THEMELESS MONDAY: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF]
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Another Themeless Monday for all you mad solvers out there. Dig in.
Quick reminder that the December drive is still going. Big picture is this site remains free and you should be doing these puzzles. If you’ve been enjoying the puzzles for the back half of the year and can afford a little bit for the tip jar, it does help keep this thing chugging along. This isn’t an obligation, only if you’ve got some money burning a hole in your pocket. All the usual ways are accepted: Venmo (@TheBEQ), PayPal, or get in touch. All who can give will get two bonus Sunday-sized thank you puzzles. And one randomly selected winner will get a copy of one of my books. Long form appeal here. Thanks to all who can support.
Looking for puzzly holiday gift ideas? Click: here.
Looking for more puzzles? The Hub Crossword (Sunday puzzles by me and Joon Pahk) and Marching Bands year eight has begun. So if that To Do list needs even more puzzles, you know what to do.
Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
Ooh! The PLEDGE clue is brilliant!
Especially the first time it was published elsewhere!
(No other clue for PLEDGE mentioning “a rush” since 1940s, per the industry database.)
Someone who Shortz mocks for being very low-talent and lacking creativity, keeps doing his bidding.
Flying monkeys tend to do that, tho, since they’re desperate to have someone they see as superior validate them, usually through kissing butt, since, as Shortz himself has said about BEQ, is lacking mightily in the talent department…
Noticed BEQ hasn’t had anything in the Puzzle Mania sections lately.
Falling out of favor?
Guess you need to kiss more Shortz!
You gotta prove to Will how much you “want” him…
My fave “Shortz story” about BEQ is Shortz calling him a “hopeless drunk,” relaying a story of how he threw a TV out of the window of the high-rise Stamford Marriott hotel in a drunken fit, and that, every time BEQ came to Shortz’s he’d “clean out all his beer supply.” I even witnessed Shortz mocking and laughing about all of the above, to friends who do and don’t even know BEQ. Sad that BEQ keeps worshiping Shortz despite all his private trash talk about him…
Wonderful puzzle! 6D sounds incredibly delicious. Thank you, Brendan!
Happy holidays, BEQ! There’s a nice mention of you in the current New Yorker article, Arrangements.