I first finished this puzzle back in May 2023 and spent the rest of that year submitting to — and getting rejected from — various pubs. All of the rejections came with very positive feedback, I think this puzzle was pretty close to being accepted by each of them but for one or two issues. I learned a lot through the process, with each piece of feedback my constructing hopefully improves as I try to get to the point where I am giving editors fewer and fewer reasons to reject my work.

The last editor to see the puzzle specifically called out one word that spanned three of the theme entries (26-Down), a word that had been bothering me since I first ended up with it. When I initially completed the grid, I just didn’t see any better options so I ran with it but on this editor’s advice, I decided to replace the word with something better which ended up meaning replacing almost the entire grid — pretty much everything but the themers. I still ended up with a word I didn’t really like (33-Down) but that one is shorter, easier to clue around and just a nicer, if still uncommon word. Trade-offs!

And so, my solving audience, I present you a puzzle that began in May of 2023 and was completely rebuilt in January of 2024. I hope you enjoy it, I think it is one of my best.

Note: for some reason AmuseLabs isn’t letting me post new puzzles right now so there is currently no in-line puzzle on this page. However, the puzzle is up on Crosswordr so I suggest you solve it there if you want a web solve. The PDF and PUZ options are always available below! The puzzle is now in-line below and linked on Crosswordr.

download  download (.puz) print  print puzzle (.pdf) key  print solution (.pdf) redirect  play full-sized app
or play using the in-line applet below:

birdhouse