About the theme

World Deserts covers Sahara, Gobi, Atacama, Kalahari, Mojave, Sonoran, Patagonian, Arabian, Namib, Antarctic. The compound names (Kalahari, Patagonian, Taklamakan, Antarctic) anchor the bigger grids; the short ones (Gobi, Namib, Thar, Sinai) hide. Filler leans on the dry register — heavy on A and the desert-name consonant clusters. Plays sparse, like the geography it lists.