Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Black Crossword: Mini by Juliana Pache. .pdf, online.
Club 72: Freestyle 822 by Tim Croce. .puz, .pdf.
Crosshare Community: Daily Mini and Featured Puzzles.
Fordham Observer: Wednesday, June 28 (Mini) by Ana Kevorkian. .pdf, online.
LuterCross: On the Rise by Matthew Luter. .pdf, .puz, online.
MEOW: Cut From the Same Cloth (Meta) by Dr. Tom. .puz, .pdf, online.
Olio Grids: Are by Brian Callahan. .pdf, online.
Puzzles That Need A Home: And We’re Rolling by Brian Thomas. .puz, .pdf, online.
Tough As Nails: Tough as Nails Themeless #90 by Stella Zawistowski. .puz, .pdf
Ubercross: Small N by T Campbell .pdf
YourPuzzleSource: Daily Puzzle (Midi) by Phil Fraas. .pdf, online.

AVCX: ($) June 28, 2023  “The Swing of Things” by Eric Rollfing. Subscribe at link.
Crossword Club: Daily Crossword: June 28, 2023 by Erica Hsiung Wojcik. .pdf, online.

The Atlantic Mini: by Paolo Pasco. .pdf, online.
Crosswords with Friends: Wayback Wednesday by Stanley Newman. App Store | Google Play
Crosswords with Friends: Midi Puzzle by Donna S. Levin. App Store | Google Play
Crosswords with Friends: Mini Puzzle by Nate Cardin. App Store | Google Play
Daily Beast: And the Oscar Goes to…, Wed, Jun 28, 2023 by Matt Gaffney. .pdf, online.
Daily POP Crosswords: by Janice Luttrell. App Store | Google Play, online.
Los Angeles Times: by Jodi Davenport & Barbara Lin. Online, pdf. Free Cruciverb account for .puz.
Los Angeles Times Mini: by Elizabeth Gorski. Online.
McKinsey: Generative AI by Peter Gordon. .pdf, online.
The Modern Crossword: Wednesday, June 28, 2023 by Erik Agard. Online, .pdf.
New York Sun: ($) Elocution Lesson by Joy M. Andrews. Reissues from 2004.
New York Times: ($) by Matt Fuchs and Victor Sloan. Online, .pdf, app.
New York Times Mini: by Joel Fagliano. Online, app.
The New Yorker: The Crossword by Erik Agard. .pdf, online.
Newsday: Coming Apart by Robin Stears. Online, .pdf, backup online.
PlayFour: Daily Puzzle. Online
The Telegraph: Cross Atlantic by John Halpern. Online.
Universal: I’m Lost! by Bill Thompson and Grace Thompson Arnold. Online, pdf. .puz.
USA Today: Food Chain by Matthew Stock. Online, .pdf, app.
Vox: by Adesina O. Koiki. .pdf, online.
Vulture 10×10: The Right-Reasons Puzzle by Stella Zawistowski. .pdf, online.
The Wall Street Journal: Odd Fellows by Mike Shenk. Online, .pdf. .puz.
Washington Post Daily Mini Meta: by Andrew White & Pete Muller. Online, .pdf.

Ben’s Cryptic Crosswords: Dubiously Green by Ben Robinson Online.
Squared Away: Daily Puzzle. Online.
TLMB: Not The AA Then? by The Void .pdf, online.

Financial Times: FT Crossword: Number 17,454 by Monk. .pdf.
The Globe and Mail: The Daily Cryptic Crossword. .pdf, online.
The Guardian: Cryptic crossword No 29,108 by Maskarade. .pdf, online.
The Hindu Cryptic: #13903 by Karaoke. .pdf, online.
The Independent: Cryptic Crossword by Monk. .pdf, online.

Other American-style crosswords:

Reviews and Discussion at Diary of a Crossword Fiend | Boatload Puzzles/AARP | Crosshare | CrosswordsBackwards | Cruciverbalista (en español) | Dictionaries6 | Easy Crossword | FreeDailyCrosswords | GameLab | Hard Crossword | r/crossword | Squares.io | YourPuzzleSource | XWord-Muggles Meta Calendar

Other Cryptic/Variety crosswords:

A Frame Games | cf.kmbweb.de Links Library | Harper’s ($) | Lovatts | Magpie ($) | Mokelfish Links Library | MyCrossword | NPL | Panda Magazine ($) | Private Eye | PuzzleCrypt archives | Puzzling StackExchange | r/crosswords | Split Decisions | Sydney Morning Herald ($) | The Telegraph | The Times (UK) ($), includes The Listener

Monday, June 5, 2023

Bewilderingly: I Think You Should Leave S3 by Will Nediger. .puz, .pdf, online.
Black Crossword: Mini by Juliana Pache. .pdf, online.
Crosshare Community: Daily Mini and Featured Puzzles.
Fordham Observer: Monday, June 5 (Mini) by Abby Grunzinger. .pdf, online.
Jeff’s Puzzles: Themeless 54 by Jeff Linder. .puz, .pdf
kaybartplays: Bitchin’ Fill, Brah by kaybart. .puz, .pdf, online.
The Michigan Daily: The Unrhymable Fruit by Pavan Kannan. Online.
Monday Fills: Themeless 119 by Dave Murchie. .puz, .pdf, online.
Muggle Meta Mondays: Ultimate Statesman (Meta) by cbarbee002. .puz, .pdf.
Olio Grids: Rhyme Time by Brian Callahan. .pdf, online.
YourPuzzleSource: Daily Puzzle (Midi) by Phil Fraas. .pdf, online.

Crossword Club: Daily Crossword: June 5, 2023 by Kelsey Dixon. .pdf, online.
Lil AVC X: ($) Corner Pieces by Dob Olino. Subscribe at link.
Planet Crossword: Fast Food Themeless by Stella Zawistowski. Online.

The Atlantic Mini: by Paolo Pasco. .pdf, online.
Crosswords with Friends: Movie Monday by Todd McClary. App Store | Google Play
Crosswords with Friends: Midi Puzzle by Todd McClary. App Store | Google Play
Crosswords with Friends: Mini Puzzle by Doug Peterson. App Store | Google Play
Daily Beast: Love Match, Mon. Jun 5, 2023 by Matt Gaffney. .pdf, online.
Daily POP Crosswords: by Pam Amick Klawitter. App Store | Google Play, online.
Los Angeles Times: by Susan Gelfand. Online, pdf. Free Cruciverb account for .puz.
Los Angeles Times Mini: by Elizabeth Gorski. Online.
The Modern Crossword: Monday, June 05, 2023 by Erik Agard. Online, .pdf.
New York Magazine: That’s An Order! by Matt Gaffney. .pdf, online.
New York Sun: ($) Wordy Birdy by Gary Steinmehl. Reissues from 2004.
New York Times: ($) by Eric Rollfing. Online, .pdf, app.
New York Times Mini: by Joel Fagliano. Online, app.
The New Yorker: The Crossword: Monday, June 5, 2023 by Natan Last. .pdf, online.
Newsday: In the Garden by Stella Zawistowski. Online, .pdf, backup online.
PlayFour: Daily Puzzle. Online
The Telegraph: Cross Atlantic by James Brydon. Online.
Universal: P-U! by Desiree Penner and Jeff Sinnock. Online, pdf. .puz.
USA Today: Three Sharp by Rafael Musa. Online, .pdf, app.
Vox: by Patrick Blindauer. .pdf, online.
The Wall Street Journal: Feelin’ Groovy by Lisa Senzel & Jeff Chen. Online, .pdf. .puz.
Washington Post Daily Mini Meta: by Andrew White & Pete Muller. Online, .pdf.

A Cleverly-Titled Logic Puzzle Blog: Kevin’s Puzzles at Home Season 4, Episode 6: Window Pain by Grant Fikes .pdf
BEQ Marching Bands: ($) Marching Bands #9.4 by Brendan Emmett Quigley. Subscribe at link.
Redhead64: PUZZLE #442: Central Scramble 6 .pdf.
Squared Away: Daily Puzzle. Online.
Steve’s Cryptic Crosswords: Puzzle 323 by Steve Townsend. Online.

Financial Times: FT Crossword: Number 17,434 by Moo. .pdf.
The Globe and Mail: The Daily Cryptic Crossword. .pdf, online.
The Guardian: Cryptic crossword No 29,088 by Vulcan. .pdf, online.
The Hindu Cryptic: #13883 by Arden. .pdf, online.
The Independent: Cryptic Crossword by Tees. .pdf, online.

Other American-style crosswords:

Reviews and Discussion at Diary of a Crossword Fiend | Boatload Puzzles/AARP | Crosshare | CrosswordsBackwards | Cruciverbalista (en español) | Dictionaries6 | Easy Crossword | FreeDailyCrosswords | GameLab | Hard Crossword | r/crossword | Squares.io | YourPuzzleSource | XWord-Muggles Meta Calendar

Other Cryptic/Variety crosswords:

A Frame Games | cf.kmbweb.de Links Library | Harper’s ($) | Lovatts | Magpie ($) | Mokelfish Links Library | MyCrossword | NPL | Panda Magazine ($) | Private Eye | PuzzleCrypt archives | Puzzling StackExchange | r/crosswords | Split Decisions | Sydney Morning Herald ($) | The Telegraph | The Times (UK) ($), includes The Listener

Late February Crossworld News & Notes

The Inkubator has announced it will cease operations at the end of 2023 in an email to subscribers:

After much careful thought, the Inkubator team has made the decision that 2023 will be our last year as a subscription service. We’ve had a wonderful four years with your support, surpassing our original goal of spending two years publishing new and emerging women and nonbinary constructors.

The Inkubator will continue as a community of constructors, and we’re excited for future directions and collaborations. In the meantime, we’re extending our current deadline for submissions until February 15, and we have an excellent slate of puzzles lined up for the next few weeks. We look forward to solving together with all of you this year.

We have a close relationship with the Inkubator team and offer our gratitude for both a great run and their leadership in the community. It has moved the needle, without a doubt.


A lovely piece from Liz Maynes-Aminzade at The New Yorker, “Will Shortz’s Life in Crosswords,” covers Will’s long career in puzzles. From all of us at DCL, echoing the sentiments we’ve heard from across the crossword community, we’re happy for Will for coming out publicly and finding love at 70.


ACPT is only five weeks away! We look forward to seeing many of you there. For those who can’t attend, the Virtual Tournament sponsored by Amuse Labs is an affordable way to participate and compete from afar. It includes live streams of all the tournament puzzles as well as other in-person events.


Congratulations to Paolo Pasco, winner of the Boswords Winter Wondersolve, and to second and third place finishers Will Nediger and Tyler Hinman. Congrats also to Frisco and Chauffeur, who won the Blizzard pairs division, Brian Lipinski, winner of the Flurry individual division, and Kristy and Wendy Gardner, winners of the Flurry pairs division.

Congratulations to Matthew Luter, whose puzzle was chosen through the open submission process to join the Boswords Spring Themeless League. The League begins with the preseason puzzle this Monday, February 27. A new practice puzzle from Chandi Deitmer and John Lieb is available for free.

In even more Boswords news, the annual summer tournament is now set for Sunday, July 23, with both in-person and virtual options.


These Puzzl3s Fund Abortion, the third annual TPFA pack organized by Rachel Fabi and co-edited by Rachel, Brooke Husic, and Claire Rimkus, is coming this spring in time for the 2023 NNAF Fund-a-Thon. We are excited about this year’s all-star constructor lineup and look forward to their puzzles.

We’re pleased to share that Grids for Kids has raised over $6,000 for youth charities so far, including The Trevor Project and No Kid Hungry. Written and edited by constructors who are also parents, it includes 17 standard crosswords with family-friendly themes, 2 cryptic puzzles, and 6 puzzles for younger solvers. Make a donation of at least $10 USD to receive the puzzles.


Since the last News & Notes, Nijah Morris (2/12), Kavin Pawittranon (2/12), Eric Rollfing (2/13), and Sean Ziebarth (2/15) made their NYT debuts. Congratulations to everyone!

On the February 10 episode, “Cut to Wabbit Season,” of the Crossnerds podcast with Brooke Husic and Rebecca Neipris, Brooke discusses the expansion of the Lil AVC X editing team, the importance of the constructor-editor relationship in cultivating a better solving experience, and (the lack of) gender diversity in The New York Times crossword.

Creating Crossword Puzzles” is a course taught by Brooke Husic and Natan Last in cooperation with Atlas Obscura. The next offering of the course begins March 28 with four weekly sessions over Zoom. The content is intended for very new constructors and those who are interested in how crosswords are made. Reduced price tickets are available. Puzzles constructed by previous classes are available for solving from Atlas Obscura: “Marvel, Extended Universe” and “Alpha and Omega.”

It’s been a while since we’ve mentioned Spread the Wordlist by Brooke Husic and Enrique Henestroza Anguiano, but now is a good time as the most recent quarterly update includes some structural changes to simplify the wordlist for constructors. It also surpassed 100,000 entries scored at 50+ for the first time. This is a fabulous free resource for new and veteran constructors alike, and we’re grateful to Brooke and Enrique for their continued work on it.

A Community of Crosswords” in the latest issue of Barnard Magazine comprises three short but delightful conversations with alums Rebecca Goldstein, Rebecca Gray, and Gustie Owens about their work in crosswords.

In the NYT Gameplay article “A Puzzle Maker Aims to Unite Black Communities in 25 Squares” by Deb Amlen, Juliana Pache speaks about her mission to inspire communities from across the Black diaspora to learn more about each other. Juliana publishes a free daily mini at Black Crossword, with plans to expand.

We may have mentioned it before, but it’s been a minute: Cross Your Heart by Laura Effinger-Dean is a free, open-source Android app for crossword solving, with lots of features such as downs-only mode, autocheck, pen/pencil toggle, scrambled puzzle support, and an undo button. Supports .puz files only.

The February issue of GAMES World of Puzzles features a Q&A with puzzlemaker Fred Piscop, who shares info about his new book, “The Healthy Brain Book of Word Puzzles.” The book includes Split Decisions (R) and plenty of other great puzzles.

We’ve added a few new sources to our daily list recently: Check out puzzles from Boston Magazine by Brendan Emmett Quigley, Barron’s, and The Hindu Cryptic. We’re also watching a handful of new-to-us college newspapers: Amherst, Rice, Columbia, Penn, and Michigan.

We’d like to remind everyone that the ability to download and print NYT variety and acrostic puzzles will be discontinued on February 26, and they’ll be removed from the archive beginning March 1—so solve, print, and save them while we still can.

We want to hear from you! If you have an idea about something you’d like to see us offer or have feedback about any of our features, please let us know.

Monday, February 13, 2023

Bewilderingly: Themeless by Will Nediger. .puz, .pdf, online.
Black Crossword: Mini by Juliana Pache. .pdf, online.
Crosshare Community: Daily Mini and Featured Puzzles.
Jeff’s Puzzles: Themeless 47 by Jeff Linder. .puz, .pdf
Monday Fills: Light Fare by Dave Murchie. .puz, .pdf, online.
Olio Grids: Grammar Lesson by Brian Callahan. .pdf, online.
YourPuzzleSource: Daily Puzzle (Midi) by Phil Fraas. .pdf, online.

Atlas Obscura: Be My AO Valentine by Brendan Emmett Quigley. .pdf, .puz, online.
Autostraddle: Autostraddle Mini — February 13, 2023 by Brooke Husic. .pdf, online.
Crossword Club: Daily Crossword: February 13, 2023 by Kate Chin Park. .pdf, online.
The Hub Crossword: ($) All I Want For Christmas Is You by Brendan Emmett Quigley. Patreon subscription.
Lil AVC X: ($) Pass the Gas Station by Sally Hoelscher. Subscribe at link.
Planet Crossword: Success Themeless by Zhouqin Burnikel. Online.

The Atlantic Mini: by Paolo Pasco. .pdf, online.
Crosswords with Friends: Movie Monday by Andrea Carla Michaels and Doug Peterson. App Store | Google Play
Crosswords with Friends: Midi Puzzle by Todd McClary. App Store | Google Play
Crosswords with Friends: Mini Puzzle by Caitlin Reid. App Store | Google Play
Daily Beast: For the Tenth Time… Mon. Feb 13, 2023 by Matt Gaffney. .pdf, online.
Daily POP Crosswords: by Janice Luttrell. App Store | Google Playonline.
Los Angeles Times: by Erik Agard. Online, pdf. Free Cruciverb account for .puz.
Los Angeles Times Mini: by Elizabeth Gorski. Online.
The Modern Crossword: Monday, February 13, 2023 by David Steinberg. Online, .pdf.
New York Magazine: I’m With the Band by Matt Gaffney. .pdf, online.
New York Sun: ($) by Holden Baker. Reissues from 2003.
New York Times: ($) by Eric Rollfing. Online, .pdf, app.
New York Times Mini: by Joel Fagliano. Online, app.
The New Yorker: The Crossword: Monday, February 13, 2023 by Brooke Husic. .pdf, online.
Newsday: See the Points by Doug Peterson. Online, .pdfbackup online.
The Telegraph: Cross Atlantic by James Brydon. Online.
Universal: Double Texts by Drew Schmenner. Online, pdf. .puz.
USA Today: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again by Brooke Husic. Online, .pdf, app.
Vox: by Patrick Blindauer. .pdf, online.
The Wall Street Journal: I’m Fine by Garrett Herzfeld. Online, .pdf. .puz.
Washington Post Daily Mini Meta: by Andrew White & Pete Muller. Online, .pdf.

A Cleverly-Titled Logic Puzzle Blog: Kevin’s Puzzles at Home Season 3, Episode 7: Fill Me In by Grant Fikes .pdf
Redhead64: PUZZLE #426: Section Six 9 .pdf.
Steve’s Cryptic Crosswords: Puzzle 307 by Steve Townsend. Online.

Financial Times: FT Crossword: Number 17,331 by Slormgorm. .pdf.
The Globe and Mail: The Daily Cryptic Crossword. .pdf, online.
The Guardian: Cryptic crossword No 28,992 by Vulcan. .pdf, online.
The Independent: Cryptic Crossword by Filbert. .pdf, online.

Other American-style crosswords:

Reviews and Discussion at Diary of a Crossword Fiend | Boatload Puzzles/AARP | Crosshare | CrosswordsBackwards | Cruciverbalista (en español) | Dictionaries6 | Easy Crossword | FreeDailyCrosswords | GameLab | Hard Crossword | r/crossword | Squares.io | YourPuzzleSource | XWord-Muggles Meta Calendar

Other Cryptic/Variety crosswords:

A Frame Games | cf.kmbweb.de Links Library | Harper’s ($) | Lovatts | Magpie ($) | Mokelfish Links Library | MyCrossword | NPL | Panda Magazine ($) | Private Eye | PuzzleCrypt archives | Puzzling StackExchange | r/crosswords | Split Decisions | Sydney Morning Herald ($) | The Telegraph | The Times (UK) ($), includes The Listener