THIS WEEKEND, I will be at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament debuting the Ubercross 125. Previously announced in the comments, this megacrossword is the largest in existence to follow NYT rules: no two-letter words, no uncrossed squares, and most importantly no repeated strings. Plus, it’s a heck of a lot of fun. I’ll put up a link for those who want to buy it after its in-person debut, but I just wanted to give y’all the heads-up in case any of you were puzzle lovers in range of Stamford. (I’ll bring a little Guilded Age material too, natch.)

Not sure how much of this we planned, but it’s interesting that the voice of Frigg’s spirit guide starts piping up around the time Syr’Nj starts guiding her down the path of mercy toward Byron. It’s as if the impulse that has ruled Frigg’s life up to now only feels like it needs to speak to her when she starts showing signs of bucking it.

Rhymezone lists 570, but I think the most useful would be “impale,” “jail,” “bail,” “frail,” “reveille,” “pale,” “tale,” “entail,” “veil,” “regale,” “flail,” “assail,” and “Richter Scale.”

The thirsty beetle was John’s addition.

SECOND LIFE is such an obvious game-pun title for this chapter that even I might have thought of it.