Puzzle Notes

Dear Friends:

Up this week is Paolo Pasco with a puzzle called "Bodies of Work." It's 2.5/5 difficulty, and 17x17. Guest constructor next week! And an all-new Inkubator next Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Best of Ink Well Xwords is now available! Many of you were solvers of Ink Well back when those puzzles ran in the Chicago Reader, Village Voice, Washington City Paper, and other fine alt-weeklies in the 2000s and early 2010s. A collection of the hand-picked best of those puzzles can now be revisited (or enjoyed anew, if you missed them the first time around). There's two bundles of 24 puzzles, each for $10. We edited them to update exquisitely dated references to, e.g., William and Kate's wedding, or the World Cup in South Africa. But there's still some good nostalgic flavor in there. Moreover, if you'll recall, some of the themes were ambitious to say the least; the 48 puzzles we picked are the ones that landed most elegantly, in the opinion of the testers. Get 'em here

(Those of you who backed Inkubator on Kickstarter have already received these bundles free. Also, Alex Briñas created a fabulous cover page for the collection, which is attached here; you should hire her for your graphic design needs.)

Be well,

Ben and the AVCX crew

avxwords.com // @avcxword