C | L | A | M | S | P | A | C | E | D | A | P | S | E | N | I | B | S | |||
H | A | S | A | T | E | M | O | T | E | D | O | E | R | E | C | O | L | |||
I | S | T | H | A | T | A | F | A | C | T | A | S | E | A | W | I | R | Y | ||
C | H | U | R | R | O | S | C | H | E | R | I | T | S | A | D | E | A | L | ||
H | E | T | E | R | O | W | H | E | R | E | S | T | H | E | P | A | R | T | Y | |
I | D | E | S | H | O | O | K | S | C | H | E | E | R | E | D | |||||
D | O | O | M | L | O | A | D | S | A | G | A | |||||||||
H | O | W | S | I | T | H | A | N | G | I | N | G | G | L | I | B | O | N | ||
A | R | E | A | S | S | N | O | O | T | S | R | A | I | N | C | O | A | T | ||
G | O | T | C | H | A | L | A | T | F | A | R | M | H | O | U | S | E | |||
W | H | O | S | E | S | I | D | E | A | R | E | Y | O | U | O | N | ||||
O | R | I | E | N | T | A | T | E | R | N | A | S | M | I | D | G | E | |||
D | E | L | T | O | I | D | S | T | B | O | N | D | S | A | N | I | M | E | ||
E | E | L | R | R | S | W | H | O | S | C | R | Y | I | N | G | N | O | W | ||
S | K | Y | S | M | A | R | X | E | N | N | E | |||||||||
E | S | O | B | E | S | O | S | T | A | S | H | C | A | T | E | |||||
W | H | A | T | S | E | A | T | I | N | G | H | I | M | A | S | A | S | O | N | |
A | I | R | B | R | U | S | H | E | N | I | D | S | N | A | R | L | A | T | ||
I | N | K | A | V | S | O | P | A | N | Y | B | O | D | Y | H | O | M | E | ||
F | D | I | C | R | E | D | S | S | T | U | M | P | N | O | P | A | R | |||
S | I | N | K | E | T | S | Y | H | O | P | I | S | O | P | E | N | S |
Constructing crossword puzzles is very new to me. I find the creative but constraint-driven process of working out themes absorbing, the creation of fill frustrating and a bit of a slog, and clue writing great fun. For this puzzle, theme answer ideas were easy to come up with, but tying them to a profession not always so. I wish I could have included WHY THE HELL NOT with Atheist as its clue.
When I write clues, it's simple enough to get a sense of difficulty level for individual answers, but I don't feel particularly adept at sensing how hard a puzzle is, as a whole. Or, maybe I just like to write nasty clues. For this puzzle, I think the editors felt the clues had to be pulled back a bit. For example, they added the word "bowling" to the clue for 7-Down, thereby saving the solver from mistakenly filling in HOV. Darn!