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

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The only slaws I know of are carrot & cole, and they're not toppings. Is relish considered a slaw? Because it's not.

― andy --, Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:29 (8 years ago) Permalink

slaws was in last thursday's, the otherwise very cool internet-themed one

lori petty was in yesterday's i think

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:30 (8 years ago) Permalink

cole slaw is too a topping. you haven't lived if you haven't had it on a hot dog.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:30 (8 years ago) Permalink

i coulda just opened your magazine and looked, tracer, but i'm lazy.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:31 (8 years ago) Permalink

rye (new york ville) is far more famous than it deserves

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:31 (8 years ago) Permalink

to be

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:31 (8 years ago) Permalink

hey i've got a cousin in rye! be nice!

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:32 (8 years ago) Permalink

is rye slang for rikers?

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:33 (8 years ago) Permalink

RYE PLAYLAND

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:35 (8 years ago) Permalink

hey blount be nice!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:35 (8 years ago) Permalink

xpost cutty exactly

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:35 (8 years ago) Permalink

they never say "home of playland"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:36 (8 years ago) Permalink

Am I right in thinking the American papers don't do cryptic crosswords? In which case, what's the point?

― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:40 (8 years ago) Permalink

will shortz is a cryptic motherfucker!

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:41 (8 years ago) Permalink

they're cryptic.

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:42 (8 years ago) Permalink

― 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

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

Ha, a couple times I've felt awesome about having solved a Wednesday fairly quickly and then found that Rex rated it uncommonly easy.

― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:16 (4 years ago) Permalink

i still can't really get through a thursday puzzle :/

― Mr. Que, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:16 (4 years ago) Permalink

the answer for "bush not seen much today" is pretty o_O

― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:17 (4 years ago) Permalink

That's one of those clues that cleverly exploits the convention that all clues start with capital letters (thus misdirecting the solver into thinking it's a member of the Bush dynasty), but I agree that "bush" is sort of a weird word to use in that context.

― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:23 (4 years ago) Permalink

Today didn't know what a "dabbler" was until I looked it up.

― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:06 (4 years ago) Permalink

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, 13 February 2009 19:33 (4 years ago) Permalink

or rather today's friday one is. I was gold until today.

― My new tackling, kidney punching, helmet slapping celebration (forksclovetofu), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:36 (4 years ago) Permalink

Ha. I usually do them on line. Today at lunch I took the restaurant newspaper and did the regular crossword and the 4x4 and had to get back so I didn't too much of the 6x6. But I screwed up the 4x4 and had to redo it and felt like an idiot because of the all the inky scribbles.

― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:38 (4 years ago) Permalink

I originally messed up the little three square El where it was supposed to add up to 7. I had a block on one of the ways to do it.

But it is definitely an enjoyable puzzle. Exercises a fun part of the brain, doesn't feel like just cranking through an algorithm.

― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:43 (4 years ago) Permalink

Wait, I totally did the one with the "Bush not much seen today," but I can't seem to remember what the answer turned out to be!

― nabisco, Friday, 13 February 2009 19:45 (4 years ago) Permalink

it was AFRO i think

― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:47 (4 years ago) Permalink

Yup.

― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:47 (4 years ago) Permalink

Oh right! Yeah, that was annoying, mostly because ... by the logic of clues, "bush" should be a clear substitute for "hairstyle," and I don't think I've ever heard it used that way. I mean, a descriptive noun just doesn't fit clue-logic there.

― nabisco, Friday, 13 February 2009 19:50 (4 years ago) Permalink

Right. Have rarely if ever heard it used that way. Much more familiar with the terms "wig" or "rug," particularly this last as used in the phrases "rug rethink" and "the old concern of Rug & Gut & Gum" in Martin Amis's Money.

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?

― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:54 (4 years ago) Permalink

To avoid confusion with "Afro-" as in the Afro-Websterian person beneath the hair?

― nabisco, Friday, 13 February 2009 19:58 (4 years ago) Permalink

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

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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