Puzzle #1: City-States

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25x21 Themeless: Knickerbocker Holiday

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21x21 Themeless: Now with Rotational Symmetry

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This themeless was inspired by Diana Sessions, a Pre-Shortzian constructor who was making puzzles with centers like this as early as the 1950's. I have no idea how you could even start to go about this back then; I used Crossfire and it still took ages and a lot of manual reworking to achieve anything like it. Just a couple of stats for the puzzle before we begin. It has 126 words, but only 52 black squares, thanks to the fact that the open center takes up so much space that you need minimal blocks to make the edges fillable. It's also finally a big-center themeless with rotational symmetry. Enjoy!
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