🎉 Happy Rachel Fabi Day! 🎉
I absolutely love seeing constructors show off their range when making puzzles. Crafting a brilliant early-week puzzle works a lot of different muscles from assembling a challenging themeless, and preparing either for publication is completely different from packing an indie puzzle with humor and personal touches.
Today, Rachel treats us to all three.
Want a squeaky clean grid with an accessible theme? Rachel's got you covered with her USA Today* puzzle, "Mint Condition." In the mood for a more brain-breaking themeless instead? Check out her debut in Friday's New York Times — it's an absolute delight. And to keep the puzzle party going, I'm lucky enough for Rachel to be completing the aforementioned hat trick right here on this very site.
"Unexplainably Juicy" is somewhere in between the other two difficulty-wise, and it's just as outstanding.
Celebrate Rachel on Twitter @faBioethics, and definitely definitely definitely solve her puzzles whenever you possibly can.
Cheers,
-Matthew
*A great opportunity to again mention Rachel's June 1 USA Today puzzle, which is still my favorite crossword I've solved all year.
From Rachel: "This puzzle came together last year, when [central entry] was an idea being thrown around but wasn't yet a reality. Finding the other entries to go with it went quickly, and then it all fell into place! I wrestled with the title, which is a reference to a certain candy's tagline that isn't exactly an appropriate description of the themers. We decided to lean into the indie vibes and roll with the silly title anyways!
Thanks to Matthew for offering up some space on his blog for this unexplainably juicy misfit puzz and to Brooke Husic for her expert test-solving feedback (sorry I ignored your notes about where I chose to use ?s ❤️)"