This puzzle from Erik Agard is great. Remember those little gel caps you could drop into water to unleash animal-shaped sponges? Remember how awesome those were? Yeah well welcome to this puzzle.
THANK YOU to everyone who has submitted LH5/9s! This is a lot of fun.
Hey, Michael told me there was a sports show on tonight. Was there? Did you see it?
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m proud and pleased to share this LH5 constructed by my LPZ8 Pairs Division partner, Brayden Burroughs. Like an excellent boyfriend, he has taken the plunge to join me in the deep end of the crossword pool. It’s one thing to spend weekends doing a crapton of puzzles with me, but to give construction a shot and suffer my side-eyes, hrrmms, and nopes? That’s devotion, and I’m a lucky lady.
We’ve got little puzzles tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday, so be sure to stay tuned for this veritable shower of crossword confetti.
Gather your family around a pile of brunch and plop this dollop of sweet whipped cream on top of your Belgian waffle because it’s Sunday and Erik Agard has prepared this stunning Lil High Nine for us to enjoy. Remember folks, Sundays are 9×9.
Erik’s is doing a Twitter cleanse right now and says that he is focusing instead on puzzles and food. Figure out how to slap him nine, wish him well and bon appétit.
What’s new in Michael’s world? Well, he hates ORGEAT and I love that he hates it. Orgeat is so sweet that it needs that bitterness to create a balanced flavor profile. I bet he’s going to side-eye every Mai Tai from now on.
That’s all the news. Enjoy the puzzle!
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s just something I really like about this puzzle from Michael. I think it’s the sparkling fill.
(Nobody has sprinkled glitter on a really good crossword and put it on the internet yet? Good thing I live near a craft store!)
Rejoice! Jonathan O’Rourke has contributed this refreshing droplet to the LHF bucket. Check out his crossword blog here and delight in its offerings.
Come on now. You know you want to make one of these. Cut loose. Freak yourself out. The possibilities feel severely constrained yet somehow limitless– see for yourself!
I’m very pleased to share with you some jelly from Erik Agard for which you may or may not be ready:
I’d also like to extend an invitation to everyone to send along your own Lil High Fives. Here are the submission guidelines:
There’s no publishing schedule going on with these yet so just be ready to go when it’s time to go. Send your puzzles to me at [email protected].
I have to go drink beer with a bunch of scientists *right now* but I wanted to be sure to post this little gem, lovingly crafted by Michael for your enjoyment. He loved crafting it.
It’s the end of the work day– treat yourself.
IRL I’m pretty bad at high fives. Don’t even try to get me to do complicated slip-slaps up high, down low, etc. It makes me want to backwards-slink away from the situation even if something awesome happened that we’re trying to celebrate. I like my skin slipped real simple. And now you can backwards-slink away because that sounded disgusting.
Personal decision: I’m not putting “Abbr.” in any LHF clues because the whole puzzle is abbreviated. You have been warned.
Here is the solution to Michael’s LHF #1. I, for one, would be all about wearing my sport skort on the court.
SLAP!
Back in June I was feeling bad about how little I’d been constructing, so I decided to construct little puzzles. I wasn’t aware of the New York Times’ own mini puzzles until last week and I’m not sure why, considering they became a feature last year. Recently some not-so-nice things have been said regarding these dinky offerings and I agree with a lot of it, albeit not so vitriolically. For me, constructing pint-sized puzzles is a great opportunity to write some extra good clues to compensate for the grid’s puniness; remember: it’s not how big it is, it’s what you do with it– and there’s just not a lot of motion in the ocean for the NYTimes’ little boats to toss about on. If you know what I mean.
Michael and I drunkenly made a puzzle construction pact at Lollapuzzoola 8 and we’ve been working together on various projects. After trying out a NYTimes mini for the first time, I shared my minithemeless #4 and nary an hour or so later I received the little treat from Michael that I’m pleased to share with you here. He’s calling them “Lil High Fives” and I think that’s just great. We will make as many as we feel like and I will post them here.
Enjoy!
AIMLESSLY THEMELESS 
