Puzzle Notes

Dear subscribers:

The prolific Aimee Lucido returns this week with a medium-difficulty puzzle called "A Staggering Event" - coming correct with the quality and quantity, she is.

Meanwhile, the AVCX is deeply humbled in announcing that our constructors were well-represented at this year's Orca awards (http://www.crosswordfiend.com/blog/2013/02/24/the-2012-orca-awards-2/), the annual presentation of the best puzzles of the year at Crosswordfiend.com.

Constructor emeritus Matt Gaffney was nominated for best puzzle for both his "At the Present Time" and "Just My Type" - both are available through his beloved weekly meta contest at http://xwordcontest.com/ Matt was also the richly-deserving recipient of the Margaret Farrar Award for Constructor of the Year!

Constructor Matt Jones was nominated for puzzle of the year with his "Adjusted to Fit Your Screen," from his perpetually excellent Jonesin' feature. (http://www.jonesincrosswords.com). Matt was also nominated for best freestyle puzzle for "Stretch Those Quads"

AVCX regular Brendan Emmett Quigley won the award for best freestyle puzzle with a "Themeless Monday" puzzle from brendanemmettquigley.com. He also was nominated for best gimmick puzzle for "Starting Over." One of Brendan's AV Club puzzles, from December 5th, was among the top 25 ranked puzzles of the year, as was Caleb Madison's October 25th offering.

Finally, editor/AVCX supreme emperor Ben Tausig won Puzzle of the Year for his AV Club puzzle of March 28!

Congratulations to all of our fine authors.

-Ben and the AVCX crew [avxwords.com]