This is the crossword puzzle thread

I will probably at least email him. And yeah, it's understandable to go through phases where you're really into a thing, then you take some time away. Then some day you'll idly pick up a pen in an airplane or whatever and get hooked again.

I loved the Post Puzzlers too. My impression was that Peter G had some kind of mixed feelings about those because he himself didn't own those puzzles, the way he owns the FIreballs, but yeah they really hit the sweet spot.

Wonder who the new champ from yesterday is

Just got an email about the home version of Lollapuzzoola from Brian C.

hoofed it all over town to track down today's NYT with the special puzzle section, featuring as its centerfold a 50x50 (!) crossword. haven't done a xword in ink for awhile, may time myself while i do it (i don't usually)

starting all over again

Had fun with Rachel's NYT on Friday, though I needed help to finish and we got one letter wrong, albeit mostly as a matter of not having the patience to reach certainty.

Particularly enjoyed 35 across and 11 down.

Here she introduces it, in fashion that reminds that even to the degree scripted it's hard to find the same realness level elsewhere on (non-sports?) commercial tv. Love the ending.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/maddow-proud-to-announce-first-new-york-times-crossword-puzzle-1174756419980?playlist=associated

Has anyone tried the New Yorker crosswords? I solved one and was refreshed by how unique the entries/clues were (at least from a NYT xword solving POV).

agreed, tho i haven't done this week's yet

I did the first one and liked it well enough, but it made me appreciate how the AV Club xword is even more refreshing. Highly recommend that one.

Bonus clue from https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/24/2018:

Breaking pitch thrown by an oddsmaker? (6,6)

That would be CUTTER BOOKIE or some variation, right?

Butter cookie? If there are lots of spoonerisms...

bookie cutter

Finished the latest New Yorker crossword in 21:08 with no cheating! They seem to have gotten a lot easier after several weeks of being almost frustratingly obscure/hard.

nyer one is great, but knowing one of the long references can open it up pretty quick

Today's Washington Post puzzle by Evan Birnholz is grebt.

gf and I have gotten pretty serious about the times puzzle, yesterday's broke our 47 day streak. I'm afraid to look at non-times puzzles since this is already becoming such a reliable time suck.

Tell me about it. I had to stop for several years.

avcxword is pretty solid

also: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/laurabrarian/the-inkubator

oh and i really like the new yorker puzzle too, although its software hangs at times

Fireballs are wonderful.

Birnholz can be good, but I preferred it when there was a variety of constructors, not the same guy every Sunday. Once I learn how a particular person's mind works, it gets less.

Less fun

Okay, you twisted my arm, so I reupped for Fireball.

The Crossword Jesus wrote today's NYT. Also enjoyed the BIrnholz again.

I just switched from Android to iPhone and one of my biggest regrets is that Crosswords Plus (free NYT crosswords!) isn't in the App Store. What's a good iOS crossword app?

the nyt app is pretty good, you should just pay for it and support the crossword industry

the sunday themeless from this week was awesome, I wish NYT would run those more often

I never quite know what people mean when they talk about crosswords in the US - are they cryptic, general knowledge or what? I still do the Times every day, even though I can't justify giving money to murdoch.

(I also do the Morning Star on a saturday - does that balance it out?)

crosswords in the U.S. are not cryptic

But they can be difficult, right?

(Was thinking of subscribing to some apps - but I find it hard to do crosswords that aren't on paper.)

Mostly I just need something to stop people talking to me in the pub when i'm drinking at 10am.

Cosign the recommendation for the American Values Club crossword, it's just the best.
https://avxwords.com/#/

Ahem.

There are such things as cryptic crossswords in the US, in American English - they were started by Stephen Sondheim!- but they are not too common. Main sources now are the WSJ and Harper’s, once a month. The New Yorker used to have one but it was super easy in a small grid. NYT does them on Sunday once in a while as a extra.

Can’t stand doing crosswords on phone any more so don’t really use the apps but didn’t think you could get NYT puzzles without a subscription on any app.

Haven’t done the American Values puzzle in a few years, despite (because of?) the fact that Ven Tausig currently lives a block away from me.

games world of puzzles magazine (the combined version of games and world of puzzles) also has cryptics

brendan emmet quigley’s free ones on his site are good too

I tend to find ‘ordinary’ crosswords are just synonym exercises, but which I don’t find that interesting. Plus I use the times cryptic to keep track of whether or not my meds are dulling me (in the short term they did, but I’m back to my usual level now).

Okay, I have one tiny use for crossword apps. The Standalone app seems to still be going strong whilst the other apps have fallen by the wayside.

Some of the rest of the Redds have being doing NYT regularly so I have been dipping back in with caution

are there any living people who actually use the term el-hi

naked indians iirc

we got the observer this week and couldn't get into the rhythm at all. might be a long winter

Today's nyt had an impish gem with the clue "AT hot dog hot dog RA."

Yup.

The WP today has an insanely complex gimmick.

I was able to solve all the grids, but I don't always care about the metapuzzle shit like rearranging them or whatever, or mailing in what quote it being referenced by anagram in the circled letters or whatever.

Yup

(Doesn't mean I am not curious! Feel free to spoil me if you have a chance.)

WP spoiler: https://crosswordfiend.com/2018/12/01/sunday-december-2-2018/#wp

Thanks. Not worth it IMO, so I guess I'm not the target audience for that meta exercise.

Full disclosure: I burned out on doing puzzles around the time the ACPT moved from Brooklyn back to Connecticut. Until then I was doing pretty much every single puzzle mentioned on that blog, including the metas, which I was never great at. I sometimes worry if this is just a matter of sour grapes, but also think I really just don’t care enough about spending the extra time to chase down the metas, it’s like a glorified acrostic maybe.