long seed entry in the middle section that I lost during the course of creating. I'm still satisfied with the fill, though, so it makes a nice enough place to start.