this is the thread where we complain about the new york times crossword puzzle

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― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:42 (8 years ago) Permalink

Okay. Soz. I've seen lots of non-cryptic US crossword compilations.

― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:43 (8 years ago) Permalink

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:43 (8 years ago) Permalink

noodle, the ny times x-word is known for being difficult on monday to impossible on sunday.

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:44 (8 years ago) Permalink

shortz looks like a badass on that daily show screencap

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:45 (8 years ago) Permalink

How does it compare to the UK Times? Cos for all its rep, I don't think that's a particularly tough crossword.

― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:48 (8 years ago) Permalink

Mom (before leaving on week-long vacation): "Please keep the magazine section of the Times so I can do the crossword."
Me: "Well, I might want to do it. But I'll probably have trouble and wind up leaving most of it for you."
Mom: "Yeah, I bet you will."
Me: "What's that supposed to mean?"

Of course, I never got around to it.

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:54 (8 years ago) Permalink

I can never do the Fridays, and only 60% do the Thursdays.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:56 (8 years ago) Permalink

But seriously though, so much of it is practice and all those stupid words that people like my mom know because they've done them for decades. My grandfather could blow through the NYT crossword in minutes sometimes. He didn't know any of the pop culture answers but got everything else. The exact opposite of me.

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:57 (8 years ago) Permalink

saturday is the hardest puzzle, not sunday. sunday is supposedly somewhere close to thursday edging towards friday in average difficulty.

― andrew s (andrew s), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 01:02 (8 years ago) Permalink

THAT'S what Will Shortz looks like???

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 01:03 (8 years ago) Permalink

Roy Blount used to do a cryptic corssword in SPY.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 01:04 (8 years ago) Permalink

I actually don't find the Mondays very hard, but there's a precipitous increase in difficulty so that by Wednesday I'm already less than 50% likely to finish.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 01:07 (8 years ago) Permalink

yeah saturday's way harder.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 01:10 (8 years ago) Permalink

I've finished Saturday like five times in the past year. It's embarrassing, actually.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 01:11 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Rocker Brian" to thread.

― Curious George Finds the Ether Bottle (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 01:31 (8 years ago) Permalink

what gets me are when they want you to solve the puzzles rebus style. So, "Heartache" becomes a five letter answer 'cuz you draw a little heart in the first square.

BASTARDS!

― Austin S (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 01:35 (8 years ago) Permalink

yeah the internet one was like that, you had to fit "edu" into one square, ditto "net" and "com" and "org", it was like a handwriting challenge just to cram all the letters in!

the new york times crossword is NOT "cryptic" in the way that UK ones are, it's a synonym puzzle, and it's very strictly constructed, essentially each clue could replace its answer in a sentence and still be grammatically correct

one could draw inferences about cultural differences represented by these respective x-word hegemonies and possibly parlay it into a tiresome article for the nyt magazine, or an actually interesting one for the guardian

the nation used to run a cryptic crossword on its back page, i suspect it still does.

we could also talk about what kind of person the nytimes crossword imagines its solvers to be, and complain about that, which would delight me

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 02:13 (8 years ago) Permalink

with respect to the second part of my question, a respect i'm not sure it deserves, i think a key consideration for any prospective member of the screen actor's guild should be to reflect on a snappy three- or four-letter last name with at least two vowels in it, which apellation will ensure crossword slebdom for years to come, and keep that name slumbering in some remote and bespectacled national consciousness in order that it might one day reawaken

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 02:17 (8 years ago) Permalink

cutty, monday's is no sweat, don't put it about that it's hard, because believe me it's not.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 02:20 (8 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, I can generally kill it in 10 or so. I rarely finish friday's, and haven't seen a saturday in years (I get the NYT puzzle from a student paper that only publishes weekdays.)

― Austin Swinburn (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 02:22 (8 years ago) Permalink

Monday very easy. Thursday, Friday a little challenging but fun for experienced solver. Wednesday is sort of a swing vote- sometimes easier, sometimes harder. Saturday difficult, as pointed out up thread. Sunday time-consuming.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 02:24 (8 years ago) Permalink

I like the diagramless puzzles every few Sundays. Like yesterday. The clues aren't hard at all, it's just figuring out where to put the words.

I've never gotten even half of a Saturday puzzle.

Is it also true that the puzzles increase in difficulty as the month progresses?

― mte22 (mte22), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 03:35 (8 years ago) Permalink

Shortz isn't cryptic! He's kinda a hybrid between cryptics and normal clues... They are hard and great, I wanna do them again.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 03:44 (8 years ago) Permalink

mte22 i'd never thought about that! maybe they do. eight days ago i did the entire sunday one solely on the subway! (L to 8th ave, then A train to washington heights, and all the way back down to clinton/washington, G to lorimer) this sunday though i was agitated and then my magazine got wet and i ended up throwing it, with the rest of the paper, into one of those big construction dumpsters. my jeans are still drying on the stairs.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 04:28 (8 years ago) Permalink

desi arnaz

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 04:28 (8 years ago) Permalink

The new Chicago Reader crossword a few weeks ago had as a clue: "Kings of Convenience singer Erlend"!

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 04:31 (8 years ago) Permalink

Tracer, your complaints about the NYTimes puzzle ring suspiciously pre-Shortz.

The Atlantic Monthly (right? not Harper's?) runs cryptics by Ravathon and Cox, who are hands-down the best cruciverbalists in this country.

I've never heard anyone talk about them getting harder as a month progresses, though. What do you do when the end of a month is on a Tuesday? Seems like madness.

I can do Saturdays about 33% of the time but it takes a few hours and usually a breather in between solving attempts. I am bringing some for my x-country train trip tomorrow.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 07:34 (8 years ago) Permalink

The new Chicago Reader crossword a few weeks ago had as a clue: "Kings of Convenience singer Erlend"!

Did they want the correct letter Ø in the answer?

― OleM (OleM), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 09:12 (8 years ago) Permalink

Maybe. The clue that crossed it was "______ Kierkegaard"

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 11:20 (8 years ago) Permalink

The Atlantic Monthly (right? not Harper's?) runs cryptics by Ravathon and Cox, who are hands-down the best cruciverbalists in this country
Right. Rathvon and Cox in the Atlantic, Richard Maltby, Jr in Harpers. Rathvon and Cox are the best-after all, they wrote the book- but these days I like Maltby a little better. He works in musical theater as his day job, like the man who brought the cryptic puzzle to the US, Stephen Sondheim.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 11:24 (8 years ago) Permalink

Rathvon (at some point I noticed that I had misread it for all these years, but now I can't remember whether I misread it by adding the "a" or forgetting it) and Cox are responsible for the greatest crossword puzzle ever, though, which was c. 1996 and which I still have around somewhere. Its gimmick made me squeal with outrage and delight, and I really don't want to say anything more about it in case you come across it someday -- it should come at you unawares. Didn't they also do the infamous Election Day 1996 puzzle where the center read either "CLINTON WINS ELECTION" or "BOB DOLE WINS ELECTION" depending on how you chose to fill in the first 7 squares? They are gods, you cannot touch them.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 12:01 (8 years ago) Permalink

Does anybody know if there are any books on how to construct crosswords?

― Curious George Finds the Ether Bottle (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 12:24 (8 years ago) Permalink

I may have just made that up about them getting harder through the month. I don't know now.

― mte22 (mte22), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 14:05 (8 years ago) Permalink

Curious G. I just searched but the sites seem to be blocked to me!

You know, last I checked the NY Sun had a really good puzzle. Lots of well-known constructors. I've bought some of the collections.

OK, here's something.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 14:50 (8 years ago) Permalink

there is not enough complaining going on in this thread

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 15:55 (8 years ago) Permalink

Eat my Will Shortz!

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 15:58 (8 years ago) Permalink

I want Saturday puzzles for free, too!

WAAAAAAH!

― Austin S (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:07 (8 years ago) Permalink

Curious Geo.: There are, although I haven't read any. The difficulty is not in the grid, it's in the clues.

Tracer: I'll complain that the Sundays are surprisingly boring and tedious considering their fame.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:50 (8 years ago) Permalink

I became a trial subscriber to the NYTimes puzzle service for a month and downloaded an entire year of puzzles (2002, I think?) and continue to work on them. It is the economical way to do it, I think. If I had the "speed download" download-a-bunch-of-links-on-a-page-at-once software then that I have now, well, then I'd have a few years of puzzles for like $5 plus printing costs.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:51 (8 years ago) Permalink

The Sunday puzzle I prefer to do as part of a team or tag team to minimize the fatigue of filling in the damn thing.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 18:52 (8 years ago) Permalink

slaw is served on hamburgers, at least in my part of Tennessee. And of course, on barbecue sandwiches.

Saturday's NYT puzzle is really the hardest for me, because the answers are longer words. I can do it maybe 50% of the time. Monday-Thursday I can almost always solve, Friday about 70%. Sunday takes longer, but I can usually do it easier than Saturday's.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:10 (8 years ago) Permalink

What part of Tennessee are you from edd? I'm from Knoxville and seriously, the thought of putting slaw, or slaws even, on a.. burger? I can see how it might be good, especially the no-carrot cabbagey vinegary kind. I'm perfectly willing to admit that there are facets to the New York Times Crossword Solver's personality that remain obscure to me. What's a little frightening is how FEW of them there are!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 06:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

For "personality" read "experience", if there is any difference, which I'm not sure there is

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 06:26 (8 years ago) Permalink

for your possible use here's a .zip file with pretty much all the nyt sunday puzzles from the last seven years (388 files/850kb). you'll need the across lite software to open 'em.

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 07:16 (8 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

this week's Sunday puzzle falls on the 1st (hah at first I wrote "this week's Sunday puzzle falls on a Monday") so in light of this thread I considered whether that meant it would be the easiest Sunday puzzle one could have. I have decided that it's not. Casuistry has got it with the boring and tedious thing, but I'm usually able to race through them quicker than this, although I still haven't sussed out the theme, which is weird, too. sometimes I wonder whether it's the puzzle that's hard, or whether I'm just not with it. It's a very particular angle you have to jut yourself out at to do these things and sometimes there's something deep within me that refuses to even get into it. my theory, which is predicated on me being just as sharp as ever, is that the crossword people at the NY Times consider this the LAST Sunday of the month.. cause they work in weeks, right? They wouldn't zip straight from a Last Saturday type puzzle (which this last one was) to a real easy Sunday puzzle wouldn't they? Anyhow.

My complaints for this week are: "dais" twice in a row, with practically the same clue, what's next, "microphone's environs"?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 2 May 2005 05:26 (8 years ago) Permalink

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 2 May 2005 05:28 (8 years ago) Permalink

I hate it when they repeat like that. I was working in some (NYTimes) book and they had the same clue in three of the first four puzzles. Seriously, pay a little more care, people! Crossword puzzles are supposed to be transcendent!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 2 May 2005 05:33 (8 years ago) Permalink

I'm telling you, you want to get residuals for a long time, change your name to "Euai"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 2 May 2005 05:49 (8 years ago) Permalink

or "Euai Kapaui"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 2 May 2005 06:01 (8 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 137 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

maybe the clue was referring to afro-styled pubic hair

― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:58 (4 years ago) Permalink

Are you guys familiar with the fact that in Webster's Tenth Collegiate Dictionary under "Afro" there was a picture of a man with an afro, but in the Eleventh it became just a picture of disembodied hair?

In my copy of the 11th, there's still a face attached, but it's a woman rather than a man.

― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Friday, 13 February 2009 20:07 (4 years ago) Permalink

Mine too.

― nabisco, Friday, 13 February 2009 20:14 (4 years ago) Permalink

I mean, obviously

― nabisco, Friday, 13 February 2009 20:14 (4 years ago) Permalink

OK, my bad. I have the Tenth in front of me but not the Eleventh. I just spoke to mr finewine, who first pointed this out to me, and he reminded me that there was another change between the Ninth and the Tenth, that between nine and ten the guy's afro was trimmed down and his skin color was blanched.

― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 13 February 2009 20:55 (4 years ago) Permalink

I just e-mailed my brother to see if he could send me a copy of the interview he conducted a few years ago with Jeffrey Middleton, the Webster's illustrator.

― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Friday, 13 February 2009 20:58 (4 years ago) Permalink

Your family sounds awesome.

― i'm shy (Abbott), Friday, 13 February 2009 21:03 (4 years ago) Permalink

if i recall correctly, the guy with the afro in 9th or 10th edition also had an incredibly wide "negroid" nose.

― robotsinlove, Friday, 13 February 2009 21:08 (4 years ago) Permalink

this was the picture for the 8th ed.:

― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Friday, 13 February 2009 21:11 (4 years ago) Permalink

i spent a lot of time looking at that clue thinking "Jeb? GHWB?"

― My new tackling, kidney punching, helmet slapping celebration (forksclovetofu), Friday, 13 February 2009 21:11 (4 years ago) Permalink

Another Afro-Websterian not often seen today is the "backhand"-ing Arthur Ashe figure who disappeared after the Ninth.

I'm really liking Ken Ken. The six square one is requiring me to xerox it to figure out the possible permutations.
― My new tackling, kidney punching, helmet slapping celebration (forksclovetofu), Friday, February 13, 2009 2:33 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
or rather today's friday one is. I was gold until today.
― My new tackling, kidney punching, helmet slapping celebration (forksclovetofu), Friday, February 13, 2009 2:36 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

Tonight when I got home made mad rush to find print copy of the NYT only to find out Mrs. Redd had recycled it, made rush to basement to find out the super had recycled it and furthermore the truck had come two hours before. Luckily it turned out today's paper had in fact been spared and was still in apartment. Took up gauntlet thrown down by above quote and spent a long time trying to find logical way into today's 6x6. Here's how I finally got started:

KENKEN SPOILER ALERT*****
Ended up concentrating on right edge. Notice that top had a 20x and bottom had a 4x, neither which was divisible by 3, so the 3 had to be in the 2÷ in the middle. Then I... now that I look at it, I think my next piece of logic was more of guess, but I looked at the bottom 4x l-shape and went with 2-1-2 instead of 1-4-1. Also there was some "forcing" between the bottom right l-shape and the top l-shape, which I used but turned out I had the 5 in the top el in the wrong place until the very end.

― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 14 February 2009 01:28 (4 years ago) Permalink

OK, now I remember.

***ANOTHER KENKEN SPOILER***
The left edge 15+ had to be 4-5-6 in some order, which meant the 1- at the top of the left side had to have a 2 in it. Which meant the 20x at the top of the right side couldn't be 2-5-2 so it had to be 5-4-1 (in some order) which meant the bottom right couldn't be 1-4-1 so it had to be 2-1-2.

― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 14 February 2009 03:52 (4 years ago) Permalink

So much wanted "Hits with bug spray" to be "Offs"

― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 19 February 2009 00:09 (4 years ago) Permalink

hey maybe start a new thread for kenken

― Mr. Que, Thursday, 19 February 2009 01:50 (4 years ago) Permalink

fucked up the 6x6 today somehow, in pen...

― max, Thursday, 19 February 2009 02:53 (4 years ago) Permalink

Huh. Just a couple weeks ago I constructed a puzzle with the exact same theme as Wednesday's. Guess I'll pitch it elsewhere.

― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Sunday, 22 February 2009 19:52 (4 years ago) Permalink

new thread Les Aventures de Kenken

― moe greene dolphin street (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 4 March 2009 03:13 (4 years ago) Permalink

Just watched the documentary Wordplay. Very entertaining.

― moe greene dolphin street (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 4 March 2009 05:12 (4 years ago) Permalink

And Tyler Hinman just won for the 5th straight year this past weekend.

― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Wednesday, 4 March 2009 06:31 (4 years ago) Permalink

When are you going to enter, jaymc?

― moe greene dolphin street (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 4 March 2009 14:46 (4 years ago) Permalink

Oh yeah, today's theme is pretty fun.

― moe greene dolphin street (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 4 March 2009 14:46 (4 years ago) Permalink

But today's is crazy hard.

― moe greene dolphin street (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 5 March 2009 15:18 (4 years ago) Permalink

10 months pass...

It's been a while for me & the NYT puzzles. Typically, I'll binge on them for a while & then get bored. A year or two will pass & then I will resume the cycle. Tonight, insomnia has led me re-embrace this vice. Or maybe not. I'm going come in swinging w/ an attempt at the Sat. puzzle & go from there..

― no hongro dialect (Pillbox), Sunday, 17 January 2010 06:19 (3 years ago) Permalink

OK, one down (w/ two errors). I had to walk away from it & come back, tho. Does anyone else subscribe to the premium service w/ the Across Lite app? I signed up for it several years ago & then ended up switching banks, but somehow my membership was never canceled. glitch in the system = free online nyt xwords 4 LYFE (hopefully).

― hukqs not drukqs (Pillbox), Sunday, 17 January 2010 08:35 (3 years ago) Permalink

9 months pass...

i've been binging on a book of nyt puzzles lately -- but it's way too tempting to check the answer key when i get stumped.

― I’m not the English Philip Roth, I’m the Jewish Jane Austen (get bent), Tuesday, 19 October 2010 09:34 (2 years ago) Permalink

8 months pass...

not a complaint but a good friend of mine regularly babysat the constructor of friday's puzzle. (he's 15 and going to harvard next year.)

― the charo and the pity (donna rouge), Friday, 24 June 2011 05:43 (1 year ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

Christ, the lower right corner of today's is driving me batty. I have all but three spaces & am totally stumped & frustrated. Guess it's time to walk away for a moment.

― Broney, Pt. 1 (Pillbox), Saturday, 22 September 2012 00:58 (8 months ago) Permalink

Is that Friday's or Saturday's? This morning it was the left and lower left that were giving me trouble for the longest time.

― a shark with a rippling six pack (Phil D.), Saturday, 22 September 2012 12:16 (8 months ago) Permalink

Friday's. If I have time tomorrow, though, I'll do Saturday's. Saturday Times puzzles are the best - far prefer them to Sundays tbh.

― Broney, Pt. 1 (Pillbox), Sunday, 23 September 2012 10:17 (8 months ago) Permalink

They are rillllly hard

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:57 (8 months ago) Permalink

imo this past weekend's puzzles were a rare instance of Friday being more challenging than Saturday.

― Broney, Pt. 1 (Pillbox), Tuesday, 25 September 2012 02:44 (8 months ago) Permalink

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