"Sunday Freestyle X," by Christopher Adams

Constructor's Comments

I don't remember too much about the construction of this puzzle, other than starting with X in all four corner squares (and generally trying to put multiple Xs in each corner, within reason).  Oh, and that David made a great suggestion on XBOX ONE X (over the original XBOX LIVE).  Looking over it again, I think it came out really well.  There's a few entries I don't like too much, but they're spread out, fairly crossed, and (I hope) worth both the Xs as well as all the other solid entries in the grid.

In any case, I hope you enjoyed the puzzle.  If you'd like to solve more of my puzzles, or if you just want to get in touch (and maybe collaborate on a puzzle!), here's a link to my site.

Editor's Comments

I think Chris did an X-cellent job with this themeless (okay, I'll admit that wasn't one of my better puns!).  I like all the X entries he chose, and I find the juxtaposition of XEROXES and XERXES particularly interesting since the two entries are just one letter apart.  Cramming a grid with rare letters like X often leads to trade-offs in the smoothness of the short fill, but Chris makes it look effortless.  Take a look at the lower left, for example.  Filling around SPACEX and XBOX ONE X is a really hard, but you'd never guess it from short fill like PUT, ALE, PAX, and UNO.  Chris even threw in an EMPANADA for good measure.  How did this puzzle go for you?