I've highlighted the "reflection" squares. They spell out SHIP OF DREAMS. This titanic puzzle stretches several conventions. It's the first Shortz-era grid with up-down mirror symmetry. It is by far the widest. It's even bigger than Kevin's previous huge rectangle. It's not a size record, though, falling nearly 100 squares short of the seven 25x25 Millennium puzzles from 1999. (Here's one.)
I claim this is the world's first cubist crossword. There's the profile view of the ship and its reflection you have to draw yourself and, just maybe, if you squint at the arrangement of black squares, a top view of a ship sailing west. Do you see it? Also, GRID IRON is a great title for a puzzle that looks like a football field but isn't. The constructor tells the story of how he made this puzzle here on Quora.
1 S | 2 O | 3 F | 4 T | 5 B | 6 O | 7 S | 8 C | 9 S | 10 O | 11 J | 12 A | 13 Y | 14 S | 15 D | 16 S | 17 O | 18 S | 19 B | 20 A | 21 S | 22 S | 23 I |
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24 E | L | I | H | 25 U | 26 A | L | L | O | K | 27 M | 28 E | N | O | R | A | H | 29 S | O | U | T | H | 30 A | M | P | T | O | N |
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31 E | A | S | E | R | 32 L | E | O | N | I | 33 I | M | T | H | E | K | I | 34 N | G | O | F | T | H | E | W | O | R | L | D |
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35 M | Y | H | E | A | 36 R | T | 37 W | I | L | 38 L | G | O | O | N | 39 R | O | S | S | I | 40 T | S | K | ||||||||
41 K | A | L | I | 42 FE | L | I | S | 43 FE | 44 S | T | A | 45 FE | 46 I | N | 47 E | 48 G | 49 G | |||||||||||||
50 FE | 51 R | N | S | 52 FE | 53 E | 54 L | 55 F | R | E | E | 56 T | 57 A | 58 C | E | T | 59 M | 60 I | 61 L | 62 A | S | A | 63 FE | 64 R | A | 65 FE |
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66 E | D | I | T | 67 S | 68 D | E | I | S | T | 69 S | I | T | A | T | O | 70 P | 71 C | I | 72 R | R | I | 73 S | 74 N | A | F | U |
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75 D | A | FE | 76 P | 77 O | U | F | FE | 78 S | 79 A | N | T | A | FE | 80 L | A | 81 T | E | FE | E | S | 82 S | T | A | F | FE | D |
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83 E | T | A | T | 84 N | O | A | H | 85 P | A | B | S | T | 86 E | E | G | |||||||||||||||
87 V | 88 H | 89 S | 90 N | O | R | A | 91 H | 92 A | D | O | N | A | 93 I | 94 B | A | S | E | P | A | 95 Y | 96 T | R | E | 97 M | 98 O | 99 R |
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100 W | O | O | 101 E | D | 102 D | R | I | 103 L | L | 104 T | I | L | L | 105 N | O | W | 106 R | A | G | E | 107 S | 108 E | L | O | P | E |
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109 S | P | U | D | 110 M | O | M | M | I | E | 111 S | 112 C | T | E | A | M | 113 A | G | N | 114 A | C | 115 I | D | 116 D | E | F |
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117 R | A | 118 S | A | 119 A | I | R | 120 E | 121 E | B | 122 B | S | 123 R | I | D | 124 Q | E | D | |||||||||||||
125 W | 126 I | N | S | L | E | 127 T | 128 D | I | C | A | P | 129 R | 130 I | 131 O | 132 R | E | 133 G | 134 A | 135 N | 136 S | 137 O | U | ||||||||
138 O | Z | O | N | E | 139 A | 140 M | I | S | H | 141 E | L | E | V | 142 E | 143 N | A | C | A | D | E | 144 M | 145 Y | A | W | A | 146 R | 147 D | 148 S |
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149 V | O | T | E | D | 150 L | E | V | E | E | 151 E | S | S | E | N | C | E | 152 L | U | X | U | R | Y | L | I | N | E | R |
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153 E | D | E | R | 154 C | H | A | S | M | 155 T | R | E | O | S | 156 E | T | D | S | 157 S | L | A | W | S |
Answer summary:
8 unique to this puzzle, 6 debuted here and reused later, 3 unique to Modern Era but used previously.
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