h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Every year following my wife's birthday it is time to write the annual Christmas crossword – and for the first time ever I managed to create the crossword, using only Excel and a dictionary, within one day. In this case, over a Sunday afternoon. This is the 15th Christmas crossword I've written (the last 8 of which have appeared in and if Dmitri wants, this one can too) and to celebrate I've done something I've never done before – had an answer in it beginning with Z. That might well be the hardest answer in it, which would be why I've not had a crossword answer beginning with Z in the past.

Despite Icy's suggestions last year concerning symmetry and unches, this crossword isn't symmetrical; neither mirror symmetry nor rotational symmetry. Maybe if I'd spent longer on it I could have written a symmetrical crossword, but to be honest I wanted to get it done and dusted before starting what I really wanted to write – a comic book adaptation of the Nativity. Think of it being my interpretation of the Nativity in much the same vein as I summarised the story of Moses in that entry about films about Moses. Well, that's the idea any way.

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Rotational Symmetry =

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Well done I look forward to seeing the crossword. I don't mind one without rotational symmetry, as I am in awe of how you fill every square in the grid with letters

Thank you for doing one - I hate making up puzzles and such. I'm still looking for a volunteer to make up quizzes for the Post...

I can send in the questions for the Christmas issue on Monday. (Well, actually I can e-mail 'em in now, but I might as well wait until Monday.)

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Good deal, thanks!

Unsurprisingly Icy North reacted to the crossword by posting three shocked faces, thus: and also commenting that the crossword contains three double-unches, one triple-unch and a quintuple-unch (or, as I like to think of it, the tunnel). An 'unch' or 'unchecked square' is one that only belongs to a word across or down, whereas a checked square belongs to a word both along and down. So out of 216 squares, having only 17 unch squares that are adjacent to another unch square doesn't seem a big deal to me.

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