CROSSWORD #153

ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS FRIDAY] 
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]

PROGRAM: [Java]

PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS FRIDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]

Just gonna throw it out there: love the Dan, but not really a big fan of this one, though. But since today is Black Friday, might as well throw this clip up there. Now you're going to have Steely Dan stuck in your head all day while you fight the throngs of crazed holiday shoppers who got up at stupid o'clock in the morning to go to Target in hopes of saving $7 on that Cuisinart. Stay safe out there. The lunatics are running the asylum.

I never shop on Black Friday. It's not like it's based on some political ideology. I just hate shopping. Shopping to me involves thinking about buying whatever for like 2-3 months. Do I really want it? Is there a better way I can spend my money? Yadda, yadda, yadda. Then one day, I'll just get up, go to the store, make a beeline to the aforementioned whatever, immediately proceed to the cash register and get on with my life. Doesn't matter if it's smartphones or beer. Shopping is all the same. And, yeah, since you asked, I've just begun working on whether or not I should buy beer in February. (Signs point to: yes.)

So, anyway. Today's puzzle. I went for the Moneygrid with this one. 64 words. Symmetry-be-damned. Pretty happy how it turned out. Actually, scrap that. I couldn't believe how much fun stuff I was able to cram in there. For a good while I tried to remove the black square just above the one numbered 53, or for that matter, tried to remove one of the two fingers above numbers 23 and 24. I couldn't fill anything in with the SW corner extra wide open. And the fill was hairy at best in the NE with the placement of one less black square. The moral, as always is: sometimes adding a black square (or two) improves the grid overall. Favorite clues in the batch include: 19-Across, 27-Down and 51-Down. Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments.

One the topic of my puzzles, the Visual Thesaurus posted my monthly contest yesterday. Curious parties can do it here.

Oh, you were wondering about my Thanksgiving, aren't you? Well, since you asked, I had four slices of pecan pie. I think that's my record.

Lastly. I'm asking once again if you liked the puzzles this month, and have a little bit extra in the wallet (or if you were planning on giving for the holidaze), a small donation would be greatly appreciated. Since I'm in the giving spirit, I will pay for a year's subscription to Peter Gordon's Fireball Crosswords to one randomly selected donor who gives between now and Wednesday. Support two trailblazing indie puzzlemakers!

Share the puzzle. New one on Monday.