"Cheating in Class," by Evan Mahnken

Constructor's Comments

The theme idea for this puzzle came from a typo my education professor made, changing gifted students to grifted students.  By the end of the three-hour-long class, I had come up with the rest of the theme clues and mocked up a grid skeleton.  This is my first themed puzzle to be included in The Puzzle Society, but I hope it won't be the last.  Happy solving!

"Sunday Freestyle XXX," by Evan Mahnken

Constructor's Comments

Hello again, solvers!  Glad to be back in the Puzzle Society.  This puzzle began with the seed entries of BAD BREATH and HALITOSIS, which I noticed had the same number of letters.  Efforts to stack them on top of one another proved fruitless, so I put them in opposite corners and set to work filling in the rest of the themeless.  I'm pretty proud of the fill in this puzzle (IN A PICKLE, TIMES SQUARE BALL, SHRIVEL UP), although I wish there was something I could've done about ULT.  Happy solving!

"Sunday Freestyle XXVII," by Evan Mahnken

Constructor's Comments

Hello, solvers!  I'm Evan Mahnken, a student at Brandeis University, and I'm excited to be making my Puzzle Society debut!

My seed entry for this themeless was MRS ROBINSON.  I thought of the clue [Character whose lover was shot through the leg?] and just had to build a puzzle around it.  (As of the time of my writing this, I don't know if that clue survived, but I really hope it did.)  If you've never seen The Graduate, I highly recommend it.

This was also my first foray into the themeless grid type with stairstep patterns on either side of the middle three rows.  I'm quite happy with the quality of the fill, just not with the amount of black squares it took to get that quality of fill.

Big thanks to David for his help in perfecting the fill around the edges and for telling me I ought to send some puzzles his way at this year's ACPT.  Happy solving!