Puzzle #1: City-States

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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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25x21 Themeless: Knickerbocker Holiday

Back on the big-center train. This puzzle was full of coincidences. The original version had black squares on the first letter of 51-Down and the last letter of 55-Down. After filling most of the center, I realized that these could be removed, forming a stack of five long entries going vertically, but a stack of seven long entries going horizontally. Then as I was cluing, I realized that 50-Down and 55-Across both feature in the play "Knickerbocker Holiday," which is as specific as it is random. For those of you who don't already know all of the characters and songs from 1930's Broadway plays (and I'm sure there are at least tens of you) I've added extra hints in those clues. There's a fair amount of these hints throughout the puzzle because I want things to be as fair as possible for a puzzle this wide-open. Even so, I'd call this a "very hard" puzzle, so proceed with caution, but listen to the void if it calls to you.
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25x24 Themeless: International Waters

Hopping back on the train of asymmetrical themelesses with open centers. This one is a fair bit harder than the last, as a result of the center being bigger. The previous puzzle, "Parking Lot," had a 6x6 open section; this one has a 7x6. While all of the answers are legitimate (at least to me), be warned that they might be less familiar overall. Once again, the center was achieved with a little bit of computer fill in the center and a lot of manual fill around the edges. Besides the larger center, this puzzle has a higher average word length than the last. "Parking Lot" was 6.08 on average, this one is 6.13 on average. So, good luck! Thanks to Joel Grus for noticing a couple of errors in an earlier version!
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