Thrilled to wrap up July with a guest themeless by Scott Earl! Scott's first New York Times crossword was published in January (also a themeless), and still is one of my most enjoyable/memorable debuts of this calendar year. I was so excited to see his name pop into my inbox last week, and the puzzle he sent did not disappoint.
Enjoy!
-Matthew
From Scott: "Hey everyone! I’m very excited to have a puzzle featured by Happy Little Puzzles. This site has become one of my regular stops for a mid-day mood booster. I appreciate the care that Matthew puts into this site and all of the wonderful touches he adds to these puzzles (thanks Matthew!). I’ve been primarily working on freestyle grids these days, and with a limited demand for these from mainstream puzzle outlets, I have really enjoyed seeing new indie sites that embrace more modern clues and grids come to life.
As for this puzzle, the seed was 19-Across, an absolutely brilliant and multi-talented artist. Crossing that with 6-Down led to finding a few other across entries that I liked, giving this grid its shape. I also was happy to include 50-Across, whose organization you can learn more about here. I hope you all enjoy this puzzle & I hope to share more grids from my completed folder soon!
Finally, if you’d like to follow me on social media, you can find me @scearl. I’m not an active poster, but Crossword Twitter sure is a positive and inspiring place to hang out! I’d love to get to know more of y’all personally and would love to collaborate, so please do reach out :)