{"id":1068,"date":"2025-10-03T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T16:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/blog\/?p=1068"},"modified":"2025-10-03T08:45:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:45:59","slug":"puzzle-140-crushword-spiral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/03\/puzzle-140-crushword-spiral\/","title":{"rendered":"Puzzle #140: Finishing Blow (Crushword Spiral)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4a-SEPT8DeE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>PUZZLE LINKS:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/solve?file=\/downloads\/site_puzzles\/crushword.ipuz\">Online Solver<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/downloads\/site_puzzles\/crushword.ipuz\">iPuz Download<\/a><\/p>\n<p>By the time you read this, I&#8217;ll be in Chicago, as I&#8217;ll be volunteering for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mwxwt.com\/\">Midwest Crossword Tournament<\/a>. I think it&#8217;s not too late to register for the online portion of the event! Go do that if you haven&#8217;t already.<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s puzzle is a crushword spiral, a puzzle <a href=\"http:\/\/www.joonpahk.com\/\">our friend Joon<\/a> likes to run, but one I&#8217;ve never tried constructing. If you like this puzzle you should absolutely subscribe to his puzzles!<\/p>\n<p>How does a crushword spiral work? <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In a crushword spiral puzzle, there are two sets of clues, one reading inward from 1 to 49 and the other outward from 49 to 1. Every square will contain two or more letters. If you&#8217;re using the online solver, click &#8220;Escape&#8221; to open the rebus menu.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As usual, we don&#8217;t make a new puzzle type without also making a helper to create them. Check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.github.io\/variety-tools\/spiral\/crushword.html\">Crushword creation tool<\/a>! Just seed it with entries in the format provided, and it will walk you through the rest of the process. I hope to see such a puzzle from you soon!<\/p>\n<p>Hey, do you like variety puzzles like this one? I&#8217;m participating in the Newport Dunes triathlon in November, and there&#8217;s an associated fundraiser. If you donate any amount, you&#8217;ll receive four variety puzzles and an adorable Kirby-shaped American-style crossword. All the money goes to support the Newport Bay Conservancy, a worthy cause if I&#8217;ve ever seen one. <a href=\"https:\/\/runsignup.com\/alexboisvert\/Donate\">Here&#8217;s the link to donate.<\/a> Thanks for your support!<\/p>\n<p>While I&#8217;m sharing my stuff, please consider joining the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/crosswordnexus\">Crossword Nexus patreon<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/discord.gg\/ep2J3KXcmM\">our Discord server<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/solve?file=\/downloads\/site_puzzles\/crushword.ipuz\">Enjoy the solve!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PUZZLE LINKS: Online Solver | iPuz Download By the time you read this, I&#8217;ll be in Chicago, as I&#8217;ll be volunteering for the Midwest Crossword Tournament. I think it&#8217;s not too late to register for the online portion of the event! Go do that if you haven&#8217;t already. Today&#8217;s puzzle is a crushword spiral, a&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/03\/puzzle-140-crushword-spiral\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Puzzle #140: Finishing Blow (Crushword Spiral)&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,85,6,14,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crossword-tools","category-crushword-spiral","category-puzzles","category-spiral","category-variety-puzzles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1068"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1078,"href":"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions\/1078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crosswordnexus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}