Lance is a pharmacist who moved to Mint Hill, NC, so his family could be closer to nature, hiking, and adventure. He helps his amazing wife homeschool his three kids. The older kids will be learning crossword solving/constructing, so hopefully, it will be a race to see which of us will appear next!
C | U | R | E | A | L | L | S | I | S | P | O | S | E | |
O | P | E | N | S | E | A | T | F | L | I | P | O | N | |
S | T | A | Y | S | A | N | E | S | I | N | E | A | D | |
M | O | M | A | D | A | M | S | D | O | R | K | S | ||
O | P | S | F | B | I | W | H | I | T | E | ||||
M | I | A | L | I | O | N | T | R | U | |||||
I | S | T | I | L | L | D | O | N | T | G | E | T | I | T |
T | H | R | E | E | L | E | G | G | E | D | R | A | C | E |
C | O | U | N | T | O | N | E | S | L | O | S | S | E | S |
H | O | E | M | O | O | S | C | O | T | |||||
F | L | I | N | T | B | A | R | M | E | L | ||||
C | R | A | I | G | E | E | L | S | M | E | N | U | ||
H | E | L | L | N | O | G | U | I | D | E | D | O | G | |
E | A | S | T | O | N | O | N | N | O | T | I | C | E | |
F | R | E | S | N | O | S | T | O | M | A | C | H | S |
Saturdays are my favorite puzzle of the week to solve, so I'm ecstatic to debut with a themeless (sharing the weekend with my favorite constructor, Robyn Weintraub, is icing on the cake)!
I started constructing crossword puzzles as part of a family challenge where each member set an improbable goal with the hope that we could all learn to embrace failure and love being really, really bad at something new. I've loved word puzzles since elementary school when I would "solve" the crossword by asking my dad nearly every clue... so learning to make the puzzles seemed like a fun challenge, and getting one in the NYT seemed like a near impossibility.
This puzzle started with trying to build a central triple stack grid with long downs running through them and chunky corners. I didn't have a seed entry. Instead, I just focused on trying to work in lively answers that would leave me with fun cluing angles and limiting gluey bits as much as possible.
My favorite puzzle clues are the echoed "Pot holder" clues, and my last-minute addition clue for HOTEL CASINO.
Bio: Lance is a pharmacist who recently moved to Mint Hill, NC, so his family could be closer to nature, hiking, and adventure. He helps his amazing wife homeschool his 11, 8, and 5-year-old kids. The older kids will be learning crossword solving/constructing this school year, so hopefully, it will be a race to see which of us will appear next!