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