Free Association 41
Happy Monday crossword fam! I know it’s only been three days, but ya’ll know I don’t keep any particular schedule. This is a slightly-harder-than-average-for-me Free Association puzzle and I hope you enjoy it.
Speaking of difficulty, I learned something this week that you may already know. Paolo Pasco reached out and said he solved one of my recent Free Association puzzles using a feature over at Crossword Nexus. They have a puzzle obfuscator page which gives you five different options for making puzzles harder. Upload a puz file, choose your option, and you’ll get a puz file back. These range from the normal (downs only) to the wacky (replacing about one-third of the clue words with ‘turtle’). Paolo solved my puzzle using the ‘clue sort’ option. In this mode, the across and down clues are each sorted by the alphabetical order of the corresponding entries. Hence, you have no way of knowing which clue corresponds to which spot in the puzzle. This is diabolical to me. Yet Paolo solved one of my Free Associations in 20 minutes in that mode. This blows my mind. Attempt this only if you consider yourself a top-notch solver and/or you have a padded wall you can beat your head against.
That’s it until next time. Take care of yourselves!
About The Author
Trent Evans
I'm a husband, father, psychologist, musician, and crossword constructor living in Catonsville, MD. My puzzles have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times and its syndicates, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Andrews McMeel Universal Syndicate, the American Values Club Crossword, Spyscape Crossword, The Crosswords Club, and crossword apps such as the Redstone Crossword Puzzle App on iOS and Google Play. All of that means I've been published in every newspaper in the United States and many others around the world. Here at Grid Therapy, I can show a bit more of myself than the major publishers can allow. I hope you enjoy your time here on the crossword couch! I'd love to hear from you if you have comments or suggestions. If you're interested in having a custom crossword puzzle created for your event or organization, email me at drtrent (at) gmail.com.
Trent, Trent!
First? I plan to HURT Paolo! What a DASTARDLY thing! 🙂 Okay, I got that off my chest.
I am loving this puzzle totally…you know how to make a 1 Down tasteful and fun. (Wait…I didn’t mean that the way it read!!!)
One nit, and that’s because I’m anal…but you couldn’t have clued 6 Down in the usual (albeit boring, I know) way? You know, the dup crossers.
All your long entries — actually all your entries — are lovely! Um…had you at all considered gerbils? They’re cute…or so I’ve heard.
Thank you so much! Your grid is the therapy I needed today!
Thank you Kelly! I didn’t catch what you’re pointing out, and neither did my test solver. Perhaps I will go and change it for those who haven’t yet solved. But then I wonder, “[16-across]?” Just kidding. I already changed it. Thanks for the heads up.