Well, here we are with puzzle #140. As previously announced, we are now moving from our “every week (almost) without fail” publishing schedule to a “when we’re inspired” schedule. This will almost definitely mean that puzzles appear less often, but it will give us more time to undertake new and exciting projects. All told, the collected puzzles produced over the last 2.5 years total about 4 man-months of construction time; somewhere between 10 and 50 hours of solving enjoyment (depending upon your solving speed); and nearly 5000 black squares. All in all, not a puny effort.

Thanks for joining us along the way, and we hope to see you around in the future.

Title: Building Up Business
Difficulty: Wednesday
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Title: Risky Business
Difficulty: Thursday
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What’s that you say? Saint Patrick’s Day? Green Beer? Erin’s gold bra? Sorry, boyo, this ain’t no parade — it’s a crossword. We considered giving you your annual dose of hearts, stars, moons, clovers, horseshoes, klein bottles, and whatever else that danged leprechaun is lacing our cereal with these days, but we decided that by the time this puzzle came out you’d have already had your fill and would be nursing the hangover. Thus, this puzzle is almost entirely Irish-free, though we did let a few Scotsmen wander through to provide some local color.

Title: The Wrath of….
Difficulty: Wednesday
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Let it never be said that we here at Beekeeper Labs never take you anywhere. Last week we went to the disco. This week, it’s off to see our friendly snake oil salesman at the traveling medicine show. It’s guaranteed to cure what ails you, or you’ll get back double what we charged for the puzzle. (Warranty void in some states. Always read the fine print even when it doesn’t say anything useful. Fnord.)

Title: Medicine Show
Difficulty: Thursday
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As promised last week, we have fixed all problems (technical and otherwise) which were preventing us from supplying you with a tasty weekly crossword. We’ve been scheming all week to try to come up with a splendiferous theme to justify the wait. What we came up with, however, is mostly just….odd. However, it does contain your RDA of bad puns, obscure references, geography lessons, FLAs (we don’t like three letter abbrevs much, but we can groove on four), and such like.

Title: Dance Fever
Difficulty: Thursday
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Perhaps this week’s puzzle is inauspiciously named. After all, it has been quite chilly enough in this part of Western PA without any encouragement from your faithful puzzle provider. Nonetheless, it is what it is — and what it is is a reasonably easy, and yet charmingly annoying Wednesday-level puzzle. So put on a warm jacket, brew yourself a nice cup of tea, and prepare to “chill”.

Title: Chill
Difficulty: Wednesday
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Title: That is to say….
Difficulty: Thursday
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When my family heard I’d been having computer trouble, they immediately sent Uncle Fred to take a look. You see, Fred’s ’bout 90 years old and they say he can fix anything. If you’ve got a shotgun with a bad barrel, he can fix ‘er up good as new. If you’ve got a ‘57 Chevy with a bad carburetor, Fred’ll have it purrin’ like a kitten. If those dang kids have broken the dial on your TV set, he’ll jigger up a replacement, no problem. I’m not so sure he’ll do as well with my Windows PC, though. You see, last I heard, Fred still thinks a vacuum tube is an attachment for his Electrolux….

Title: Old Uncle Fred’s Tech Support
Difficulty: Thursday
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Title: Talking Smack
Difficulty: Wednesday
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Title: Share of Salt
Difficulty: Wednesday
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