Been I while since I posted something on here. Sometimes you see a 15 out in the wild and you cannot rest until you make a puzzle. So, here we are with this 72-worder! I'm really happy with how it turned out. Some very chatty clues in this one, and I tried to make it a little on the easier side. Hope it's a fun one!

FULLSCREEN

Hi friends,

I'm so pumped to bring you my second (dw there will be more!) collab with the inimitable Kate, one of my fave people in the crossword community! When we realized we had both been trying to put 53a in a puzzle, we were off to the races. Cluing this puzzle was so much fun, and I'm really happy with the aggressively indie vibe we settled on

Kate says: "So happy to do another collaboration with Rafa - THE LATEST IN A CONTINUING SERIES!!! I feel like Rafa and I get on a really complementary wavelength with cluing which makes it so fun. So honored to make an appearance on Puzzfeed and hope solvers enjoy!"

The theme idea here came from a USA Today brainstorm, and we just couldn’t let it go. This puzzle is so indie and really captures both our voices (esp in STEM and pop culture references). I’m obsessed with it!!! Always a pleasure to collab with Brooke!

Brooke says: “what a lucky thing for crossworld that rafa is in it! i’ve adored our collab vibe in both this and the upcoming USAT that one of the theme answers here didn’t quite fit into. if the theme makes you feel seen, please join our virtual nerdy group hug (and if not, come on in anyway)”

​Thanks to Matthew for test solving!

Hi friends,

I finally did it -- a puzzle blog! I'm standing on the shoulders of giants here as there are so many exceptional puzzle blogs out there. It's truly an honor just to participate. I'm still figuring out what I want the overall vibe of these puzzles to be (and how often I will post...) but here's a themeless I really love!

This is a recent (very kind!) NYT rejection that I tweaked a little. Many thanks to Matthew for looking over this grid when I put it together many months ago, Brooke and Adam for test-solving earlier versions, and Kate for a more recent test-solve. (4 of my absolute fave crossword people!!)

Hope you enjoy!