New Shapes

 

(Edit: I've had a request for a full screen link to this puzzle. I will provide these from now on, but since Crossword Nexus doesn't save any info, I can't retroactively provide a link for this one. Try clicking on the "file" tab and downloading the .ipuz file, then opening it in Crossword Nexus Solver.)

Happy September! I've been working on versions of this puzzle for at least five years at this point; during the pandemic I gave myself an awful screen headache trying to design a grid with sections of black squares and fill that repeated themselves in a golden spiral-style pattern, which resulted in perhaps the worst fill I've ever written. I also tried making a golden-rectangle-themed midi a year or so after that, but that was incredibly boring ("hey look at what the dimensions of this rectangle kind of are if you squint"). So here's a bit of a compromise in ambition with some fun grid-art elements that's (hopefully) actually worthwhile to solve!

Also, I should say I'm not a *real* 43-Across fan, I just scoured my memory for relevant theme phrases and the circled letters and 43-Across ended up fitting perfectly. And then I was annoyed at myself for not having written this puzzle two years ago when it would have been more relevant. Oh well. I did go through her entire discography for good puzzle titles; I was between New Shapes and Constant Repeat but let me know if there's a better title candidate out there.

One last thing: I finally finished moving all my archive puzzles over, which took a month longer than it took me to grow a barely visible mustache, so please check out the archive! I got rid of a few early misses but other than that everything should be there. I also updated the old Election Tampering site! The Crossword Nexus custom colours really add to it I think.

Also, 70-Across should say "31-Across" not "33-Across" ://

Short Circuit

Hello and welcome to Cruciverbology 2 Electric Boogaloo! I've spent the past couple of weeks slowly moving blog posts over from the old Wix site to the new Blogger site, which I am obviously not finished with, but I figured it was time for a new blog puzzle anyway. When you're done with this one, check out the archive-- I've updated two years' worth of broken embed links (rip Crosswordr) and also some clues in the Mini Tic Tac Toe puzzles for distribution at the Boswords summer tournament!

This puzzle was based on an idea that's sat in my ideas spreadsheet since second year, when I had to take a hardware class and use a ton of Logisim Evolution (see picture). The theme is pretty cool I think (and could serve as inspiration for my next variety puzzle!), but I'm extra proud of the clues. Ingrid really fills so much better than Crossfire and I simply have to up my clue game to do this fill justice.

Or solve on this PDF with some bad illustrations. Use the embedded puzzle above for solutions.

Edit: Thanks to juxtaquoize on crosscord for catching an error in the revealer :)

Clanker Free Zone (midi) + updates

 

Hello again! Now that it's summer (well, it's been summer for a month and a half...) I have a few ideas for new blog puzzles that I'm starting to work on, but first here's a quick, hopefully fun midi.

I recently opened PuzzleMe for the first time in a while to generate a link for a custom commissioned puzzle, and I discovered two things: one, they don't let you upload puzzles on their free account anymore, and two, they've gone full AI agent. I noticed this a few months too late for the drama, but the crossword blog world is abandoning PuzzleMe in droves, and good riddance. I'll be switching to Crossword Nexus's embed software, so here's a ~protest midi~ to test out the UI (and for me to check if I need to paste a link above the embedding like I used to with PuzzleMe). I originally wrote this for a tech ethics magazine at my university, but unfortunately the magazine leadership seems to have dissolved, so now you all get to have it with revamped fill and clues!

Enough talking, here's the puzzle, with some more general site updates below.

More general site updates:

I host this site on Wix. I know, what kind of programmer am I? Well, not a very good one when I started this blog, so I outsourced all the programming. Anyway, Wix has been descending into AI slop too over the last couple years, so I'm realizing I should start hosting Cruciverbology on Google Sites or Blogger or something-- let me know of any platforms that don't try to AI-generate blog post titles for you, and maybe I'll try to make the switch this summer. (If you're reading this, I have successfully moved my site to Blogger! Yay.)

Speaking of making switches, hi, I'm Fabian now, I use he/him pronouns, and my email address is almost the same but with an f instead of an e. Not much else to say about that except please let me know if my old name shows up in email campaigns because Wix's labyrinthine blog software makes you change it multiple times in multiple places and I'm not sure I've found them all.

Finally, I'm formalizing my custom commissions process! (And upping my rate a bit since multiple people have told me I'm undercharging.) You can find more info about that in the new "Custom Puzzles" tab.

More updates soon, for real, I promise!

Interval Train-ing

It's been forever! Summer courses ended in mid-August, and then I had exactly a week before the next courses started, which I spent a long way away from my laptop. So this is my first break in a while where I get to make some puzzles! Here is a variety puzzle about trains, which was in fact written on a train (the Via Rail/Amtrak Maple Leaf).

I've made a few variety-puzzle-ish grids for this blog before, but this is the first one conceived as a variety puzzle from the start! Its connection to the theme of this blog is a little dubious, but I guess trains fall under engineering, which is of course the E in STEM. (Also, what high school math student hasn't had to calculate whether two trains will crash or not?)

Happy solving, and hopefully I'll be able to write and publish more puzzles in 2026!

PDF (solution included)

The Amazing Spiders Man (feat. Lila and Quiara)

 

Sorry for the long hiatus, it's been a busy summer. But since Boswords' summer in-person tournament is coming up, and I will be there, I thought it would be a good time to run my first collab for the blog! It's been in the works for a while, so I'm very excited to finally publish it :)

This puzzle was constructed with Lila Goldenberg and Quiara Vasquez, and we will have paper copies at the Boswords tournament!