XTR, XTR! BRKNG NWS

A few news items and a new vowelless puzzle today:

1. My boy Evan Birnholz made his auspicious Washington Post debut yesterday: solve it here. Evan's new WP venture is the most exciting thing to happen in crosswords this year, imo. Show him some love.
2. The Indie 500 is happening again on June 4, 2016. If you're not too established, we want your puzzle for it. And no matter what, we want to hang with you in June. Seriously, I don't even care if you sign up for the tourney or not; just come to DC and drink cocktails with us.
3. Here's a new vowelless puzzle. It's like a regular crossword, except you only enter the consonants of a given answer. So if the clue were [Cute young cat] you would write KTTN, not KITTEN. Just so there's no confusion, the letter Y is not used at all. Also there are two versions: an easier one in which the enumerations (i.e.number of letters) of the full words are given, and a harder one in which they are not. An enumeration of (11) means that the full answer is a single 11-letter word, and an enumeration of (5, 6) means that the full answer is a two-word phrase where the words are 5 and 6 letters long, in that order (such as HEARS NOISES - but of course you would just enter HRS NSS). Got it? Good.

Easier version (with enumerations)
PDF
PUZ

Harder version (no enumerations)
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PUZ

Solution (full answer list)
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Freely Styled

Whipped up this grid a few weeks ago just for yuks and finally got around to cluing it. Enjoy!

Freestyle #38
PUZ
PDF

Give Up?

The answer to last week's meta, Romantic Foreplay, is now posted on the Meta Solutions page. Also, remember that there was another meta, That's the Spirit!, posted a few days ago. The solution to that one will be up next Wednesday.

Surprise Puzzle!

I know I said that I wouldn't be back until Friday, but I was inspired by the puzzling atmosphere of the ACPT to cook up another puzzle. By the way, it was nice to see so many of you in Stamford. I managed to at least briefly catch up with most solvers and constructors that I had met at past tourneys as well as meet a whole schwack of wonderful puzzlers whom I had never had the pleasure to talk to before. Anyway, I'll still be back on Friday with the solution to Romantic Foreplay, but for now enjoy another meta called "That's the Spirit!" I'll post the solution to this one a week from this very minute (give or take a few hundred minutes).

The meta answer is something I used to make this puzzle

More words, crossed and otherwise, next week.

That's the Spirit! (PDF)

That's the Spirit! (PUZ)

Floor It!

It's been a while, and for that I apologize. Been busy working on the Indie 500 and running a weekly pub trivia and being a family man. Anyway, new meta puzzle for you today, called Romantic Foreplay. It's not a contest, but you can submit the answer to me if you'd like. Or just say hi or tell me that you didn't like the puzzle or whatever. Better yet, come up and do all of those things in person at the tourney. After much hemming and hawing I decided to attend for the fourth year in a row, and even though it's 5:30am and I'm sitting on the floor of Penn Station next to a power outlet writing this and I haven't slept since yesterday morning I'm so glad I decided to make the pilgrimage once again. Super stoked to see y'all there!

Oh, and I'll post the meta answer on the site next Friday. Nudge me if I forget.

The meta answer is something that's a no-no for Christians

More words, crossed and otherwise, this weekend in Stamford

Romantic Foreplay (PUZ)

Romantic Foreplay (PDF)

Trivial Matters

Been busy lately with a new sorta-puzzle-related project. A few friends and I will be hosting a pub trivia night, beginning this Sunday evening. If you're in the greater Regina area (extremely unlikely), come on out to The Lancaster at 19:00. Anyway, gotta get back to it, so that's all I'll say for now. Enjoy the latest freestyle; it was my submission for the final Post Puzzler themeless contest, but it wasn't picked. I'm reasonably happy with it, though, so I figured it wouldn't be nice to keep it all to myself.

More words, crossed and otherwise, whenever I feel like it.

Puzzle: Freestyle #37
Downloads:
PDF
PUZ