Puzzle Ninety-Seven: Any Day Now

Still putting finishing touches on the JPZ version of the variety cryptic I promised, so here's a themed puzzle I hope you enjoy. .puz / PDF

As I approach the 100th puzzle here, and the blog's fifth anniversary (which I think is in August or September; hopefully I haven't missed it), I keep trying to think of ideas for a really cool meta puzzle of some sort and all I can think is that it will never be as good as Puzzle #100 on Paolo Pasco's blog Grids These Days, the mindbending "Remedial Chaos Theory," which you are required to attempt if you are reading this and haven't done so already. Paolo has constructed some other legendary metas, like his puzzle "The Butterfly Effect" for Matt Gaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest; his July 2023 Barbenheimer puzzle for AVCX, and the meta puzzle he printed one copy of and left on the giveaway table at ACPT 2023. I solved it from a photo taken by Stella Zawistowski, who retrieved it; you really may have to do some legwork to find that one, but it will be worth it.

And you might notice the PayPal donate button below (again). As discussed in more detail in my last post, I have some extra bills to pay at the moment. So if you've enjoyed the puzzles on the site and care to donate a small amount to support it, I'd be grateful.

 

Constructed by Richard D. Allen using PuzzleMe's crossword generator

Puzzle Ninety-Six: Snack Break

I've always been fond of this puzzle (I actually thought I'd published this puzzle a while back). No .puz file, but you can download and print a PDF through the PuzzleMe applet below.

A Trans Person Made Your Puzzle just launched. Get a set of puzzles from an all-star list of trans and nonbinary constructors, including Ada Nicolle and Francis Heaney, for a donation of $10 or more to a US charity that aids transgender people. 

Up shortly: some cryptic puzzles I've been toiling upon with the help of better clue-writers than I.

And you might notice the PayPal donate button below, which hasn't appeared on the site in.a couple of years. I kind of hate to ask for money given all the other people in the world who need it more, but due to illness and death in my family, I had to take about four months away from work earlier this year, and though I have savings, I didn't budget for that, and bills have piled up. The cost of operating the site is only about $150 a year, but it takes a lot of time to make these puzzles, imperfect as they may be, especially the meta puzzles, which I'd estimate take about 10 hours a month to construct, post and do followup for (giving nudges, writing up answers, emailing winners, etc), which is why they don't always show up on the last Thursday of the month like I mean them to. So if you've enjoyed the puzzles on the site and care to donate a small amount to support it, I'd be grateful.

 

Constructed by Richard D. Allen with the crossword puzzle creator from Amuse Labs