This is an example of old-school construction. Not because I'm some sort of crossword purist or anything — I simply had no idea what I was doing, or any clue that software existed that could potentially make this puzzle a whole lot better.
The puzzle was primarily made with paper and pencil, various Excel spreadsheets, a dictionary, and an outdated encyclopedia, mostly during my lunch breaks. It took forever, and the end result was kind of bland in retrospect, but I'm still pretty proud of it. In any case, Will saw something in it, accepted it (after rejecting seven or eight other submissions), and the rest is history. I've since purchased some software, gotten some great advice, done a lot of studying, and upped my game.
The original submission had LET'S ROLL at 50-Across, which was a problem because of the ROLL in 4-Down. This resulted in an editorial rewrite of much of the lower half. Most of the clues are not mine, but c'est la vie. I am responsible for the clues for 1-Across and 9-Down, which are my personal favorites.
As explained at 35-Across, the three long vertical answers have OUTSIDERS, read as OUTSIDE Rs. There is an R missing from the top and bottom of each so you have to draw them outside the grid.
1 C | 2 A | 3 P | 4 O | 5 P | 6 R | 7 E | 8 O | 9 P | 10 E | 11 S | 12 T | 13 D |
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14 A | L | E | C | 15 H | A | S | T | O | 16 L | E | E | R |
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17 S | I | N | K | 18 I | S | I | T | I | 19 I | L | S | E |
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20 S | A | N | A | 21 A | 22 E | G | O | N | 23 G | E | T | S |
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24 A | S | A | N | T | 25 E | 26 N | I | T | 27 P | I | C | K | S |
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28 V | E | N | D | E | T | 29 T | A | 30 B | O | O | T | I | E |
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31 A | S | T | R | 32 A | U | T | 33 O | 34 O | U | S | T | S |
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35 O | 36 U | T | S | I | D | 37 E | R | S | ||||||
38 V | 39 I | 40 A | L | S | 41 H | O | E | R | 42 R | 43 E | 44 D | 45 O |
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46 A | N | N | L | E | 47 E | 48 N | A | I | 49 L | E | D | U | P |
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50 S | E | T | S | S | A | 51 I | L | 52 S | A | F | I | R | E |
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53 T | R | O | I | 54 S | K | E | 55 W | 56 C | O | T | A | N |
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57 E | R | I | N | 58 I | N | T | O | 59 W | 60 R | I | B | S |
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61 S | O | N | G | 62 N | O | T | R | E | 63 M | O | L | E |
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64 T | R | E | E | 65 G | W | E | N | S | 66 E | N | Y | A |
Answer summary:
4 unique to this puzzle, 2 unique to Modern Era but used previously.
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