Back to basics with a tough, 72-word themeless today. A special shout-out to Erik Agard, who gets prime real estate for writing the great clue for 1-Across — that was part of the exchange after I wrote one of his clues for his massive crowdsourced puzzle for Christmas (and, as always, you should check out his other great puzzles at his site here). Another special shout-out to my wife Vicki, who wrote the clue for 49-Down.

For new and new-ish constructors: this is your final call to submit your puzzle to the Indie 500 Crossword Tournament! We’re accepting submissions no later than 11:59 pm CT on January 15. Click on “Submit” for more details.

Enjoy the puzzle. There will be a new one on January 17.

       





Indie puzzle news abound!

1) Veteran constructor Tim Croce has started his own new site, Club 72. Looks like it’s a themeless puzzle joint on Tuesday nights, and he just posted a variety puzzle last night. Hit it up.

2) I’ve previously mentioned Adam Nicolle, a young gun puzzlemaker (like real young — 12 years old, in fact), and I recently helped him create this easy puzzle here. He’s still learning the ropes of construction, but the work on that puzzle is mostly his. Check it out.

3) Matt Gaffney is switching his Weekly Crossword Contest over to a subscription-based model beginning in January, for a low price of $26/year. Put that on your holiday gift list for the puzzle lover in your family.

4) In other news in the puzzles-as-holiday-gifts department, why don’t you head on over and give some tips to Brendan Emmett Quigley for some bonus crosswords and Patrick Blindauer for his upcoming 12-part Space Puzzlefest?

5) Dear new constructors who haven’t been published in mainstream puzzles that much: want to see your puzzle solved live before an audience? The five of us running the Indie 500 Crossword Tournament are accepting submissions for a sixth puzzle. If we like yours the best, we’ll pay you $500 for it. The deadline to submit is January 15, 2015. See more information here.

6) Finally: while I have not made a decision on this yet, there is a decent chance I’ll be increasing my Devil Cross output, moving from a bi-weekly to a weekly feature. Have to work out all the kinks, and all that, but either way, I’m posting a new puzzle later on this week. Stay tuned.

Enjoy today’s puzzle, and enjoy next Friday’s (Dec. 12) New York Times puzzle — that one’s all mine.