While testing this puzzle (and reflecting upon 1D from last week’s), I realized that it was very important that solvers all have a relatively fair shake of parsing the clue without outside knowledge. Now, granted, a clue like 6A this week works better if you’ve heard of Minhaj or Piker, and if you’re aware of the term “elder millennial,” but you can still figure it out regardless. Ditto with 5A, where even if you’re a cryptic solver who has avoided hearing anything about The Listener, the surface should still work. The one proper noun I’ve used as an answer in this puzzle—which I try to do so very sparingly—is universally known and the cryptic cluing is about as gentle as it’ll ever get from me. That said, I still want to expose people to things they might not know, and play to my strengths, so apologies in advance if you know nothing about video games; hopefully you can still solve and enjoy 2D, and I’ll continue to try and strike a fair balance as I continue these experiments.
Anyway, you can find the puzzle and .puz over at Crosshare, and download the PDF below. Thanks to perennial puzzle ‘prover skaldskaparmal and the wonderful (and prolific) juff for the test solves!
The Crossword Scholar 