themeless no. 23

IT'S MY JORDAN PUZZLE, BAYBEEEEEEE!! JUMPMAN JUMPMAN JUMPMAN

have you ever seen the fake 30 for 30 on the space jam game? watch it and then get back to me. i'll wait.

common sense would dictate that i not post this puzzle—three puzzles in one month exists in perfect opposition to both "absence makes the heart grow fonder" and "you can't be missed if you never go away". only here's the thing: i've done the go away thing! i was miserable! and since this is my blog, where i make the rules, and everything is about me, you have to suffer through me posting another crossword. 

legend has it that this skeleton may have started out as a natan last puzzle? but i came across it as a paolo pasco puzzle, at which point i was like 'wow, what an incredible grid! i should ruin it!' and here we are. 

• this puzzle was test-solved by...brooke! have you bought her book yet?
• these puzzl3s fund abortion is here! please donate within your means/if you can.

[ FULLSCREEN | JPZ | PUZ | PDF ] 

themeless no. 22

two puzzles in two weeks? who do i think i am?! myself, from march 2022? 

no poster because clearly the keebler elves who run my photoshop have been busy! 

this grid had been sitting unclued on my computer for months after getting rejected in late 2022 and my subsequently...forgetting about it. you may notice a spanner that has appeared in an earlier puzzle, to which i say: mind your business! also, it's clued better this time, so leave me alone! [ed note: there is actually another earlier-puzzle dupe here that is not clued better. i contain multitudes!] there's not much else to say here— i hope it's fun?!

alex test solved this one, too. if you haven't done his puzzle with brooke yet, let me upgrade u.

shortest notes ever? maybe! please let me know how you like the new look; i loved the old header but i was craving more color. mission: ✅

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themeless no. 21

i had a very long blog post written here, reflecting on a lot of things, including the unique loneliness that really hits you at like 2:30 am in mid-february when it's 11 degrees outside and nothing seems to be going quite the way you hoped. then i realized that the post read as...well, sad? and extremely self-pitying. and not actually representative of how i really feel—which is still kind of amazed that i get to spend any amount of my time doing this, which brings me such happiness! i also have so many of you to belatedly thank—a bunch of people i like/love/adore/admire/respect, etc. signed my birthday card in january and it is something i truly cherish and makes me feel very special. so thank you, to everyone, for the incalculable difference you all make in my life.

this post is not turning out much shorter. i'm wrapping it up, i promise!

i've decided, in my newly acquired age, that i think life is about like, maybe three things:

1. wearing sunscreen
2. finding/creating/multiplying joy
3. a little bit of mischief  

i can promise you will always find at least 2 of these things in my puzzles. i can't make you wear spf, but so help me god if you don't i'll make sure you never hear the end of it.

okay i'm done I'M DONE. there's a new puzzle after the jump. i am not going to fixate on the fact that it's march, i am simply here to offer it to you and ask that you be kind. alex tested it, and there's a new tag on the crosswordnexus blog for all my favorite puzzles, so you should bookmark that. xoxoxoxo

[FULLSCREEN | JPZ | PUZ | PDF]