I am home from the 2026 convention of the National Puzzlers’ League, where I had a ton of fun hanging out with puzzle-loving friends from around the country. Having missed the last two conventions, it was a particular joy to spend four days revelling in the creativity and puzzle-savvy of some of the best constructors the puzzle world has to offer. I stayed awake to all hours playing homemade game shows and other such nerdy entertainments, and my clipboard is stuffed with the puzzles people brought to hand out to others — I may well be solving them all the way up to next year’s convention.

My contribution to this glut of puzzles: Two Drop-Ins. This is a variety crossword format I invented a few years ago, and it’s one I really enjoy constructing. For each puzzle, you’ll enter a string of words into the grid, ignoring the little circles. Then you’ll drop a certain letter into some of the circles — done correctly, the first set of words, when respaced, will spell out an entirely different set of words. You’ll likely need to work back and forth between the two lists of clues to get the whole grid filled in.

I had been making these larger-size variety crosswords for a new set of Puzzlesnacks Plus puzzles, but I’ve been so busy that the project keeps stalling, and perhaps it’s time to admit that the new Plus set is on the shelf indefinitely. And so I’m happy to make these Drop-In puzzles available for free. If you enjoy them, you’ll find more in earlier Puzzlesnacks Plus sets.