This is a crossword puzzle concept I came up with sometime around 2003, but never really tried aggressively publishing any, until now. I’m putting it out there to see whether anyone might like this concept to become a legit weekly puzzle here, and to gauge whether they think it might be too difficult or too easy, or just right.
The rules are simple: Either draw two of this shape —
..or print out a copy of this design (pdf, two figures on one page), and fill out the blanks as you normally would any standard crossword puzzle — except with the twist, that there are two clues for each down number and across number, because on which puzzle they belong is not specified.
The first 1-down could go on the left side, and the other 1-down naturally on the right, but first 2-down could go on the right; you never know which one it goes on until you get others to fit.
Clues:
| 1. Not night | 1. Not basey |
| 1. Garfunkel | 1. Struggles to keep |
| 4. vehicle | 2. Between ! and # |
| 4. OJ judge | 2. Sun deity |
| 5. netflix offerings | 3. foutain of |
| 5. gooey slick | 3. draw on thin overlay |
| 7. Top Scout rank | 5. Sun’s name |
| 7. Cyrus’ breaky subject | 5. lyr.”Sending out an” |
| 10. call __ duty | 6. Diamond Phillips |
| 10. lyr.”it’s magic” | 6. Common sweetener init. |
| 11. popular -dictionary,init. | 8. online chortle |
| 11. surgery area | 8. decay |
| 12. bobsledder cousin | 9. Before |
| 12. dagger-eye feels | 9. Boston __ Party |
| 14. coffee drink | 13. US civil war victor |
| 14. coney snack | 13. competed for speed |
| 15. aural orifice | 14. Hagman |
| 15. black goop | 14. unshaven jaw |
| 17. farm allergen | 16. Australia domain ext |
| 17. doesn’t work | 16. liquor quitter meetup |