Puzzle Notes

Dear ones,

We have performed the calculations and observed the prognostications, and have selected this most auspicious day for the ascendant Rachel Fabi to enter your orbit. Mercury may be retrograde, but what's wrong with a little misdirection now and then? The Inkubator likes a challenge! This one tends to be very challenging at times, but also sensitive and artistic. So' "What's Your Sign?"

Rachel is a longtime solver, occasional blogger, and newish constructor of crossword puzzles. She is a professor of bioethics in Syracuse, New York, where she can often be found climbing on fake rocks and hiking around real ones. She's a Jeopardy! champ who enjoys bad puns, good trivia, and arguing about health policy and ethics on the internet. Rachel has recently joined the Inkubator as a test-solver, and we couldn't be more delighted to be publishing a puzzle from one of our team members. Find Rachel on Twitter at @faBioethics.

When you're done solving, check out Diary of a Crossword Fiend for a write-up and discussion, every Friday after an Inkubator puzzle is published. For general updates, follow us on twitter at @InkubatorXWords, and visit our website. Thanks to all of our subscribers for your continuing support, feedback, and kindness!

Coming up next, in just one week, the Inkubator has in store for you a special bonus: our first meta contest puzzle, created by the ever-so-clever Anna-Marie Ruoff.

Until then, may peace guide the planet, and may love steer the stars!
Tracy and Laura