My mother-in-law's name is Patsy, and I'm a big fan of Patsy Cline — "Walkin' After Midnight" is one of my favorites. Not hard to see where I got the idea for the puzzle.
What is hard to see is PATSY CLINE in the grid. She could have gone where PIGEON COOP is, but my mother-in-law in a crossword where PATSY is associated with CHUMP, SUCKER, and MARK ... hmm.
Locking CON MEN and MARK ANTONY into place made for some teeth-gnashing. After my first pass, I ended up with CON MEN crossing ... NEOCON. Is that a dupe? Not really, since one CON stands for CONFIDENCE and the other CONSERVATIVE, two words with different etymologies.
But every time I tried to convince myself that it was perfectly fine, it bothered me mightily. Maybe having something that looks like a DUPE is appropriate for this puzzle (groan), but I just couldn't live with it. There went another few hours, into the garbage.
Apologies to anyone whose sensibilities were offended by PORKY'S, but talk about a cult classic. It's hard to believe they got away with naming a character "Beulah Balbricker."
I had fun working on the lower right, trying over and over to maximize my impact with those long slots. I'm a fan of Latin phrases, physics, and throwbacks to the 80s, so QUO VADIS, BETA RAY, UNDEROOS made me happy. Talk about a disparate trio of terms.
I also spent a ridiculous amount of time debating the middle section. I was in finance for years, so I've always found the term I BANKER (investment banker) colorful. (Not always ethical, but colorful.) Was it worth ORANG? I've heard people say ORANG before and I'm fine with it, but I realize it's not everyone's cup of tea. I could have gone with something like STINKER instead, but really, isn't an I BANKER the same thing? (*rim shot*)
ADDED NOTE: Jim didn't know what an I BANKER was, and had a hard time convincing himself that it could possibly be correct. Maybe I've spent too much time in finance ... dang it, maybe I should have gone with STINKER!
1 M | 2 I | 3 C | 4 A | 5 L | 6 O | 7 L | 8 A | 9 A | 10 V | 11 E | 12 R |
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13 A | T | O | N | 14 I | M | A | X | 15 S | P | O | R | E |
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16 G | E | N | T | 17 P | I | G | E | 18 O | N | C | O | O | P |
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19 I | M | T | O | 20 A | S | T | 21 R | O | A | D | I | E |
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22 I | N | D | Y | 23 I | 24 R | A | 25 L | O | C | A |
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26 B | 27 A | N | Y | A | N | 28 B | A | N | 29 C | O | A | L |
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30 C | H | U | M | P | C | 31 H | A | N | G | 32 E | ||||
33 C | H | E | S | T | 34 E | N | G | 35 S | 36 Q | 37 U | 38 I | 39 D |
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40 S | 41 U | C | K | E | 42 R | P | U | N | C | H |
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43 C | 44 C | 45 U | 46 P | 47 C | H | E | 48 E | R | O | D | E | S |
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49 O | R | S | O | 50 O | E | R | 51 D | I | V | E | ||||
52 N | E | U | R | 53 O | N | 54 B | E | T | A | R | 55 A | 56 Y |
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57 M | A | R | K | A | N | 58 T | 59 O | N | Y | 60 D | O | T | E |
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61 E | S | P | Y | S | 62 C | R | E | E | 63 I | O | T | A |
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64 N | E | S | S | 65 M | E | G | S | 66 S | S | N | S |
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Answer summary: 6 unique to this puzzle, 2 unique to Shortz Era but used previously.
Found bugs or have suggestions?