So it says, in "Will Shortz’s Life as a ‘Professional Puzzle Maker’/The New York Times Crossword editor celebrates his 30th year in a job many would love to have" (NYT).
I'll give you the links to those free puzzles... as the dealer tries to hook you. This is a good way to learn the levels of difficulty on the various days of the week. Me, I like Friday best (and then Saturday):
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My 95-year-old dad loves crossword puzzles and does the hard ones.
I save my WSJ puzzles for him.
I'm surprised they can still be published. Don't they use binary pronouns?
"Me, I like Friday best ..."
If you really want a challenge, try doing Monday without looking at the down clues. It's kind of interesting, because you know they exist, and that does limit the possibilities for the columns, which can be useful once you get a few easy clues across.
I used to try with no down clues, then keep score by how many down clues I finally had to use. Once or twice I got a zero. Boy, I was easily amused in those days.
I live in the hinterland where the NYT crossword appears in the local paper two weeks later, but they omit the title which clues you in to whatever the gimmick is. In my dotage I no longer do the NYT puzzle because of all the pop culture references to sitcoms, movies, and rap artists, and confine my self to the cryptic crosswords in the Brit papers.
These puzzles are available for free. Exactly how much free does one need to get the puzzles?
I have not done the NYT crossword puzzle Shortz replaced Eugene T. Maleska, who went to my high school.
That sentence is true, though the two events are not actually related.
Crosswording is a cult.
"If you really want a challenge, try doing Monday without looking at the down clues."
I know some people like to do Monday using *only* the down clues. For some reason, that seems more appealing. I see the "downs" as the underdog, I think, and I imagine I'm giving them support.
"imagine I'm giving them support"
You're turning them into up clues!
What's a four letter word beginning and ending with D that describes Will Weng?
- Imus announcing the death of Will Weng NYT crossword editor
I very rarely do the NYTimes crosswords from any day of the week except for Sunday, which is the one syndicated to the local paper a week later than it appears in the NYTimes. I just now did the Saturday puzzle from 2020 that Althouse linked- took me an hour and 22 minutes, but I got it. It was tougher than most of the Sunday puzzles, few of which I ever fail to finish.
The very best NYTimes puzzles are the Sunday puzzles where you literally have to get outside the box at times.
Crossword puzzle song
I only do the Sunday puzzles (including the acrostic and other "variety" puzzles), mainly because I don't have time during the week. The Sunday is, I believe, easier than at least the Saturday one, but longer and sometimes clever (more often too clever by half). I agree that all the pop culture and rap artist clues are annoying, but I can usually work around them and still finish the puzzle. The acrostics are actually my favorite, but only every other week now. It's the only part of the NYT that I read, and I keep telling my wife that we should cancel our subscription on principle, but she feels otherwise, even though she agrees that it's a contemptible rag.
We had a ~90 minute power outage over the summer and the only thing that would really run on the wireless router was the NYT crossword puzzle app on my iPad. We sat in the living room with a flashlight or two and did as many puzzles as we could together until the lights came back on. My sons are now hooked and have the app on their phones. The ultimate silver lining in the power outage cloud!
Haven't done them in a while - off to catch myself up.
"I know some people like to do Monday using *only* the down clues. For some reason, that seems more appealing. I see the "downs" as the underdog, I think, and I imagine I'm giving them support."
Is there a logical difference? If you create a mirror image of the puzzle by reflecting it along the diagonal ("transposing" it IIRC) don't the across clues become down clues and vice versa?
I create a weekly puzzle for our local paper, an anacrostic. If you’re unfamiliar, they’re puzzles where you solve a quotation by solving a variety of clues in which the letters of each answer has a place in the quote. Kind of a cross between crosswords and Wheel of Fortune. I do USA Today crosswords occasionally, never NYT puzzles since they’re not free. I must say anacrostics are more challenging and more satisfying because they embed an interesting quote into your brain.
I’ve been doing these puzzles for 24 years. You wouldn’t believe the nice collection of quotes I’ve compiled. Humans do have some wisdom.
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