Past Self is writing this before heading out on a vacation to Yellowstone. Hopefully Future Self will have arrived back in NYC on 7/13 as scheduled, and will be feeling chill and rested after a week of hiking and eating steak.
None of which is germane to you solving this puzzle, of course. Just wanted you all to know that I make themeless happen even when I’m on vacation. (Also not germane to this puzzle: Happy Bastille Day!)
Last time, I published a themeless that I’d made almost 2 years prior. This time, you’ll know from one of my seed entries that the puz was made quite a bit more recently. Hope you enjoy!
I made this puzzle way back in July 2019, so it’s one of my earliest solo attempts at a themeless. I think my inexperience shows in a few of the shorter entries, but when I looked through the archives I decided this puzzle was better than I thought it was, and decided to trot it out for you all! Mostly to introduce more people to 3D. (Check out Judith Leiber after you’re done solving for some fanciful — and fantastically expensive — examples.)
Here’s the latest themeless!
A general note on my process: I don’t have an editor or test solvers. If I charged for these puzzles, I would want both of those things. But I don’t, and therefore I make no promises about these puzzles being perfect.
If you want to point out an error politely, as happens from time to time, go for it; I do read the comments, and yours will likely help me do better next time. I probably won’t go back in and fix the puzzle, since keeping up this site is something I do on top of a full-time job and making puzzles and trivia for (not a lot of) money. So going back and making things perfect when I could be using that time to make a new puzzle for the site, doing paid work, or hell, watching Netflix, is not something I’m prioritizing right now.
If you want to snark, don’t. At least, don’t do it in the comments. I’ll delete your comment and I won’t change my behavior. Kisses!
One puzzle with a nod to the holiday is…one puzzle with a nod to the holiday. Doing it again, as I am today, makes it a tradition, I suspect. Gong xi fa cai, everybody! Note: In my family it is traditional to receive 4-Down until you are married. Then you have to start giving 4-Down to your unmarried relatives. This can get very expensive!
I thought about putting an image with this post for once, but it’d be a spoiler. 14A was one of my seeds; can you guess what the other was?
I suppose I’ve made you wait long enough for the first puzzle of 2021. Here she is! I promise I’m not as much of a lush as this grid makes it seem like I am.
Reading the book referenced in the clue for 35A is what inspired this themeless. Hope you’re inspired to look up the person it’s about and have a bit more fabulous day as a result!
Year 1 of this blog is coming to a close soon! I’m calling myself out: the final puzzle of the year really should be a big-ass 21x themeless, shouldn’t it?
In the meantime, enjoy this standard-issue 70-word 15x, whose seeds were 21A (no, I haven’t seen the new show) and 38A (no, I have never spent the cash to have it done).
I made this puzzle back in May and was experimenting with the popular format of stair-stacked 11s through the middle of the puzzle (although can I really call it stair-stacked if I turned the puzzle 90 degrees?).
Hope you enjoy it and that you had fun with my Boswords puzzle on Monday, if you are participating in the themeless tournament.
