AVCX Cryptic 2/19/26 by Trip Payne, edited by Nate Cardin

Difficulty ● ● ◐ ○ ○
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Puzzle Notes

Hi all,

We're back with our latest cryptic, this time from legend/icon Trip Payne. From the man himself:

Trip Payne has been a crossword constructor and editor for over 40 years. He is currently senior editor for the Zynga app Crosswords With Friends. He enjoys immersive theater, Eurovision, British game shows, and writing short blurbs about himself.

Finally, echoing our call from yesterday's email: Many of you who solve AVCX puzzles on the Crosswordr platform will have seen that they recently announced they're wind down operations in the coming months. In brief, that means that AVCX will (temporarily) no longer be affiliated with any web-based solving platform as of April or so. We are actively working to find a new platform, however; if you know of or use any alternatives that you like, and might want to suggest that alternative to us, please feel free to reach out at editor@avxwords.com. Similarly, we would love to know what features you tend to prefer in a web-based solving platform, whether it's solving bells and whistles or features like leader boards. Your feedback will go a long way toward helping us choose the best possible platform going forward! Our collective thanks in the meantime.

Enjoy!
Nate + the AVCX Cryptics team
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