Says Rex Parker — of "Rex Parker Does the NY Times Crossword Puzzle" — as he introduces the video version of himself doing today's puzzle, which does indeed — spoiler alert! — turn out to be an April Fools puzzle. So we witness his experience of the foolery — which he's in no mood for — in real time.
I like the way he's so ired at "ires"... at "ires" and a lot of other things. I always do the NYT puzzle, and I usually read his write-ups. It was fun to have the real-time experience on video. His critique of the "fill" is instantaneous and corresponds exactly to his writing. He's genuinely outraged, and it's enjoyable to go along with him in his outrage over this very lightweight problem. He knows it's not the worst problem we've got right now. The puzzle and his encounter with it are welcome distractions.
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I had a maternal aunt (1924-2014) who routinely complete the Sunday NYT crossword in under 20 minutes. In INK.
At our family gathering in the '90s we'd play Trivial Pursuit in teams, and I was told to team with my aunt. My background is in the sciences, but also very strong in geography, history, etc. After Barbara and I ran the board three games in a row (because our overlap was essentially perfect) we were never allowed to team up again.
An April Fool’s joke on April 1st!?
How dare someone maintain a simple harmless tradition in the age of THE VIRUS?
That was enjoyable. I also loathe stupid made-up words in puzzles.
"In 1992, when Clinton was running for president, I had been told that Clinton was a big crossword fan. I was the editor of “Games Magazine” then. Another editor and I prepared a crossword for him, took it to his hotel room in New York City, interviewed him and then gave him this crossword to solve. He did it in front of us in six minutes and 54 seconds. And half of that time he was on the telephone."
Wordplay, a movie about people who like to do crossword puzzles.
Seems like the creators of the puzzle missed an opportunity. Rather than giving some nominal incredibly obscure clue, they should simply have omitted the clue entirely. I wonder if this was the original plan, but the editors felt there would be too many people who would be fooled and call in to complain...
in my imagination, I always assumed that Rex Parker looked like Rex Morgan, MD, from the funny papers. How wrong I was. I do crosswords enough to appreciate his annoyance at "ires" "rving" and the pop culture allusions that just too young for me. But isn't it part of crossword life that certain "words" are used that are never used in real world communication. An example from the 1970s was the clue "sea eagle" = ERNE.
1. Waited to read post until I finished puzzle.
2. Read Rex daily, but don't want to know what he looks or sounds like.
HSP's love a scraggly beard.
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