Puzzle Eighty-Nine: Well Would You Look at the Time (themeless)

 

I used to collect watches and still have a drawerful of Casios. These are the classic Casio AE 1200, probably the best, and best-looking, watch you can buy for around $20. Photo from the estimable watch blog The Time Bum.

Hey, it's another themeless. 68 words.

The Super Secret Meta Contest continues.

.puz / PDF

Created by Richard D. Allen using crossword creator by Amuse Labs

Puzzle Eighty-Seven: List of Peasant Revolts (themeless)

 

New themeless with an unexpectedly literary bent. 

.puz / PDF

I have a new collection of 10 themelesses with easier clues on the Redstone Crosswords app, with another one on the way. Search for "Richard Allen" on the app to locate.

Look for a Universal puzzle from me in August. 

I'm working on a meta for next week with a multimedia component. I'm excited to see how it works out. Stay tuned. 

Puzzle Twenty-Seven: Shades of Red (freestyle)

Memorial to 32-Down in Zwickau, Saxony

Another freestyle on the hard side. 68 words.  Average word length 5.5 letters. Thanks to Quiara V. of QVXwordz for test-solving. She's got a new themeless up today so go solve that one too. 

TW: communism.

PUZ / PDF

Puzzle Twenty-One: Ay Yi Yi! (freestyle)

details, details *sigh*

The genesis of this puzzle lies in some very fun themelesses in recent months from other indie constructors created with the goal of using only one repeating black-square pattern in the grid:

Brooke Husic and Sid Sivakumar, "Puzzle 35 - Themeless #25"
Brooke Husic and Brian Thomas, "Puzzle #40: Themeless"
Matthew Stock, "Puzzle No. 28: Themeless"
Mollie Cowger, "Themeless 1"

I completed a version of this one a while back but back-burnered it after discovering that Roland Huget's March 7, 2020 Los Angeles Times Saturday themeless used the same pair of mini-theme entries before I had ever hit upon them. Upon reflection, I decided it was still a good puzzle and a cool-looking grid. Enjoy!

68 words / 41 blocks

PUZ / PDF

Puzzle Eleven: Success at any Price (freestyle)

Freestyle with diagonal symmetry. 68 words. Saturday difficulty, if not harder. 

When you're done, this puzzle contains something that is more of a small Easter egg than a meta. You can email me at lexicondevillive at outlook dot com if you find it.

If you like this one, Steve Mossberg published a diagonal themeless of similar difficulty last night on his blog Square Pursuit. And the Diagonal Master, Brooke Husic, dropped a non-diagonal scorcher this week on her own blog, following up on a great literary diagonal midi in October and a super-tough diagonal themeless in September. Brooke also teamed up with Matthew Stock for a tough diagonal themeless on Brian Thomas's Puzzles That Need a Home recently.

Enjoy! 

PUZ / PDF