Sunday New York Times Diagramless by Mike Nothnagel

Mike Nothnagel is in the center, Doug Peterson is on the left, and Brendan Emmett Quigley is on the right. Again. Crossword composers are a breed of people for whom pictures are not on the first page of Google image search results. This picture was on the second page.

Here are some alternate clues to the four starred clues.

12 Across – What a banker might want you to do before giving you a loan?
21 Across – What Rhett Butler might do in an unguarded moment?
40 Across – Captain Hook accused Peter Pan of this
58 Across – “Good luck on that public appearance!”

I would have clued Maoist as “Follower of one of the great mass murderers of the 20th century” instead of “Opponent of Chiang Kai-shek” The Chinese Cultural Revolution caused the death of 30 million people (source: the current Chinese government).

I have a post on how to do a diagramless crossword in the archives, but I believe it would be a good idea to have one here as well.

Most diagramless crosswords I have seen are in a square n x n grid. In this case, n = 17.

Most diagramless crosswords I’ve seen have regular crossword symmetry. That means if the square in row i, column j (where 1 <= i <= n and 1 <= j <= n) is open, then the square in row n - i, column n - j + 1 is open. If the square in row i, column j is blacked out, then the square in row n - i, column n - j + 1 is also blacked out. In this case, if the square in row i, column j is open (where 1 <= i <= 17 and 1 <= j <= 17), then the square in row 17 - i, column 17 - j + 1 is also open.

Most diagramless crosswords I've seen provide the location of the first letter of the first clue. In the case of the New York Times, the location is given with the answers from the previous week's crossword. This is an important piece of information, and the chances are good that if you ignore it, you will fail to solve the puzzle. I ignored it when I was solving the last NYT diagramless by Fred Piscop, and I failed. I drew a second grid, used the information, and succeeded. I am the voice of experience when I tell this to you. In this case, the first square across is in the fourth square of the first row. It follows that squares 1, 2 and 3 of the first row are blacked out. By the symmetry rule, squares 15, 16 and 17 of row 17 are also blacked out.

Lengths of words are discovered by examining the across and down numbers. For example, since the second Across clue is 5 Across, it follows that 1 Across is four letters long. Again by the symmetry rule, 74 Across is also 4 letters long.

Lengths of words provide locations of blacked out squares. For example, since 1 Across is four letters long, it follows that row 1, column 8 is blacked out. Again by the symmetry rule, row 17, column 10 is also blacked out.

The answers to clues in diagramless crosswords are relatively easy answers, since extra complexity already exists due to the lack of a diagram.

Make abundant use of crosses to get the answers to clues. For example, since 3 Down is "Peanuts" girl, chances are good that it's Lucy, which in turn makes the chances good that 1 Across is hilt.

Don’t assume the locations of words until you have a certain amount of evidence for their locations. For example, while there is room for 5 Across to go on the first row, there is nothing about this puzzle that says 5 Across has to go on the first row. In fact, in the last two diagramless puzzles I’ve done (including this one), there has only been one word on the first and last rows (hint, hint).

Is there anything I left out to the solving of diagramless crosswords?

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