This is the crossword puzzle thread

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.

I sympathize, JRatB.

A while back I burned out on themed, gimmick, and rebus puzzles generally, after decades of faithful adherence.

I loved the tough themeless Post Puzzlers, but those petered out. Some of the Fireballs captured that magic, but even then there was a lot of diagramless or otherwise un-fun stuff that did not constitute voluntary leisure activity for me.

I've become interested in the current NYTs due to a boring office job, but I am fully aware that it's a phase.

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.

Interesting.

Thanks, YMP.

Cryptics I took a break from as well, but still actively enjoy. This weekend’s WSJ puzzle was fun.

I'm thinking of going to the ACPT next year... any tips (more accommodation-wise than anything else)?

Don’t you just want to stay in the hotel where the contest is? Maybe you can get a roommate to share

It's a Marriott though (but the strike's over so I guess it'd be ok?).

ooh i’d go to this

Maura: FACT (fancy a crossword tournament)?

The Nation is a good source of free US cryptic crosswords: https://www.thenation.com/admin-taxonomy/crossword-puzzle/

Just got an email from Pete Muller about the year end round up of the Vitameatamegameta puzzle. Haven’t participated in that stuff in years. Wonder if I am missing anything

I'm signed up for ACPT!

todays nytimes crossword puzzle was too hard for a wednesday.

I agree that trickery like the theme clues is more Thursdayish.

That said, I was able to work it out just by focusing on the down answers and stubbornly ignoring the theme until the last possible minute. It took me 9:10 (vs. my Wednesday average of 7:57).

27 down / 47 across gave me the most trouble.

the peter muller meta from September, "Borderline Crazy", has a ballsy meta that I found clever. the mega-meta is also easy this year if you want to try to find it yourself. in general i enjoyed reading the meta solutions but I didn't enjoy try to solve them myself.

I just don’t have the energy these days to chase down metas, sorry.

peter muller has launched his monthly music meta for 2019:
https://pmxwords.com/

also avcxword sent out the first inkubator crossword last week—i have yet to do it but it's waiting in my queue!

https://imgur.com/gallery/HEqVZ39