Puzzle #50: This Year, No Children (Cryptic)

Holy cow, a cryptic!

It's the one-year anniversary of this blog! Thanks to everyone who's solved any of my puzzles along the way.

This week, to celebrate Half Baked's birthday, we're back in cryptic land. I feel like I learned a ton making this puzzle, and I hope at least some of that comes across in the clues.

A huge thanks to Steve, who has both easy and trickier cryptics on Square Pursuit, and k0rmad-- they both were invaluable in their help critiquing this puzzle, and it wouldn't be half as good without them. Any errors/mistakes are mine alone.

This puzzle has a hidden theme! It's meant to be solved without any knowledge of the theme, so feel free to ignore it. If you'd like to try to puzzle it out, the first hint is the title.

Hint #2:

(Theme explanation down below)

Best of luck in solving, and I'd love to hear your feedback! Constructing a cryptic is a lot of work, but very fun, and I appreciated all the feedback on my first.

.puz

PDF

Solution

Mmm, peppermint Oreos!

Theme explanation (spoilers)

Comments

Puzzle #7: Tetrominoes

Hi! Another themeless today, built around my love of tetrominoes. Please ignore the non-tetromino blocks in the grid. Those are simply tetrominoes that grabbed a few more blocks and refused to let go. Negotiations are ongoing. There are some fun crossword streams on Twitch you should check out. It's really fun to watch and solve with friends, and it's a great way to get better at solving, too. Here are some of my favorite streamers (their schedules may vary, of course): Aaron Paulsen Weekdays at 5pm Central Chris Piuma Daily at 10am Central Jac Weekdays at 3:30pm Central PDF Solution .puz Mmm, soda bread with cheddar and onion

Puzzle #42: Cryptic!

Hoo boy, here we go! If you don't know what a cryptic puzzle, I recommend watching the video and reading the explanation from the New Yorker . Things work a little differently in cryptics, but ultimately it's still about that same love of wordplay and clue-solving that we love about American-style crosswords. The New Yorker's new cryptic puzzle is a great place to start--here are a few more: Joeadultman's "Cryptic 101" puzzles, which each only use a certain cryptic device, and Steve Mossberg's Quiptic series , which can be solved in a "Helpers" version. A huge thanks to Steve and k0rmad, who went above and beyond in helping me create my first cryptic puzzle--a very intensive and time-consuming feedback process which I'm super grateful for! I've already rambled on too much. Go give the puzzle a try! Mmm, blueberry scone .puz PDF Solution

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