Open thread: Indie puzzles

Now that there’s no ready source for .puz files of the Boston Globe, CrosSynergy, Washington Post Puzzler, and Merl Reagle’s crosswords, and the AV Club and Fireball crosswords are subscription-only, some folks are feeling hard up for their daily mental stimulation.

Luckily, there are many constructors doing great work and releasing puzzles outside of the traditional newspaper system. In the comments, please share your recommendations and include the URL; the HTML for a clickable link is as follows: <a href=“http://snacks.cyberpunks.org/donettes.html”></a>

And if your puzzles aren’t on the web but are available in mobile apps, e-books, or a Facebook app, feel free to point us towards those too.

So, who and where are you solving these days?

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3 Responses to Open thread: Indie puzzles

  1. Niemand says:

    Erik Agard and Neville Fogarty are two young, talented and prolific constructors. Erik posts a new puzzle every Wednesday and Neville every Friday.

    http://nevillefogarty.wordpress.com/

    http://gluttonforpun.blogspot.com/

  2. Pete Rimkus says:

    I like Erik’s and Neville’s puzzles as well.
    Others I do on a regular basis are :

    The inimitable BEQ…http://www.brendanemmettquigley.com/ (free, but don’t forget to hit the tip jar)
    Fireball…http:// http://www.FireballCrosswords.com/edited by Peter Gordon (not free but worth the $$$)
    Chronicle of Higher Education puzzles edited by Patrick Berry http://chronicle.com/section/Crosswords/43/
    Peter Broda (“Banarchy”) …available via “thecrossnerd” on googlegroups
    Ben Tausig …available via “inkwell” on googlegroups
    Ben also edits the AV Club puzzles: http://www.avxword.com/
    Patrick Blindauer posts a free puzzle every month http://www.patrickblindauer.com/
    Murchie’s Monday Fills (available via the iPhone StandAlong Crosswords App)
    The Friday Wall Street Journal edited by Mike Shenk http://blogs.wsj.com/puzzle/ …which also contains alternating Satruday acrostics by Emily Rathvon & Henry Cox or elegant word puzzles from Patrick Berry

    One handy site is Will Johnston’s Puzzle Pointers http://www.fleetingimage.com/wij/xyzzy/nyt-links.html which contains links to many of the ones I mentioned above, as well as other helpful stuff…thanks Will!

    Essentially there’s no shortage of great stuff out there…it amazes me that most of this stuff is free, so my hat’s off to all these constructors and editors! Thanks!

  3. bananarchy says:

    Thanks for the mention, Pete. However, the 1-year initial Cross Nerd series is now at an end with this week’s puzzle. All 52+ previous puzzles are still available from the site (click my name on this post) or the Google group.

    As for my recommendations, I’ll also throw my support behind the work of Erik Agard and Neville Fogarty. I’m also continually astonished by Andrew Ries’ weekly (!) Rows Gardens puzzles, although they’re print-out only so I don’t always get around to solving them, alas.

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