And Then There Was A Word – Solutions

(Guest Post – by The Oracle)

Time for The Oracle’s Revelations …

Here’s the Solutions grid

I am sure most of you would have either known the term Sierpinski Carpet earlier or, if not,looked it up. A brief explanation for those who did not know or look: It is a plane fractal created by recursively subdividing a square into nine equal parts, blocking out the central square and carrying on. The grid used here is of the third order. Ever since I saw it, I wanted to make a crossword grid out of it and had to introduce bars in addition to blocks so that very long gridfills were avoided.

Since Christmas was round the corner, I thought of making it a themed one with these extra stuff thrown in:

1. Highlighting or blacking out the long theme words/phrases (in the 7^th and 21^st rows and columns) yields a shape, identified as # (hash) by some solvers, which when filled up fully (including the central large black square) depicts a cross-a symbol for the season.



2. “And then there was a Word’ was not a reference to the Biblical word, but literally the word “Word”, which when appended to the Cross, leads to “Crossword”.
3. There was some mis-direction about finding directions in the puzzle. This was a reference to literal directions (North, South, East and West) which can be found in the respective directions in the finished grid. I intended to include the directions NE,NW, SW and SE in the corners, but I messed up during revision leading to one of them going West.
4. It was also a Pangram (having all the letters of the alphabet at least once)

Here are the Annotations:

Across: 1 Acrostic, 5 FUN(nK)Y, 8 THORN*, 12 CROW N, 16 C+LOONY*, 20 A B ROAD, 21 REP RIM A N D, 22 Acrostic, 23 At WAKE, 24 Telescopic, 25 FAR*, 27 T(IRAN)A, 28 RA RE ST, 29 ISIs, 31 Telescopic, 32 Acrostic, 33 OLE*, 34 PAT IOS, 35 Telescopic, 37 (RED SALMON DIP)*, 40 (HEATHERS LEFT MOB)*, 46 CAB LEG RAM, 47 DD, 48 ROYAL-R+L, 49 Telescopic, 50 DD, 51 (HER TWINES)*, 53 P(RED)A TORY, 55 Telescopic, 56 D+CLUE*+T, 57 Telescopic, 58 CARES*, 61 Acrostic, 63 Telescopic, 64 BAT<, 66 RN A, 68 (KISs)*, 69 LET<, 70 CORgi, 71 DD, 72 TEN CH, 75 SOBer, 76 HOT T U B, 79 RAW<, 83 CD, 84 TELLS MAID*, 85 MU J(I)K, 86 Telescopic, 88 S(EVE)N, 91 HP of CENT, 94 ORANGe U TAN, 96 CD, 97 HATED* PENALTY, 99 EM(u)S, 101 DD, 102 O(A)K, 103 DD, 104 IS S, 108 I CU, 109 SARi NO< G, 111 (ON PIES)*, 112 SeEsAw, 113 Telescopic, 114 AZ TEC, 116 LEGO*, 117 A BOR(I GIN)E, 119 HE(ALE)R, 122 (UNATTACHED-CUTE*)*, 123 L IKE N, 124 CD, 125 ARGO T, 126 SAD IS M.

Down: 1 A(WAR)D, 2 RIG*, 3 DD, 4 Telescopic x 2, 5 TEN FREE CIRCLETS*, 6 DD, one by example, 7 (NO ARK)*, 8 NO STEAMED*, 9 Telescopic<, 10 TEnD, 11 (PAY HARRIS)*, 13 R EGRET FULHAM-HAM, 14 LOBO-L+E, 15 RA (STATEMENT)*, 17 LE E, 18 EDISON*, 19 YET IS, 26 FAR O, 30 BIB L E, 31 COPE*, 33 CD, 36 E SUM<, 38 ME(L)T ED, 39 SIGN A L, 40 SO H, 41 AG O, 42 (DYE HAY)*, 43 EX OT IC, 44 HON OR, 51 DD, 52 SAT E, 53 P ACTS, 54 CD,dd, 59 A R I A, 60 Telescopic, 62 G(R)IN, 65 (PITHY BARTENDERS)*, 67 E BOWL*, 70 MUCH*, 73 (SO RICE)*, 74 DD, 75 SOLO MON’S SEAL, 77 TRANCE*, 78 B(GLUE*)A, 79 W(HIT)E, 80 TAR<, 81 DD, 82 Telescopic, 85 DD, 87 BEgGAR*, 88 (GENOA GUYS)*, 89 VILLA GERmanS, 90 Telescopic, 91 Acrostic, 92 (Rom phoned)*, 93 TEAK*, 94 OB TrAINING, 95 N SAY*, 98 Telescopic, 100 DD, 105 (OKINAWA-AN)*, 106 tRAGIC*, 107 (HER MA)*, 110 CD,DD, 114 DD, 115 T AD, 117 A DO, 118 tOUT, 119 HeAlS, 120 ADDers, 121 Telescopic.

Here’s the link to the “Hall of Fame”

Thanks all for having patience and spending time on this rather large puzzle. All the very best for 2017.