The 100th Puzzle Special! (Themeless)

Now Playing: Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss

[ Online | IPUZ | PDF | Solution ]

Word Count: 140

Mean Word Length: 5.29

One hundred crossword puzzles! Oh boy has it been a journey. Today’s a very special puzzle as it’s my first 21x21 grid. If you recognize any words, it’s not déjà vu, it’s a blast from the past! To celebrate the big one hundred, I compiled a word list from my first 99 crosswords and scored them… well, 99. Over half the grid still has new words in it so don’t fret, I’m still trying to keep it fresh.

Before we get into the crossword, I’d like to take a few moments to thank people (in no particular order, I’m just trying to make sure this section of the blog post flows well):

First off, Chris Piuma. Chris, you have solved on stream most of my crosswords to date including some of my earliest attempts. Your feedback has been invaluable to me as I’ve grown as a constructer and your platform has helped me get to know the wonderful crossword community.

Next, Norah Sharpe. Norah, you’ve been the bright beacon of light guiding me along this crazy path. Your positivity, brilliant and unique views, and your overall enthusiasm always warms my heart. I look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with you again in the future.

Lastly, let’s not forget about Crossweird. Momes and Dob, you two are an amazing duo who cheerfully solve any crossword tossed your way. No matter what absolute weirdness I’ve put into my puzzles, the two of you tackle it graciously. Momes, you once noticed that there were less and less geek culture clues in my crosswords, and you mentioned on how you missed them. That wasn’t an accident. As I’ve been trying to expand out my blog and crossword creation, I started to get a bit more generic. After your comment, I doubled down, and I’ve made sure to try and always have at least one geeky thing in my puzzles.

To all of you and everyone in the crossword community, thank you. I can’t wait for the next hundred puzzles!

Title Inspiration: Everything here on Trash Panda Puzzles!

Music Inspiration: It's the biggest grid yet, I had to go cliché ;)

Seed Words: 25A, 27A, 96A, 100A

Personal Word List/Score: 4D, 6D, 8D, 14D, 15D, 22A, 25A, 26D, 27A, 32A, 34A, 35D, 35A, 37D, 38D, 39D, 41A, 42D, 44D, 49D, 50A, 50D, 51D, 52D, 53D, 57A, 58A, 58D, 59A, 60A, 62A, 63A, 64A, 65A, 67D, 68D, 69D, 70A, 71A, 73D, 73A, 75D, 76A, 77A, 77D, 79D, 80D, 81A, 82D, 85D, 88A, 91A, 92A, 92D, 96A, 98D, 99D, 100A, 102A, 105A, 108A

Reused Words: 4D, 6D, 8D, 14D, 15D, 22A, 25A, 26D, 27A, 32A, 34A, 35D, 35A, 37D, 38D, 39D, 41A, 42D, 44D, 49D, 50D, 51D, 52D, 53D, 57A, 58A, 58D, 59A, 60A, 62A, 63A, 65A, 67D, 68D, 69D, 70A, 71A, 73D, 73A, 75D, 76A, 77A, 77D, 79D, 80D, 81A, 82D, 85D, 88A, 91A, 92A, 92D, 96A, 98D, 99D, 100A, 102A, 105A, 108A

Unique Words to Date: 4,286 (+81)

Non-NYT Words: 25A, 32A, 53A, 64A, 80D

Non-Shortz-Era Words: 18D, 51D, 88A

If you enjoy, solve, stream (I give bits), or find a typo in my crossword, please let me know! Especially for this one!

Don't forget to love each other,

Jac

I seriously recommend clicking here to load the puzzle larger in AmuseLabs!

Look, a 21x21 crossword is waaaaaaaay too big to be useable as an embedded web element. I can't make anything in a blog post wider than 740px.