Ryan Judge⁽'⁾s Crosswords

Hi! Spoilers below for my puzzle (NYT Friday, 2/2/24)! . . . . . . . . . . I'm so excited to have been published in the New York Times today! This puzzle was genuinely the first themeless I ever wrote, excluding this semi-themeless puzzle which I don't really count. So it's definitely a bit surprising that it got published, but it's a pleasant surprise. I'll go into some more details to expand upon what I said in the Wordplay article. As I mentioned there, my main seed was at 33A, which I had in my very short list called "themeless seeds????" in my "crossword ideas" note on the Notes app. I honestly don't remember how it made its way in there, but it may have had to do with this bit from Lemony Snicket in A Series of Unfortunate Events (it also appears in the book but I've watched the series much more recently than I read the books) (also, my original clue for 33A referenced that line, but it's definitely a niche reference). Anyw

Hi all and welcome back to the blog! I hope everyone's last couple months have gone well—I've been busy as usual. Happy Thanksgiving to anyone who celebrates. I've got a new themed puzzle! Hope you enjoy! .puz pdf   And here's a music rec as always:

Hi! Welcome back to the blog! The semester's been keeping me a bit busy but I've still found some time for constructing. Here's another themeless—hope you enjoy! .puz pdf And here's a music rec:

Greetings! I've returned with another themeless! This one should be on the harder side but there is a bit of varying difficulty in the clues. Hope you enjoy :) .puz pdf   And here's a music rec!

Welcome back! I had an absolutely amazing time last weekend at Lollapuzzoola, where I met so, so many people whose puzzles I love so, so much. I am so grateful that I had that experience—here's to many more Lollas!  Here's a themed puzzle! It should hopefully play on the easier side. Hope you enjoy! .puz pdf And here's a music rec on the way out:

Hi! Welcome to the first installment of my reviews, aka "Ryan judges crosswords!" I'll be taking a look at my favorites from the last month (since July 16th). Maybe I'll turn this into a monthly thing. Disclaimer : I do not solve crosswords from every major outlet so there will be some likely amazing puzzles that I seem to have skipped over; in reality I may have not solved that puzzle. This is also not an exhaustive list of all the outlets I solve from. I compiled this list of puzzles by scanning through puzzles from the last month that I solved, so some memories may have faded; in the future I could write notes about my favorite puzzles right after solving. Puzzles are separated by outlet. Outlets are ordered alphabetically. Puzzles are ordered chronologically within each outlet. My solving time is in parentheses after puzzle date and author. And lastly , a quick SPOILER ALERT for the following: The Atlantic 8/9; bewilderingly Puzzle #212; NYT 7/28, 8/2, 8/12