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Look away, helper square detractors… there are (gasp) TWO in each corner!! I just found that the eight letters of 5-Across stacked well with the last eight letters of 14-Across and, since 14-Across is ten letters, that’s where the double helper squares come in.
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I’m lucky that the top center was adaptable in this grid, because I went through many, many permutations of letter combinations and block combinations in the bottom center before I found one that worked. Originally, this was a 70-word grid, with the block between what’s now 5-Down and 27-Down once gone. In fact, that was the crux of the issue with not being able to get the bottom center to work — it was a begrudging act to add that block, because I really liked the original 8-letter entry at 5-Down. Sometimes you’ve got to make sacrifices in one part of the grid for another part to work. It’s just that pesky little rule of symmetry…
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Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.
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Back to the double-stack instead of triple-stack technique in two of the corners. It opens options up so much in those corners without forcing sections that are too wide-open or otherwise hard to construct.
From the “write what you know” category: the clue for 35-Across. I have not only visited Barcelona, but been to Park Güell. Barcelona on the whole is really cool and fully recommended, but this was one of the highlights. So many interesting little features… this is a shining example of the work of this architect whose work is seen so many times around that great city.
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Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.
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I had to do everything I can to keep as few 3-letter entries (I did good to keep it to 12) in this grid as I can given that I have two 11-stacks — I can’t resist the lure of the 11-stack as a crossword constructor, because I have so many 11s in my seed list. But that inevitably creates a rash of 3-letter words, most of which, I’ll be honest, tax me to think of original clues — mostly because so many 3-letter entries have been used so many times in previous crosswords. Crossword constructing is, as life is, a balance, though.
Thanks so much to all who’ve left a tip! It’s much appreciated, believe me.
Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.
As always, share this link! Pass it around! New puzzle on Tuesday!
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The tried-and-true 8×3 format is back. It’s a wee bit harder to build because I locked in the crossing central 15s before I went into the corners.
I don’t mean to bring the mood of the post down, but there’s a more important topic today. Whenever I saw that anything Anthony Bourdain was involved in was playing on TV, I switched to that station. Everything he touched turned to gold. I don’t know the circumstances behind his passing beyond that it was a suicide, but it just goes to show that you shouldn’t hide it or be ashamed to speak out about it when your health — mental or physical — is far from what it should be. He was incredibly talented at everything he did professionally, and got to travel to many dozens of countries around the world to do it, but he was not immune from the depths of depression. No one is. I know it’s easy for me to say as someone who has not experienced this illness myself, but get help, huh? It’s worth it.
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Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.
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I won’t lie, this grid wasn’t very difficult to construct. The trickiest part was constructing the upper left and lower right stacks and making sure the pairs of stacked seven-letter words intersecting them worked with them. And, even then, that wasn’t so bad to deal with. So I was able to get a lot of seed entries into the corners without an issue.
I don’t usually talk about cluing in this space, but one of the constant challenges, much as I try to avoid those types of entries, is thinking up original clues for old crossword standbys. You’ll find one such entry in here that even I have to say that I’m pretty proud of…
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Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.
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Like the 14s, the 12-letter words make me do strange things with 15×15 grids. In fact, the two I seeded this grid with made me go a little more wide open in the corners than I wanted to. Those upper-left and lower-right sections were harder to build than it looks, but I managed.
Thanks so much to all who’ve left a tip! It’s much appreciated, believe me.
Thanks as always to the test solvers for their input.
As always, share this link! Pass it around! New puzzle on Friday!
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By Tim Croce ||| Original freestyle crossword puzzles on Tuesdays at 6pm Eastern ||| Original puzzles (sometimes more freestyles, sometimes variety puzzles or even themed puzzles) on Fridays at 6pm Eastern
