Althouse: 2022.

January 1, 2022

2022.

It's a new year. It's also a new day.

ADDED: I took a break from New Year's blogging to do the NYT crossword. Was that the hardest NYT crossword ever?

14 comments:

Wilbur said...: The Saturday puzzles are definitely the hardest.

On Saturdays I used to buy the Sunday edition of the local rag (the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel) because they would have the Saturday LA Times puzzle and and last week's NYT Sunday puzzle. I threw the rest of the paper away as the propaganda sheet that it is. Finally I just quit buying it when the price got over $4.00.; 1/1/22, 5:45 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "The Saturday puzzles are definitely the hardest."

Of course, therefore the hardest puzzle ever would be a Saturday, but I've done hundreds of Saturdays — I'm totally used to them — and this was, I believe, the hardest puzzle I've ever encountered.; 1/1/22, 5:58 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Saturday is my favorite. I love the hardest puzzle. Friday is also my favorite. Slightly more fun. And I just think the theme are dumb. They get in the way of what's best: good words, unusual words, and no junk (like esai and nene).

I'm not a fan of the Sunday puzzle. It's so theme oriented, and I'm almost never amused by the theme.; 1/1/22, 6:00 AM
gilbar said...: The Only thing in the World, that i miss about the Des Moines Register
is that they had the NYT's crossword puzzles... which is the only thing i miss about the NYT's; 1/1/22, 6:07 AM
charis said...: I don’t subscribe to the full crossword, but I just did the mini in 5 minutes. On weekdays it takes about 2 minutes. It fits better with my attention span.; 1/1/22, 7:39 AM
jaydub said...: Yes, the most difficult I can remember.; 1/1/22, 8:16 AM
Clark said...: It didn't seem super hard to me EXCEPT for that one line (if you did the puzzle you know which one I mean) that made absolutely no sense to me even after I got it done with crosses. Funny that. It's something I see and use every day, but I didn't recognize it.; 1/1/22, 9:54 AM
Rollo said...: I "celebrated" the new year by accidentally dropping one of my phones in the bathroom. Not the one I use as a phone, but when I say "dropped in the bathroom" think worst case scenario. I heard you are supposed to put the phone in rice afterwards, rice I hope I will never have to eat. No alcohol was involved in any of that, but I'm sure some will be involved in the coming year.; 1/1/22, 10:01 AM
Wince said...: May a cross word never cross your lips in the new year.; 1/1/22, 10:08 AM
MartyH said...: Today’s crossword was a little over my Saturday average. It didn’t strike me as particularly hard.

My problem is when I have an error in my filled grid and keep blowing over the same wrong answer as I check each clue. One time I had “Jets” as a Subway Series participant. Last Friday I had “phone app” instead of “photo app”. Since I didn’t know the rather long name of a two time WNBA MVP I was sure my mistake was there…; 1/1/22, 10:40 AM
Eleni said...: Yes, it was brutal. The answers were oddly clued, the middle line (the one Clark is referring to) was tough to pick up on, and I had no idea who the names were, except for de las casas. Odd that. for me, the weirdly phrased "touch sensor" rather than the actually common "touch screen" epitomized this puzzle's weirdness.; 1/1/22, 3:18 PM
Ann Althouse said...: The middle word was about…

Spoiler…

The bottom row of letters of a keyboard; 1/1/22, 3:34 PM
Jaq said...: Now that we know that the creators use the crosswords to push their cultural agendas, I won't be holding my breath until "woke scold" comes up as a phrase.

Clue: Person who uses her position at the New York Times crossword to insert phrases like "male gaze."; 1/1/22, 5:04 PM
StephenFearby said...: There are people who like to solve crosswords and those who like to solve chess problems. I hate doing crosswords but like playing chess, starting from when (I was about 7-8 years old) I finally beat my father in checkers after many months of trying.

Father could also play chess but not very well, so I quit playing until I went to college. Starting in my sophomore and junior years played 1st board on the chess team. Eventually became a USCF-rated expert.

Oregon Muse posts 3-problem chess studies (relatively easy, intermediate, and hard) every Saturday on the Ace of Spades website, along with lots of pictures of beautifully-dressed women.

(I claim I get my jollies from solving the studies instead of gazing at the women.)

This week Oregon Muse is under the weather and WeirdDavid's (his replacement) effort tries to make a joke of it without any photos of women:

Victory can be achieved in several ways.

#1 One player captures all of his opponent's pawns before they reach his home row. If this occurs, victory is achieved when that player promotes a pawn to king.

#2 Both players promote a pawn to king. When this occurs, the player that can make the best poker hand (from his hole cards, the flop, the turn and the river, plus any cards his bishops are carrying and any wild cards he holds) is declared the winner.; 1/1/22, 9:45 PM