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Hello everyone, and welcome to Week 44! Next weekend is Labor Day weekend, so that means summer is almost officially over! I don’t know who it is almost officially over for, since both public schools and universities are back in session, but whatever. Enjoy one more blast on the grill!

My first variety edition on Chris Words has come to an end, and “The Horseshoe Letter” has now ended. I want to thank everyone who played the edition, and I hope that all of you thoroughly enjoyed it.

The solutions to the edition can be found [here]. Also, please don’t publicly list the solution anywhere, so that other people can come and enjoy the variety packet. I know that many of you wrote to me and noted that the difficult was nice and easy and that you were able to introduce the concept to new solvers. I am ecstatic that that was possible for those guys! So, a big thanks to everyone who solved the edition with novice solvers!

The first five people who sent me the correct answer to The Horseshoe Letter were, in order: Jeff Davidson, Gideon Fostick, Russ Kale, Todd McClary, and Justin Weinbaum. Congrats guys!

And, everyone else who sent me the correct answer, in alphabetical order: Erik Agard, Evan Birnholz, Alex Boisvert, Drew Dixon, Tyler Hinman, Jeremy Horwitz, Andy Keller, Eric Maddy, Jim Sempsrott, Jim and Becky Siirola, and Stephen Williams.

And, of course, credit should also be awarded to my fellow staff members at USC, who were able to solve the packet within a week! The staff certainly enjoyed it, and I’m glad all of you enjoyed it as well.

And lastly, if you enjoyed this puzzle extravaganza, be sure to head over the Panda Magazine for a bimonthly edition of puzzles and wordplay, and be sure to look out for Puzzle Boat 3, a puzzle hunt extravaganza that will take place in October this year.

Thanks everyone, enjoy the puzzle, and we have a meta next week! Fun times we live in!

Chris