Six Degrees of Separation

 If I'm doing really well on the Sunday Times crossword, I can do 2/3 - 3/4 of it on my own before I need to start opening the dictionary for help.  And that's if I'm really on fire.  For last week's puzzle, I completed all but six spaces on the entire puzzle with no external help of any kind.  It's taken me 16 years of working on the Sunday puzzle, but I'm almost there....