Puzzle Notes

Hi friends: 

Byron Walden is up this week with an unusually easy puzzle, for him - 2/5 in difficulty. It's called "Stock Options."

I've had a couple conversations with friends/puzzle people recently about easy puzzles, which often get less respect than their difficult counterparts. My take is that really superb easy puzzles are actually more challenging to construct, since fresh ideas are rare and writing brilliant clues that are nevertheless not too hard requires serious finesse. Anyway, enjoy this one.

Meanwhile, we'll remind you again, but if you're in New York (or can be) on August 8th, the eighth annual Lollapuzzoola xword tournament will be happning that day. It's casual with a fun vibe, the puzzles are outstanding, and the AVCX will be well-represented amongst both volunteers and solvers. Find out more here!

Yrs,

Ben and the AVCX crew [avxwords.com, @AVCXWord]