THEMELESS MONDAY: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF]
PROGRAMS: [Across Lite] [Adobe Reader]
14-letter entries are the red-headed stepchildren of crosswords, at least in dailies. Being one letter shy of a grid-spanning entry forces the constructor to plop down a black square somewhere along the sides. Now with themed puzzles, big whoop, just add three more black squares perpendicular just above or just below that lone black square. Since themelesses are canvasses on which the puzzlemaker must showoff, any excessive use of black squares, well, may take up too much valuable real estate for fun entries. So anyway, with today’s grid, yes I did start with the 14s and as such was faced with the very daunting task of chunkier-than-normal NE and SW corners. Still, for my money, six of the Acrosses in NE area are lights out, and a majority of the stuff in the SW as well. Were concessions made? Probably. Maybe that’s just part of the process when you’re dealing with 14-letter entries.
Share the puzzle. New on one Thursday.
Always look forward to your Monday crosswords ’cause they’re harder
5D was the best clue/answer I’ve seen all day. Kind of take exception to clues like 19A, which presume we are all vidiots glued to HBO (which I don’t have).
Finally, 16,000 pages of Game of Thrones has paid off.
Very smooth, but definitely wine of your easier hard puzzles. Would’ve been faster if I knew anything about Game of Thrones…
fun, but too easy for a HARD puzzle— I want to plumb the depths of my ignorance!
@Armagh,
I suggest you familiarize yourself with the GOT characters to survive the next several years of crosswords. Many of them have familiar-sounding but not quite spelled as usual names (e.g., Joffrey, Eddard, Ygritte), so useful for filling grids. GOT might well be the new Harry Potter. Or NBA.