December 27, 2024 - Something Different (variety puzzle) - Max Carpenter, edited by Sid Sivakumar
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Puzzle Notes
Dear Friends:Today's AVCX+ is not a themeless -- instead, it's a variety crossword called a Something Different, by our very own Max Carpenter. Be warned: this puzzle is very challenging... we're calling it 5 out of 5 on the difficulty scale, but it's possible you might call it more than that!
For those who haven't seen one before, a Something Different puzzle is a regular-looking crossword puzzle whose answers are all made-up words and phrases. For instance, the answer to [Container-less fruit beverage] might be LOOSE JUICE, and the clue [What precedes a rhombus in the Greek shape alphabet] would yield the nonsense answer PIMBUS. Most versions of Something Different puzzles leave the three- and four-letter entries out of the make-believery, so that the solver has some foothold of normal answers to work from. This Something Different, though, is what Max calls 'pure': none of the answers, not even the shortest ones, would be considered legitimate if they appeared in a normal crossword puzzle. Good luck!
Max is one of our co-editors at AVCX+. He currently codes for work, and sometimes writes, programs film series, and stitches together DJ mixes -- here's one of those he just cooked up for folks into techno/house.
Max also has the following to share about his own early journey with AVCX as this year winds to a close:
Like many of you, I took to solving crosswords from a young age, and in high school I started solving the New York Times every day I could get my hands on a copy. (Many of you are likely reading this due to that very same first foray into puzzles.) This routine of solving was pleasurable enough, but I can't pretend it wasn't rooted in precocious show-offery.
At some point I was clued into the old A.V. Club's free online crossword, and after trying a few puzzles (I especially remember the first time I solved a Francis Heaney one), I noticed a few feelings that the Times puzzles had never engendered. For one, the cultural references were fresh -- the Times has really improved on that front since then -- but, more starkly, each constructor's voice was singular and cohesive; it felt like I was interacting with a real person while solving a given puzzle. The only Times puzzles that were, at that point, regularly firing me up were the occasional outré Thursdays, and the A.V. Club puzzles I first encountered seemed more sympathetic to that sort of far-fetched brain-twisting instinct.
The bush I'm beating around here is that AVCX in its earliest form is the sole reason I decided to try making puzzles. They made puzzles feel immediate, fresh, and, most significantly, unadulterated. The Shortz Era of crosswords has brought much greatness in the way of puzzle community, and its own version of relative freshness, and without it AVCX wouldn't be here today -- but aughts Times puzzles weren't very inspiring to me. They were impressive, sure, and polished, but not inspiring. AVCX inspired me.
Granted, this was partially about personal taste -- I won't try to convince you that the Mothers of Invention is a better band than the Beatles -- but it was also about cultivating an artfulness in puzzles that wilts when uniformly edited. When I think of the purest puzzle vibes, I think of Merl Reagle chuckling to himself while brute-forcing the most left-field pun. I think of Araucaria penning a devilish cryptic clue with a sly smile. My mind jumps to Lewis Carroll riddles with no answers, or to Tim & Eric-style nonsense wordplay: laughter that's cosmic, not quotidian.
AVCX isn't always that grand-scale, but its alt-weekly ethos provides a shelter for cultivating that sort of experimentation. That spirit alone makes AVCX the most important outlet in puzzles, to me at least. We will never be as streamlined as the Times, and that's kind of the point: this is a community effort. That's why our current subscription drive probably feels a bit like the email version of a public radio pledge drive. And, on that note, if you're actually still reading this: solvers like you are why we're still here, so if you have it in your holiday hearts to leave us a tip (or recommend subscriptions to friends or a group chat or your favorite internet community forum), it would go a hugely long way in helping us keep the lights on, serve up superb puzzles, and pay creators fairly while doing so.
Cheers,
the AVCX+ crew
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