Crossword: My Sociology Experiment 2.0

If you know me, you probably also know that I think it's fun to see how people react to unusual situations. This is especially fun at IA because said reactions are frequently awesome. For example, the last time I tried a sociology experiment it went rather well. This post is going to be about another attempt at something similar, but also quite a bit different, so hang on tight.

During the penultimate physics class of 2009 (the last one before the midterm), we had finished reviewing and had some time to ourselves. While I was sitting at my desk a thought occurred to me and I found that I had said it out loud before it had even finished taking shape: "I feel like drawing a really complex crossword puzzle on the board." It was that simple; don't ask me where the idea came from or why I decided it was a good one. I had a good 15 or 20 minutes of class left, so I went over to the whiteboard on the side of the room (which Mr. Lyons hardly ever uses) and got to work. In that time I managed to come up with quite a puzzle, especially considering that there was no planning involved whatsoever; I pretty much just thought of clues one at a time and added in the word wherever I found a shared letter. This explains the somewhat unorganized numbering system - traditionally the boxes are numbered from left to right then top to bottom like the letters on a page - but I'm willing to overlook that if you are. Here's what I came up with; I needed multiple pictures because of the not-so-great resolution of my cell phone camera, but you can click all of them to get a closer look:

Here's the puzzle itself; I Photoshopped (OK, Fireworksed) the numbers and the ümläüt in because they were hard to read otherwise, and I should clear up that there are two separate boxes that I had to squeeze in below the number 7 and above the word "Across." Now for the clues:


If you want to try your hand at it, you can print a cleaner copy using this printable version in PDF format...in fact, I challenge you to do so. I had planned on posting the puzzle and the answers together, but as I go I'm liking more and more the idea of waiting a while. OK so here's what I'll do: once this post goes up, you will have a limited amount of time (at least a week but probably not more than until the end of break) to try to solve the puzzle. If you can email the correct answers to josh@OnlyAtIA.com before the answers appear, you will get your name in the hall of fame that will be in the post with the answers. I encourage you to send your answers even if you don't know all of them for sure. If I see that there are still people working on it, the deadline is more likely to be later. Besides, you can submit your answers more than once. So one more time, here's the printable version. Missed it? OK here it is again. Good luck to everyone!