PUZZLE #41: Smoking Section

       





(Photo credit: Scott London)

The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is upon us! I’m up here in tropical Stamford, Connecticut, chilling with puzzle friends, maybe playing some Cards Against Humanity, and almost certainly getting my ass kicked by whoever made this year’s sadistic Puzzle #5 — or I might be trying to kick their ass when I’m done getting tortured by it. I’m also distributing hard copies of today’s Devil Cross puzzle and information about the Indie 500 Crossword Tournament at one of the tables outside the main ballroom. If you’re at the ACPT, you have a sworn duty to come say hi to me. If you’re at home, you can follow the proceedings of the tournament at the ACPT website or on Twitter at the #ACPT hashtag. I may or may not be tweeting during the weekend; even after finishing the puzzles, I likely won’t be able to say much about them except to give myself a virtual high-five or a grunt of despair, depending on how tough they are. Oh well. Here’s hoping I do better than I did last year.

I’ve posted today’s puzzle a little earlier than normal so people at the ACPT can maybe check it out before Puzzle #1 drops. Without giving too much away, let’s just say that it’s kinda appropriate for my website. Kinda really appropriate.

Finally, in case you missed the big news, BuzzFeed has a new puzzle editor! I wrote about that here.

Enjoy the puzzle, and good luck to everyone at the ACPT. There will be a new puzzle on April 4.