[.puz][PDF][Solution] 🐂 📦 🏦 🥣 👨‍👨‍👦‍👦

Short post this morning. I’m taking it low and slow today, as last night Jessie and I reinitiated on-the-town (albeit outdoor) Date Night! (Did you miss us? She’d like to know.)

In case today’s puzzle doesn’t deliver your full weekend grid fix, there’s also a Sunday-sized #rossword out in the wild today! The Universal Sunday puzzle, “Study Breaks,” is a collaborative effort with noted cat lady Amanda Rafkin.

A couple of thoughts and spoilers for “Stock Exchange” after the jump.

Sincerely, dear solver, I love making these kinds of puzzles.

The word “stock” is perfect for one of these, uh, Hidden Varied Meaning puzzles? Clunky name, better one TK. It has various distinct meanings, meanings around investment, broth, supply, animal husbandry, tree trunks, ancestry…

And the key to satisfying the little pattern-seeking ferret in my head is not only to generate five different “stock” phrases, but *also* to make sure that those five phrases treat the meaning of “stock” differently.

But wait! A further constraint exists to ensure a warm bath of anal-retentive crossword consistency. Each of the resulting answer phrases–CATTLE HORNS, FAMILY PHOTO, etc.–must *also* each be a distinct example of the meaning of the word “stock.” Here’s a little visual to describe what I mean:

And voila! A crossword is born.

Happy solving, friends!

-Ross