Darby Ratliff

If anyone heard a small boy yelling “How about José Ramírez? How about him?,” it’s just me sounding stuffy as hell with my head cold while watching the Guardians game ⚾️

these puzzles fund abortion

Want to hear a cool story about reproductive justice, mutual aid, and crossword puzzles?

Let me tell you about These Puzzles Fund Abortion (www.abortionpuzzles.com / @tpfa.bsky.social), a crossword puzzle fundraiser that has raised over $350,000 in five years for abortion funds.
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Today, on Trans Day of Visibility, UNITE HERE stands in solidarity with our trans members and trans people everywhere.

On this sacred day, this yontif called #TDOV, please consider signing up for updates about the upcoming charity variety crossword puzzle pack called A Trans Person Made Your Puzzle
sites.google.com/view/transxw...

TPFA logo with words “Clue of the Week.” There are six empty squares, and below that a box that says (clothing item that might read “Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Rights”)

✨Clue of the Week✨

This week’s clue comes from @darbyratliff.bsky.social!

🤫If you need a hint… there is an implied hyphen between the first and second letters 👀

Donate at fund.nnaf.org/tpfa to get your puzzles!

photo of Darby smiling and pointing to a dinosaur skeleton

✨Constructor Spotlight✨

@darbyratliff.bsky.social (she/her) is a grad student/ constructor in STL, MO. She wishes that access to good gender-affirming healthcare was universally available to everyone. She’s thrilled to be on TPFA’s roster again.

Head to fund.nnaf.org/tpfa to solve Darby’s puzzle!

So glad the maintenance guy in my building heard me singing along to “Hot to Go” as I returned from walking Midge.

Except the lyrics I was singing?

“H-O-T-T-O-G-O, Midge is a PO-TAY-TO”

My dentist asked about the scar on my lip today, and I had to tell him I got stitches from a bounce house.

Him: “When you were a kid”
Me: *silent*
Him: “When you were a kid?”
Me: “When I was 17”

He laughed.

graphic announcing These Puzzles Fund Abortion 5, with 27 constructor names, 3 editors, and 4 guest editors

Drumroll, please… 🥁🥁🥁🥁

Announcing our all-star constructor and editor lineup for These Puzzles Fund Abortion 5!
#tpfa5 #crosswords #abortion #reprojustice #fundabortion

Thread with AVCX’s revised editorial policy regarding Donald Trump:
—

In early 2017, AVCX announced a new editorial policy, namely that we as a feature would regard Donald Trump as an asshole when we referred to him in print.

Toothless the dragon smiling with his tongue out

Midge the pitbull smiling with her tongue out

Also:

Toothless the dragon from “How to Train Your Dragon” looking unamused in his lil harness

Midge the pitbull from my home looking unamused in her lil harness

I watched How to Train Your Dragon for the first time in a long time last night, and listen, I’m convinced that my dog Midge and Toothless are the same. For reference:

Never am I more cognizant of my lack of rhythm than when I’m dancing in front of my dog. Sometimes she even turns her face away so she doesn’t have to watch 🫣

The Puzzle Society: The best puzzles online. Updated daily. The best classic puzzles including Sudoku, the USA TODAY Crossword, 7 Little Words, and Jumble—plus brand-new exclusives like Thematik and Hex 10.

Stoked to have The Modern puzzle today! Thanks, @ort.bsky.social, for editing!

www.puzzlesociety.com/member/cross...

fundraising barometer for TPFA4 showing $23,674/$30,000 raised by 491 supporters

The outpouring of support for These Puzzles Fund Abortion over the past two days has been incredible. Crossword people are the best 💕

Thank you especially to @rexparker.bsky.social and John/Andrew at Boswords for the boost over the last two days!

fund.nnaf.org/tpfa4

Oh, you didn’t spend part of the morning re-stuffing your dog’s stuffed dinosaur knowing full well that she will soon return the stuffing to your floors with a vengeance? 🦖

Play The Modern Crossword on Puzzle Society This contemporary puzzle is jam-packed with fun features (like secondary clues and varying grid sizes!).

So stoked to have today’s Modern!

www.puzzlesociety.com/crossword-pu...

A round logo depicting the words "these puzzle fund abortion" around a mini crossword grid with the number 4 written in blocks sits in front of a purple crossword grid.

✨These Puzzles Fund Abortion 4✨ is now available for presale! Donate to receive 20+ original crossword and variety word puzzles themed around social and reproductive justice.

All donations go to 5 amazing abortion funds doing vital work 💕

fund.nnaf.org/tpfa4

cc: @abortionfunds.bsky.social

After years of dad jokes, I’m proud to announce that I finally have a dentist appointment at Tooth-Hurty 🦷🪥

Thanks @jessshulman.bsky.social for editing this! Excited to be back with @lilavcx.bsky.social 🤓

three 2" diameter round stickers that say "these puzzles fund abortion" in red around a lavender crossword grid with the number 4 written in blocks in the center sit in the palm of a hand

👀👀👀👀

#tpfa4 @abortionfunds.bsky.social

The pilot on my flight (who has a southern accent) just said “We’ll get this overgrown pretzel cart in the sky and hustle y’all out to Ohio,” which is a thing I never expected to be said ever.

It’s so good! And thanks! So does yours!

Adjacent answer: I read “Anthem” by Shana Redmond for a grad class a few years ago and consistently reference back to it when I teach music in my Religion & Pop Culture class. I’m sure it also has some classics and deep cuts!

Screenshot from the USA Today crossword app showing “Hidden Trails” as the title of the puzzle. It’s by Darby Ratliff and Brooke Husic, edited by Amanda Rafkin

I’m so stoked to have today’s USAT with @xws.bsky.social. Many thanks to her and @amandarafkin.bsky.social

A meme of Jeff Goldblum’s character in Jurassic Park running away from a T-Rex that says “Go to jurassic park they said. It will be fun they said.”

Hope this wasn’t your reaction as you were editing 😂

My excitement as this puzzle filled:

This was so fun!!! 🎃🧛👻

I’ve loved working with Lil AVC X this year on puzzles and am very excited to be joining the editing roster with these incredible humans!

Thanks, Sally!