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

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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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

desi arnaz

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 04:28 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 11:20 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

there is not enough complaining going on in this thread

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 15:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Eat my Will Shortz!

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I want Saturday puzzles for free, too!

WAAAAAAH!

― Austin S (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

one 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 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.nndb.com/people/249/000026171/skye1-sized.jpg

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 2 May 2005 05:28 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

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 (twenty-one years ago)

or "Euai Kapaui"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 2 May 2005 06:01 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/magazine/chi-0505010521may01,1,3023795.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 2 May 2005 14:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, I'm too lazy for bugmenot.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 2 May 2005 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

ten months pass...

yesterday's quite enjoyable, but "hit sign" = "sro" ... ? am i missing something here?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 17 March 2006 15:12 (twenty years ago)

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!

I catch this thread a year after the fact, and wowee: I totally remember this one! I really enjoyed it! One of those dramatic Thursdays where figuring out the theme opens up a whole new world. It's like the moment in action movies where the hero's getting his ass kicked by an unstoppable creature and then suddenly the geek calls in and says "it's fire, he's only vulnerable to fire," and then the hero turns around all refreshed and lays his smack down.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 17 March 2006 16:04 (twenty years ago)

Standing Room Only.

― The Yellow Kid, Friday, 17 March 2006 18:26 (twenty years ago)

wow! that's cool. yesterday's was really good.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 17 March 2006 18:37 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

"cross shape" = "tae" ??

plus did the circled spaces actually spell anything? i feel like there was something i was missing

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 12:54 (twenty years ago)

should be "tee". file that one away, it's standard.

the circles were "crossings", as in down-clue crossing the across-clue (or vice versa, I forget).

― patita (patita), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 16:55 (twenty years ago)

replace the first letter with a Q?!? I mean c'mon Will Shortz.

― jergins (jergins), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 17:30 (twenty years ago)

yes i get the crossings bit, but one doesn't need a circle to see that the clues cross.

"columbus" was the first of those that i got, and i was all like "aha! columbus circle!" but no. i liked that. but then the circles proved to mean 0. i even took the circled letters and tried to anagramatize them, but they make nothing.

i obv thought "tee" at first, but then that makes the clue that goes through it "Big Eest" .. "Big East", surely?

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 17:46 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

"Boomers' kids" = GENX ???

WTF, Shortz?

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 26 July 2006 16:14 (nineteen years ago)

"Boomers' kids" = GENX

Am I the only one who's a bit skeptical about this?

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 26 July 2006 16:17 (nineteen years ago)

I dunno, but the apostrophe placement puts it on the level.

― jim wentworth (wench), Thursday, 27 July 2006 00:04 (nineteen years ago)

it's cheeky not to abbreviate that clue, or put "(abbrev.)" there, it's kind of breaking the rules - it's TOTALLY breaking the rules, actually

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 27 July 2006 00:14 (nineteen years ago)

by the way, my name is now Euai Kapaui

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Thursday, 27 July 2006 00:15 (nineteen years ago)

pronounced "yowee ka-powie"

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Thursday, 27 July 2006 00:15 (nineteen years ago)

No, "Gen X" is short for "Generation X" the same way "Boomers" is short for "Baby Boomers". It's not an abbreviation, it's more like a nickname.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 27 July 2006 00:24 (nineteen years ago)

Skipping 305 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

57A was brutal clue and answer.

― Astarion Is Born (Leee), Thursday, 28 March 2024 17:20 (two years ago)

not really a complaint, but it’s weird to go six years without ARHAT then get it on back-to-back days

― mookieproof, Friday, 29 March 2024 03:50 (two years ago)

I learned it from the NYT Spelling Bee!

― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 29 March 2024 10:41 (two years ago)

three months pass...

a. bass guitars are not required to have FRETS
b. wtf @ STENOG

― mookieproof, Thursday, 11 July 2024 19:59 (one year ago)

okay lol at today’s 61A

― mookieproof, Thursday, 25 July 2024 19:17 (one year ago)

three months pass...

breaking my streak at 670 : /

― mookieproof, Tuesday, 5 November 2024 19:13 (one year ago)

nine months pass...

Weekend puzzles seem too easy lately. Can't tell if this is an editorial shift or just due to randomness.

― Josefa, Friday, 8 August 2025 12:58 (ten months ago)

although connections today was really weird. even looking at the solution i couldn't square what they were trying to do

― Ray Cat Strut (dog latin), Friday, 8 August 2025 13:05 (ten months ago)

There’ve been a couple that were so ingenious recently that I looked around the room to find somebody to whom I could express my excitement and satisfaction— thinking of the “ten ants” one a few days ago

― you have to be avant-garde and stupid at the same (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, 8 August 2025 13:36 (ten months ago)

eight months pass...

I don't solve in print but ngl this would probably have ruined my day too

https://www.vulture.com/article/new-york-times-crossword-error-reactions.html

― Roz, Thursday, 23 April 2026 03:42 (one month ago)

kinda want to see the best efforts tho

― mookieproof, Thursday, 23 April 2026 03:49 (one month ago)

I do the Sunday in the magazine on paper and this broke my brain after a rough workday

― symsymsym, Thursday, 23 April 2026 05:04 (one month ago)

I thought the title "nuclear fusion" could explain why all the numbers were in the wrong places. the actual puzzle was a great toughie though

― symsymsym, Thursday, 23 April 2026 05:06 (one month ago)

one month passes...

I did the online version of that nuclear fusion puzzle, without errors, and HATED it so much. I can’t remember any recent crossword I’ve disliked more.

Anyways, I have a running personal joke that I’d name an nyt crossword thread “ORCAs with EPEEs” so thought it was funny that yesterday’s puzzle had both of those words

― ed.b, Thursday, 4 June 2026 02:59 (five days ago)

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