"The I's Have It," by Todd Gross

Constructor's Comments

The idea for this crossword came from two insights:  (1) stacking multiple I's vertically gives you a tall I, and (2) I can be interpreted multiple ways—a Roman numeral, the personal pronoun, and, uh, a vertical line.  I was lucky to find VERTICAL/STRIPING, which is a nice way to tie the theme entries together.  I was also fortunate to think of "Self-centered ego?" to clue 24-Down.

It was nice that I could get all this in a 70-entry grid with some nice nontheme entries.  I'm particularly fond of the ESSO/LESS SO/ESPRESSO combination, which was a total coincidence.