December FREEstyle

Here's the December FREEstyle, which is a 68-word, 32-block puzzle.

This puzzle started with the entry at 37-Across. I find this site especially interesting in that it is an attempt to separate the sports page from the newspaper and turn it into a standalone entity. A fancy term for this is "dis-aggregation," according to the Internet, and dis-aggregation is something that the world of independent and online crossword puzzles are also attempting. The history of the crossword puzzle is intrinsically tied to newspapers, and as more and more print versions of newspapers fully transition to online spaces, it is uncertain which print newspaper traditions will also make the jump into a new age of media. I think that crosswords are doing well to make this transition, but there is still a ways to go, and news media will still likely be the primary lifeforce of the crossword puzzle, at least in the near future. However, like the website referenced at 37-Across, independent puzzle sources represent a unique challenge to the traditional model, and I for one am excited to be a part of this still-developing landscape.

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Happy solving!

December FREEstyle - PUZ | PDF | PDF (Grayscale) | | Solution