no. 6: what's new with you?

 

no funny movie poster today— this girl's got a theme!

i hand-scraped the 2021 tweets from @nyt_first_said, an account/bot that keeps tabs on when the nyt publishes a word for the first time, and scattered some of my favorites in this very puzzle. i would have liked to use some more of them as the other fill, but couldn't swing it. which is fine, because i still have words like GOOFAZOID, BASTARDESS, and MOMCORE to trot out at a later date. (look at this cool visualization of the process behind the twitter feed!)

i hadn't planned to put out another puzzle before the end of the year, but this feels like a good note to go out on: an unintended year in review. i did not see 'crossword constructing' being a thing i picked up this Q4, but here we are. i'm very grateful for all the new people who've graciously welcomed me into their orbit, and look forward to a 2022 where crossfire stops giving me bullshit fill like AMOEBOCYTE. cut it out!

thanks to rose for testing this one out for me!

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