Puzzle Twenty-Seven: Shades of Red (freestyle)

Memorial to 32-Down in Zwickau, Saxony

Another freestyle on the hard side. 68 words.  Average word length 5.5 letters. Thanks to Quiara V. of QVXwordz for test-solving. She's got a new themeless up today so go solve that one too. 

TW: communism.

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Puzzle Twenty-Six: Pieces of Writing (meta)

Page from a draft of Randall Jarrell's "The Woman at the Washington Zoo," ca. 1960,
from UNC-Greensboro Special Collections

New full-size contest meta to celebrate National Poetry Month, which I have a sort of funny relationship with because I'm a poet myself and like all other poets I secretly want the attention poetry receives during April to last all year round. 

I'd put this one at a Week 1 or 2 on the Gaffney Scale, with the caveat that if you're not a devoted reader of US poetry you will likely need to do a little web searching to get the final answer. But the puzzle will show you what to look for, and that info should lead you to the answer regardless of your poetry knowledge. 

The meta answer is TWO American poets. It doesn't matter what order they're entered in, but you do need to enter their first and last names. 

Submit answers by Tuesday, April 27 at 12 PM at the link below:

https://forms.gle/7CgX8S6BoqLvjGZn9

Two winners will receive LD stickers.

Thanks to Abide and Will Nediger for test-solving. Feel free to email with questions and comments.

And lastly, And if you enjoyed this poetry-themed crossword, there have been at least two others recently that I highly recommend:

"The Cruellest Month" by Chris Piuma

"Voices" by Brooke Husic

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Puzzle Twenty-Five: Change of Clothes

 

This was a transitional era for Jay-Z's personal style

No meta this week, just a themed puzzle on the easy side. Enjoy!

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Puzzle Twenty-Four: Vwllss #1

Ms. Whorls at work

 Vowelless mini today from new constructor Liz T. Whorls. Enjoy!

Puzzle Twenty-Three: Cool Down (meta)

 

in my pandemic rave cave

Before we get started, I constructed this week's Spyscape puzzle, "Semper Occultus," and it's a pretty fun one with a little twist at the end. Give it a solve!

Now to the matter at hand: it's my second Quarantine Birthday today. To celebrate, there's a new contest meta. The answer to this week's meta is a three-letter word.

Submit your answer by clicking HERE. 

Submissions are due by Tuesday, March 30, 2021 at 12:00 PM EST. 

Two winners – the first person to submit a correct answer and another person selected at random from the correct entries – will receive a Lexicon Devil sticker as well as the respect of their puzzling peers.  

If you have any issues submitting your answer, just put it in an email to lexicondevillive at outlook dot com with your name, preferred screen name / ID and email address and I'll add you in manually. 

Don't forget to sign up for the Lexicon Devil mailing list, where I distribute the metas by email before putting them on the site. If you have any issues signing up, just email lexicondevillive at outlook dot com with the subject line "subscribe."

If you're enjoying these puzzles, please consider making a small contribution via the tip jar: 

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Before the applet, some musical hints to today's puzzle:

Puzzle Twenty-Two: Forest Rings (meta)

Snail on park path, November 2020. Photo by me.

The answer to this week's meta is something living in the woods. 

Submit your answer by clicking HERE. 

Submissions are due by Tuesday, March 16, 2021 at 12:00 PM EST. 

Two winners – the first person to submit a correct answer and another person selected at random from the correct entries – will receive a Lexicon Devil sticker as well as the respect of their puzzling peers.  

If you have any issues submitting your answer, just put it in an email to lexicondevillive at outlook dot com with your name, preferred screen name / ID and email address and I'll add you in manually. 

Don't forget to sign up for the Lexicon Devil mailing list, where I distribute the metas by email before putting them on the site. If you have any issues signing up, just email lexicondevillive at outlook dot com with the subject line "subscribe."

If you're enjoying these puzzles – especially the metas, which are time-consuming to construct and oversee – please consider making a small contribution via the tip jar: 

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Leaderboard

Puzzle Twenty-One: Ay Yi Yi! (freestyle)

details, details *sigh*

The genesis of this puzzle lies in some very fun themelesses in recent months from other indie constructors created with the goal of using only one repeating black-square pattern in the grid:

Brooke Husic and Sid Sivakumar, "Puzzle 35 - Themeless #25"
Brooke Husic and Brian Thomas, "Puzzle #40: Themeless"
Matthew Stock, "Puzzle No. 28: Themeless"
Mollie Cowger, "Themeless 1"

I completed a version of this one a while back but back-burnered it after discovering that Roland Huget's March 7, 2020 Los Angeles Times Saturday themeless used the same pair of mini-theme entries before I had ever hit upon them. Upon reflection, I decided it was still a good puzzle and a cool-looking grid. Enjoy!

68 words / 41 blocks

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