May 12, 2021 - "A Cure for Inertia" - Max Carpenter, edited by Ben Tausig

Difficulty ● ● ● ● ◐

Puzzle Notes

Dear Friends:

Guest puzzle from Max Carpenter this week, and it's a big one -- 22x22, and titled "A Cure for Inertia," at 4.5/5 difficulty.

Max is a film programmer, writer, and crossword constructor based in New York. He also tweets a little too much (@solexyoghurt), mostly about Basic Channel and Coil. Thrilled to have a puzzle from our friend Max!

I wanted to say a word of fond farewell to Nancy Salomon, who passed away just over a week ago. Nancy was my first mentor in crosswords, back in 2004. We emailed almost daily for about five months about what must have been a hundred different puzzle ideas. Her approval, when it came, was hard-won. And it meant everything to me. Others, too. It would be hard to overstate her generosity in mentoring the number of people she did. I once asked her why she gave so much of her time, and she replied in typically understated fashion that "it gives me a lot of pleasure to help shorten what, for me, was a rather long learning curve." She could be blunt, but she was a kind soul, and a remarkably good teacher. There are multiple generations of crossword puzzle construction that would not be what they are without Nancy Salomon, who will be missed.

Be well,

Ben and the AVCX crew

avxwords.com // @avcxword