CROSSWORD #876: Themless Monday

THEMELESS MONDAY: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF] 
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Chant with me: “I’m #33! I’m #33!” Hey! That’s Larry Bird’s number. So just call me the Bird of Crosswords. Anyway, what does “I’m 33” mean? No, it’s not my age, it’s where I placed at Lollapuzzoola. Not too shabby considering I don’t train and by my count a good 30 or so of the top solvers didn’t compete. But who cares. 33 with a bullet. Out of 230, so that’s what top 15%? I’ll take it. And by the way, you should absolutely sign up for the Lollapuzzoola play at home edition if you haven’t already. Some really quality stuff in there. Especially Pat Blindauer’s. A classic example of a not-too-hard puzzle with a spot-on gimmick that is just sneaky enough to slow down speed solvers. A joy to solve.

And who won it all? Phenom Erik Agard, of course. Look at his modesty on display up above, brushing off the tounament win compliments. Anyway, it’s no surprise he took it, cuz Erik’s crazy fast and good. And it was fantastic to see him finally win one after being demolished in last year’s Lolla finals. And as tournament director Brian Cimmet points out, a lot of previous winners have gone on to make puzzles for the event. For example, last year’s winner Francis Heaney made puzzle #5 in this year’s package. So anyway, Erik’s are some of the more creative ones out there. So here’s hoping.

Good to see all of you again this weekend. And if you said hey to me for the first time, it is always nice to meet the fans.

Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.