CROSSWORD #1222: Themeless Monday

THEMELESS MONDAY: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF] 
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And here we are. The electrifying conclusion to 2019. What a year. What a year, indeed. I took a few minutes this morning looking back at what I did and here were some of my puzzles I made that I liked for various reasons (your mileage may vary).

No doubt my favorite of the year was this one. Once I had the concept, I thought it would be a sprint to the finish line to make it. Little did I know how long it would take to clue the thing. Never going to try that again. But thankfully, I never have to.

Here’s a funny one that I made when I was reading about the planned storming of Area 51. I retweeted it on the day of the actual event, and you wouldn’t believe some of the, uh, rather strange emails I received from UFO fanatics. The truth is out there, I guess.

I started off this year with a real winner. Will 2020 be the same? Watch this space.

I took inspiration from the always-winning work of Joshua Kosman and Henry Picciotto for this puzzle. Letter banks plus phrases involving banking, maybe I got lost in the ouroboros. Or … maybe I didn’t.

You can pretty much be assured you’ll see new container themes from yours truly. Here are two that stood out to me. And everybody probably has their own favorite entry that put a smile on your face. I’ll start. 20-Across in this one, 56-Across here, and, okay, I’ll say it, all the theme answers in this one. And lastly, here are two puzzles whose rare letter combos I felt were rather pleasing grids.

Thanks again to those who were able to chip in during the December drive. If you have chipped in and have not yet received your puzzles yet, Email me and I’ll fix that A.S.A.P. And as promised, our randomly selected winner of the drive who will receive a subscription to the indie puzzle market of her choice is Kelley Bielewicz. Congrats, Kelley.

Share the puzzle. New one next year.