Pieces of Cake
The world's your oyster.
This is our 72nd puzzle on the site, which we bring up just to say that it's such a delight to still be making new friends and finding new puzzle pals with whom to collaborate.
Next week we're attending the National Puzzlers League convention for the first time (dadgum will be there, jmsr will not) and bringing a new puzzle.
Then, we're headed back onto emeritus editor Will Nediger's stream, joining him, Hayley Gold, Al Sanders and special guests (including sometimes co-editor Bob Weisz) while they solve that new puzzle. It's Friday, July 17, 9 p.m. ET, twitch.tv/bewilderingly. Hope you can join us or catch the VOD ….
… Or, wait until that Saturday and solve it yourself, when it gets published here as our next free puzzle.
But today we're highlighting the new friend that helped us with today's crossword. Editor Andy Yingst hooked us up with the estimable Viresh Ratnakar, a.k.a. Gussalufz, prolific cryptic setter for The Hindu and the mind behind Exolve, a suite of crossword construction and solving software. He cooked up something special for today's Rackenfracker, which we can't wait for you play — you know we're solve-on-paper diehards but, if you only solve one Rackenfracker online this year, consider making it this one.
Extra special thanks to Viresh and Andy, as well as to our solving squad. We hope you enjoy today's morsel, and maybe we'll even cross paths this summer.