xwordswithbabka

Hello! I hope you are well. It's March? (this statement has not been verified) I'm excited about this puzzle, it is my first asymmetrical puzzle! It was very hard to make, and I don't know how people do this all the time. But I had this idea for a semi-theme, inspired by a random comment from a recent Crossweird stream. It wouldn't work with standard symmetry, so here we are! I think in my mind a "semi-themeless" is a puzzle with three theme entries and no revealer? But also the title is sort of a cryptic hint to the semi-theme. Maybe I should accept that it's themed after all. I don't know! I think this puzzle might be a bit harder than other ones I've done. Norah Sharpe was kind enough to test solve. I hope you enjoy! [ .puz ] [ Direct Crosshare link ]

Hello! Thanks for all the feedback on my puzzles so far. Hopefully today's intro will be short, I am writing it in advance because this weekend I will be on vacation with my spouse celebrating our anniversary! I really like to put musical references in all the puzzles I've made so far. I think that's why I was excited to make the puzzle today. It is called "Karaoke" and the theme answers are all the names of songs. (Not all of them are songs I like, they just fit for the theme!) This was a hard one to make, and needed to be a Sunday-sized grid to fit all the theme answers. I haven't figured out how to make a Sunday grid without having a little clumsy fill in there. But I think (I hope) it will be worth it. This is a format that I will definitely want to try again (if I can come with something). I think this is a really fun one and I hope you enjoy! Oh, and there's a meta also! Sort of. I mean I don't know if it qualifies, but it's there anyway.

Hello! I hope you're having a good day. I had fun at Boswords Winter Wondersolve, and was feeling very good until the last puzzle where I made a very dumb mistake. But it's okay! I still had a good time, and will just need to keep practicing. I also should acknowledge my silent partner in all this (see picture above). Today's puzzle came from finding a 15-letter phrase that I was surprised to see hadn't appeared in a puzzle before. I never know how to feel when coming across these, because surely someone has used it??? Crosswords have been around for over 100 years. These things get published every day. If you or someone you know has used this theme before, I apologize!! In any case I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to Kate Chin Park for test solving!! [ .puz ] [ Direct Crosshare link ]

Hello! Babka and Paprika, pictured above, usually don't sit so close to each other, so this is a big step for them! They're still not exactly friends but I'm hoping they will be able to tolerate each other a little more and maybe not fight so much and/or destroy everything. This week's puzzle has maybe my favorite clue I've ever written? I hope you enjoy it! Norah gave me some guidance on it and it was test solved by cl3ver. Thanks everyone! [ .puz ][ Direct Crosshare link ]

Happy new year! It is January somehow? Sometimes the idea of the new year doesn't excite me, but in this case I am happy about the idea of spending the new year making crosswords, solving puzzles, meeting new people and hanging out with Babka. Today's crossword is about the inexorable march of time! Unfortunately, I am one of those people for whom the 90s will always be twenty years ago, despite how that's not the case. So to celebrate the new year, and to measure the ever-growing distance between me and what I remember, I wanted to make a puzzle about things from ten years ago - 2013, when I was [age redacted], Obama was president, and "Breaking Bad" aired its final season. Other things happened! I picked out a few of these things, and there were so many that it ended up being a 21x21 grid. I had to leave some out in order to make everything work. I'm not sure if the puzzle is successful - the theme is just "these things are ten years old." And

Happy Holidays! This will be the last post of 2022, and I just want to say how incredibly grateful I am if you have visited this blog or solved a puzzle. I am still working on "trying to be a good crossword constructor" and your feedback and solving is so helpful, and furthermore I am very glad to have kept up with something for so long! It is impossible (for me) without community, so once again: THANK YOU Today's puzzle is themed around Christmas. But I do not celebrate Christmas! I used to work retail and the day after Thanksgiving was when the Christmas music would come on. Having heard the same songs over and over for a month straight, I started making up different lyrics to make the songs more secular. So the theme today is what I actually sing in my head in order to make these songs not about Christmas. I understand this means you cannot actually solve this unless you are actively in my brain. So sorry!! And yet here it is!! Thanks Norah for the test solve! Let