Rake it in
Broke a rule or two for this autumnal celebration... but for the best season of the year, I promise it's worth it!
Posts
Breaking the seal
I was thinking about 17-down after cluing it this week and reflecting on how little I ever learned about drawing throughout my entire time in school. Every now and then I try to draw a person or a tree (either as a doodle or, god forbid, in order to show someone something) and I honestly think that the product is usually indistinguishable from what I would have produced in kindergarten — maybe even worse, because I had more imagination back then. The amazing thing is, I have a whole folder full of papers I scratched on in, like, first grade, somewhere in my room. Why do we bother keeping this stuff? Don't get me wrong — I'm all for fostering creativity in schools. But students are allowed to give up on things like instrumental music, theater and other hands-on pursuits as early as fifth and sixth grade. Why did Mrs. Olsen have to keep scolding me with "Buzz, buzz, buzz" as I somehow drew a diagonal line on the whiteboard, in her eyes, the "wrong way" year a...
Now I'm just falling apart
Before we get to today's puzzle, I have another one to share – in the newspaper! I'm making my debut in the Universal Crossword , which is edited by David Steinberg and Amanda Rafkin and syndicated in places like the Boston Globe, Seattle Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and, my personal favorite, the Merriam-Webster website (behind a... YouTube ad? sure). It's especially exciting to be part of Universal's pride month series, and to have slipped in entries re. my morning drink of choice, Philip Glass, Lady Gaga, public transit, and of course the theme itself, which you might get a kick out of. You can solve it here or download the Across Lite file or PDF instead. Back to this blog: an extra treat for you! I've been wanting to mess with size a bit more, so today we're playing with a midi-ish 10x15 with cluing inspired by some delightful 7xwords I've been doing recently. Hope you enjoy!