May 13, 2025 - "It's a Small World After All" - Alex Rossell Hayes, edited by Brian Callahan

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Puzzle Notes

Dear friends:

We're excited to share another 2025 roster debut. This one's an 11x11 from Alex Rossell Hayes titled "It's a Small World After All." We're certain that this one will elicit an "I see what you did there" reaction after the solve.

Alex Rossell Hayes (he/him) has been constructing crosswords for his own enjoyment for a few years, but is just now being published for the first time. He currently lives in Erie, Pennsylvania with his partner, Flavia. Outside of crosswords, he's a political scientist. In his research, he studies the intersection of language, identity, and politics. And for his day job, he uses survey data to explore political attitudes, predict election results, and dig into the hard hitting questions like "how often do men really think about the Roman Empire?" and "has Gen Z truly canceled ankle socks?"

Alex says: "This was the puzzle that I submitted as my audition for Lil AVCX. I've had this idea for a long time, but putting it into a midi grid really helped it to come together. And then the Lil AVCX team helped me polish it into what you can play today (big thanks to my 21-Down)! I hope you enjoy it, and I hope solving doesn't make you 18-Across!"

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Headed to your inbox next week from Lil AVCX: roster member Alisya Reza's Lil AVCX debut.

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