THEMLESS MONDAY: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF]
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Will I be having some celebratory pints today to celebrate Christmas? Yes. Yes I will. And to be sure, I'll have an additional pint to mark the 500th puzzle on BEQ.com. Perhaps even an additional additional pint to mark the 200th themeless puzzle posted here. Whew. That's a lotta partying scheduled. Anyway, cheers all around!
As usual, I'm doing the holidays with Liz's family in England. You know, the land where the cryptic reigns supreme. In years past I would have given the Guardian puzzle a look see, mostly out of curiosity. But as I've recently downloaded their crossword app, the curiosity factor isn't there any more. It's now part of the regular solving regimen. I guess if there's any novelty, it will come in the form of solving on paper as opposed to a screen.
Speaking of cryptics and Christmas, our new pal Denise Sutherland is hosting a holiday-based cryptic clue writing competition on her site. You may recall that I had mentioned her book on how to solve cryptics last month. Well her contest involves coming up with a cryptic clue for the word CHRISTMAS. I always wondered if what it's like celebrating Christmas in the the Southern hemisphere, and Denise finally answered that question. She writes: "We're heading for our usual sweltering hot festivities - always weird having all the British Christmas imagery of snowmen and snowflakes and Santa on a sleigh here, in the middle of summer!" Who's jealous? This guy. Anyway, after I'm done this post, I'll be coming up with my own entry.
Happy holidays to everybody. Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
Brendan Emmett Quigley creates custom-made puzzles for all occasions: birthdays and bar mitzvahs, anniversaries and retirements. You name it. Need a puzzle for your website or your publication? He can do that, too.
Brendan's custom work clients have included The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, BeerAdvocate, Boston Magazine, De Beers, The Decemberists, ESPN, The Improper Bostonian, Lollapuzzoola, McSweeney's, Phish, Reflexive, The Smithsonian Magazine, St. Martin's Press, Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, and Andrew Weil.
Call (617) 2-999-BEQ or click 
