One suggestion I have is to rework NLUA out of the grid. It's a tough corner to fill, but solvers are not receptive to nonsense words... I remember when I first started making puzzles I would invent words all the time when I got stuck... SKUA/ALKIE might work for that corner...
I actually thought about SKUA/ALKIE, but ALKIE really put me off.. I just didn’t want something that felt derogatory in my grid. Hmmmm.. maybe I’ll revisit that corner another day, I’m just afraid I’ll end up having to rework half the grid lol
That's a good point! I've used alkie (or one of its spelling variants) in a puzzle before and haven't given much thought that it may be offensive to some... I think I need to be more mindful in the future. Thanks!
lots of nice long answers in here... JAGUARSHARK and FLOORISLAVA are fun entries... would probably add "with "the"," for floor is lava clue... that game definitely brings back lots of fun childhood memories - thanks :)