Important Note: This puzzle is no longer available to solve on my website because I updated it and published it in the Washington Post Magazine on November 20, 2016. My apologies for the inconvenience. Puzzles #1-61 and #69 are still available to solve.

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Photo credit: Denise Carbonell

Photo credit: Denise Carbonell


Coming up with a title for a crossword is really, really hard for me. I often like to start with the title and build a theme from there, but this time it was the other way around. I couldn’t think of one immediately, but while we were waiting in a hotel parking lot, I was chatting with my wife’s parents and siblings a couple of days ago about what today’s puzzle was going to be, dropping a few theme answers here and there. Then all of a sudden, my mother-in-law — brainstorming theme answers of her own — blurted out the phrase “square dancing.” My eyes just lit up. That was the title right there. Actually, I’m told my brother-in-law said it first, but he was sitting in the car and I couldn’t hear him. Oh well — they each get credit.

Oh, and I wrote yesterday’s New York Times crossword! Check it out if you haven’t gotten to it yet. Thanks for the various shout-outs on the web and elsewhere.

Enjoy the puzzle. There will be a new one on Halloween.

(Hat tip to Raymond Hamel for his CrosSynergy puzzle from March 2012).