My seed was 19A, which consumed quite a lot of my time back in the day. No, 48A was not a seed, although I’ve been wanting to use that entry for a while.

Tough as Nails Themeless #49 – Across Lite

I have, so to speak, A LOT ON ONE’S PLATE (15), so I don’t have much to say about this puzzle except: Enjoy!

Tough as Nails Themeless #48 – Across Lite

It’s not THAT common for me to put my seed at 1-Across; I do that only if the letter pattern makes me think it’d make sense to do that. It did here, so I did. A second seed sits at 61A.

Hope you enjoy!

Tough as Nails Themeless #47 – Across Lite

Shouldn’t be too hard for you to guess what my seed entry was. This one’s a bit heavy on the proper nouns; I’d apologize in advance, but I’m not sure I’m sorry?

Tough as Nails Themeless #46 – Across Lite

IDK when I made this grid…a while ago. But I waited until last night to clue it, so it’ll hopefully be nice and fresh for you. Enjoy!

Tough as Nails Themeless #45 – Across Lite

This might be a little less hard than usual? I’m not sure. I did construct this to submit around, not to put on the website, so I might have clued it a little easier. It’s been a few months and the reason I’m using it instead of making a grid just for y’all is because I have, so to speak, A LOT ON ONE’S PLATE (15).

I do think it’s got some cool entries and I hope you have fun solving it!

Tough as Nails Themeless #44 – Across Lite

A little update on my puzzling activities outside of the website:

I’m mostly not making a lot of standard American crosswords for publication at the moment. I make easy ones on a slow but regular basis for Erik at USA Today (note: USAT recently started offering only the current day’s puzzle free, so stay on top of it if you don’t want to buy a subscription!), I make some for Crosswords With Friends, and I have the occasional private client. I have a few submissions (some accepted, some waiting for an answer) in the hopper at NYT and LAT, but I’m not doing the work to keep a steady stream of submissions up to editors to get them out there, for the most part.

I am, however, spending an awful lot of time making cryptics and writing trivia! You can find my cryptics at The Browser (edited by Dan Feyer), and soon at The New Yorker (edited by Andy Kravis and Nick Henriquez). I write trivia for a couple of syndicates, so if you play virtual pub quiz, you might be answering questions I wrote. Want custom trivia for your event? I can do that!

In the meantime, here’s another themeless. Enjoy!

Tough as Nails Themeless #43 – Across Lite

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!)

Tough as Nails Themeless #42 – Across Lite

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!

Tough as Nails Themeless #41 – Across Lite

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.)

Tough as Nails Themeless #40 – Across Lite