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)
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Harder version (no enumerations)
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Solution (full answer list)
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You're still here?

Sorry for the delay, folks. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm ok with having a bit of a flexible schedule here, but I still don't like to let things get too out of control. Seems that life keeps wanting to intervene, as of late, so I hope you'll bear with me. 

Gearing up for a busy weekend of music: 3 gigs in 3 days, with 2 different bands. Two local gigs, including the debut of my latest project, a really loud trio called Kafkaless, and one show just south of the border in Plentywood, Montana which I know distressingly little about. Oh well, should be fun. I haven't been to Plentywood for years, but I always have a great time there so it'll be nice to get back. Objectively it's not much to write home about, but when you live in southern Saskatchewan it's a wonderland of cheap beer, smokes, and seedy hotel rooms just a hop skip and a border crossing away. True story: 5 of us went down there for a bachelor party many moons ago and bought a round for the whole bar because liquor was like 1/6th the price we were used to paying in Regina. I think we each spent under $20, and it was almost certainly the only thing that kept us long-haired nerds from getting roughed up by drunken hicks.

The puzzle that I planned to use this week still isn't finished since it ended up getting quite large (I'll run it next week). Instead, I dusted off this one that I started a while back and finished it up. I wasn't too excited about the grid at first, which is why I had shelved it, but it's ok I guess, and I tried to spice it up with some devilish cluing. Speaking of which, if you want to see an actual quality themeless puzzle, check out Evan Birnholz's latest devilcross.com offering. One of the smoothest grids I've seen in a long time (seriously, it's Berry smooth), yet with no shortage of awesome shit. Seriously, dude's got chops.

One more thing: only after this grid was filled and partially clued did I realize that there's another 12-letter entry that could use more-or-less the same clue (or at least most of the same clue words) as 14-down. Might've made a good symmetrical mini-theme, but to be honest you might start to wonder about me if I ran a mini-theme like that. Maybe you wonder about me as it is, I dunno.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next week.

Puzzle: Freestyle #31
Difficulty: Harder than usual, I think
Downloads:
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...and we're back

Sorry again for the late puzzle. Things have been crazy around here lately, and I was having a bit of clue-writer's-block over the weekend to boot.

I'm keeping this post short, but I would be remiss to not mention what promises to be a fabulous new addition to the indie puzzle scene. My man Evan Birnholz (who you may know from such publications as "20 under 30", the NYT, and the WSJ) has just launched the fortnightly Devil Cross with a bold and spicy freestyle. Do it!

Oh, and I think this week's puzzle is pretty tough. Went Stumper tough with some sections initially, but soften a few clues here and there so hopefully it's doable. Oh, and I noticed a dupe (same word in there twice) in the grid after it was too late to change. Oh well, it's not the same entry twice, just the same word in two entries. I just hope it doesn't diminish your enjoyment of the puzzle.

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

Puzzle: Freestyle #28
Rating: XW-14A
Downloads: 
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