Labor Unions

Parker’s back! And for good reason. We’re very excited to report that our crossword zine, The Honeypot Puzzle Fragments, is fully-funded and definitely going to print! We had a lot of fun developing the crossword-with-a-spelling-bee-twist format of these puzzles, as well as in writing the lore that surrounds the HPPF’s. As of this writing, there are 2 days left for you to back us on Kickstarter and order your own copy! If you do, you can choose to pick up your copy (and a crisp high five!) at ACPT directly from me and Parker next weekend!

In the meantime, cross your fingers for the lads! Jessie and I have traveled to sunny Orlando to catch an all-important World Cup Qualifier against Panama. Hopefully we’ll return to Boston covered in laurels and with our tickets booked to Qatar. (JK. Super not going to Qatar for soccer.)

Some thoughts and spoilers on this week’s puzzle, “Labor Unions,” after the jump. Many thanks to Gene and Matt for test solving!

Well, it’s a 14-letter revealer.

This is the first time in recent memory that either Parker or I have used a 14-letter answer in the 13th row and *not* bracketed it with a 7-black box “stair step” formation. In this case, we were already being pretty liberal with the black box arrangement, so we stopped at the L’s. Which… still just don’t look right to me. But.

Kudos to Parker for titling today’s puzzle as well. I’d be interested to hear if y’all can find more examples of the pattern expressed in the theme. These modifiers can be reused (PRINCIPAL ARCHITECT, SECRETARY GENERAL), but I wonder if any totally new ones exist… leave a comment!

Happy solving, friends!