I stopped going to musical performances years ago, because the loud ones hurt my ears, and the soft ones were invariably spoiled by somebody in the row behind me elaborately unwrapping a piece of hard candy. And I’ve always wondered—did the people behind me at the loud performances also come equipped with plastic-wrapped pieces of hard candy, the unwrapping of which I was unable to hear over the music? Or do people only bring wrapped pieces of hard candy to soft musical performances—just as they generally wait for the quietest moments of those performances to do their best unwrapping? It’s a mystery.
But what isn’t a mystery is that this website is now concluding its fourth year, and I will mark the moment, as I did the conclusions of its first three years, with two 21 x 21 puzzles, and an opportunity for grateful solvers to make a donation. Are you a grateful solver? As in previous years, you may donate using the button below, or through PayPal or Venmo using my email address. There are four donation levels. Donate $12 and receive a 15 x 15 crossword which employs only words current during the Victorian era (and, of course, still current today). Donate $13.50 and receive a large, 21 x 21 crossword. Donate $15 and receive both. Be the first to donate $10,000,000 and the website will be renamed in your honor, so that if your name is, say, Mackenzie Scott, the name of the website will be “Mackenzie Scott Presents David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Weekly Victorian Novel Recommender.”
And speaking of Mackenzie Scott, this year I’m offering a discount to billionaire divorcees. Divorce can be hard, even for billionaires, and we at David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Weekly Victorian Novel Recommender understand that. So if you’re a divorcing billionaire (Jeff? Bill? Melinda?) I’ll rename the site in your honor for a mere $9,000,000. That’s a million-dollar discount! And just think how envious your ex will feel at the sight of your name on the most fabulous crossword site on (or off) the internet! Get there first!
Download this week’s puzzle:
207-Dynamic-Range-Compression.puz
207-Dynamic-Range-Compression.pdf
Solve this week’s puzzle online:
A crossword of mine will appear Friday, November 12, in the Los Angeles Times.