It's time to wrap up the month with a challenging themeless. Keep an eye out for tricky clues and fun wordplay. This puzzle was constructed by Evan Mulvihill, and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Evan is a cruciverbalist living in San Francisco. His crosswords have been published by the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, and will be appearing in the New York Times sometime in the next year or two. When he's not working as a pharmacist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, he enjoys attending gay ski weeks, "doing it live," and creating Spotify playlists with titles like "Extra Chill Vibes ✨ONLY✨." He puts out crosswords that attempt to slap, chew, tear, and eat, on his blog FlossWords. Collab?
Defector crosswords, launched in partnership with our friends at AVCX, run every Monday. If you’re interested in submitting a puzzle to us, you can read our guidelines HERE.