Constructor's Comments
I originally constructed this puzzle for a contest run by Andrew Ries, who makes excellent freestyle crosswords himself. The seed entries were, as you may have guessed, the interlocking 15s running through the center of the puzzle—I think there's something really beautiful about the fact that they both have the???? D??K CON?E?T letter pattern.
I think this is a tremendously difficult puzzle, not only because it contains a lot of trivia, proper nouns, and difficult vocabulary but also because the clues I submitted are quite tricky. Whether David has done anything to mitigate my jolly sadism I can't say, but in either case, I hope the puzzle is an enjoyable challenge!
Good puzzle, Andy. This was indeed quite a bit harder than previous themeless grids here. It may have been a bit tough for the general public, but I say keep them coming.
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