"Let Me Finish" (themeless) - Ryan McCarty and Brooke Husic, edited by Ada Nicolle
Difficulty ● ● ● ● ○
Puzzle Notes
Dear Friends:Happy new year from the AVCX+ squad! Our first puzzle of 2023 is a 70-word themeless titled "Let Me Finish", by the dynamic duo of Ryan McCarty and Brooke Husic. It's a challenging one -- Ryan and Brooke call this "sweet, salty, and a bit spicy." There's so much here to love, and we hope you enjoy the solve.
Ryan McCarty (he/him) has written dozens of crossword puzzles for various publications including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and AVCX. He runs an indie blog McGrids, where he posts mostly themeless puzzles of the fairly-to-very difficult variety. When not making crosswords, Ryan works in federal consulting, sings as a baritone in several vocal ensembles, and composes choral music. Brooke Husic (she/her) contributes crossword puzzles to the New Yorker, the USA Today, Autostraddle, and other publications. She also self-publishes a free, difficult themeless puzzle on the 27th of every month on her blog. Brooke is on the editing teams at Lil AVC X, Inkubator Crosswords, and These Puzzles Fund Abortion, whose third puzzle pack you can look forward to in March.
And a bit of fantastic news to share: Kim Vu is the newest addition to the AVCX+ editing crew! Among other accolades, Kim has the distinction of "hitting for the cycle" here at AVCX (i.e., he's published one puzzle with each of the five AVCX features). We're thrilled to have him on the team as an editor.
'Til soon (and stay warm in the meantime),
the AVCX+ crew
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