juff's cryptic crosswords

Hi all, I'm on a roll with puzzles lately? I'll see how long I can keep dropping one a week. Off this blog, joeadultman and I dropped another Alphabet Jigsaw (you don't have to solve it as a jigsaw though). Also, Longyfan and I appeared in The Browser on March 10, with a movie-themed puzzle for Oscar night, edited by Dan Feyer. But here's this week's puzzle, which has no shenanigans but does have an interesting property that might be fun to try to figure out as you solve.  This puzzle was also posted as MyCrossword #1674 .  Have fun!  Thanks to Liari, Longyfan, StJtB Skaldskaparmal and Frisco for testing, and to N0hk for clue assistance. Full Screen link .

Here's a very special puzzle. Filling Time was the first cryptic crossword I ever made, way back in 2008.  I showed it to a couple friends and then put it in a drawer and didn't think about it for a long time.  Then in 2022 I showed it to some new cryptic friends I made online and felt inspired to keep going at it...  It's probably not too much of an exaggeration to say that I've spend the last couple years trying to get good at making cryptics specifically so I could do this one justice.  And in the last couple months I've tweaked the grid some and rewritten all the clues, did a ton of testing, and now am putting it out.  I hope you enjoy it. Thanks a ton to the too-many-to-list test solvers who've improved this puzzle over the years and especially months. There's an in-browser solving option below, or you can print this pdf , or some people prefer Google Sheets .

Today I'm sharing two puzzles both a little bit old, both made with a ton of people for a special occasion. On Christmas day, 2023, I did a Twitch stream where I invited anyone interested to jump in and help make a cryptic, and it came out great!  Thanks to the colloborators: Danandbabka, DragonEngineer, EdBreadScissorsFriends, elderism, frisco17mashups, gordiantangle, JayForty, JMbrow29, joeadultman, longyfan, RoflIsALot, Roy Johnson, rubyyy_j, rubyyy_j, StephenSta192, Taceo, tui_bird, Warking14, and possibly others I missed.  And thanks to Joshsolves for testing it, live on stream. There's two versions available... solve this one if you love variety nonsense and solve this one on MyCrossword if you only LIKE variety nonsense. ALSO In January to celebrate the excellent streamer / setter / guy joeadultman's birthday I invited a top crew of amazing friends to help make a puzzle for him.  Thanks to collaborators: Deanne, Glentopher, Herzwesten, JM, juff, LM, Longyfan, P

Hi all!  You probably know my friend the streamer and setter and great guy joeadultman .  He has a redemption on his twitch channel whereby for 50,000 points you can make him a Cryptic of the Year puzzle.  I redeemed this one quite a while ago and made it for Joe based on a year of his choosing that he says he can't remember having picked.   Thanks to a weirdly high number of testers...  Rubix, MP, Jack, Liari, Skald, Aaron, JM, and Ashley.  (Maybe more?  It's been banging around for a while and I'm not totally sure my notes are all here...) (It can be found over at MyCrossword .)

 Happy Halloween! I'm happy to deliver a Halloween variety cryptic, called "Treatise on Trickery," made with the amazing Pixlate !  I hope you enjoy it! I've been doing a lot of themelesses lately so I might remind people that this is something diffrerent... this is a variety cryptic, meaning there's some shenanigans going on beyond just having to solve cryptic clues.  In particular, this is the kind where you're not entirely sure going in what exactly all the rules are at the beginning, but it hopefully becomes clearer as the game goes on.  This is my favorite kind of cryptic and Pix and I are really happy to share it with you.   Happy Solving!  Happy Halloween!  Yay cryptics! Thanks a ton to Skaldskaparmal, joeadultman, dadgumituh and Jack H. Keynes for testing. Solve Online ipuz pdf solutions

Another post collecting puzzles to be found elsewhere: At the end of September I had a themeless cryptic appear in AVCX !  My editor was Francis Heaney who is amazing, and I'm really really happy with how the puzzle came out.  Looking at my notes, I've been waiting just over a year to use that bottom across clue.  Man...  (I guess I'll continue my tradition of saying my puzzles' secret names here?  Before it was called AVCX Cryptic 9/28/23, I called this one "Everything Everywhere.") Just after that, Frisco dropped Oh No-Meration 2 , a collaboration.  Frisco's first Oh No-Meration dropped in February and has such a simple cool semi-variety gimmick of the kind I love, and I was really happy when Frisco invited me to join for the sequel.  I think it came out pretty neat!  (There isn't a plot or anything, and you don't have to do the first one first.  But the first one is pretty good too.) And then the day after that I had another Browser cryptic!