Would you believe that I’ve crossed a pretty big milestone in my puzzling life? Today’s crossword is the 500th crossword published in The Washington Post since I began writing puzzles for it in December 2015. That’s a lot of puzzles, and many more clues — at least 70,000 of them by my quick back-of-the-envelope math. Of course there are a few crosswords in that 500 that I didn’t write since there have been guest constructors on occasion, but I still count “Heroes Welcome” from Dec. 6, 2015, as Puzzle No. 1 from my time with The Post and today’s Aug. 17, 2025, puzzle (“Sound Off”) as Puzzle No. 500. Let’s keep it going, shall we? I’ll be hitting my 10th puzzle job anniversary in December, and Puzzle No. 600 is off on the horizon in mid-2027.

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