This is the crossword puzzle thread

yeah i didn’t care for it either, lots of annoying fill/cluing. i was particularly annoyed by the clue for 41-across, which i didn’t understand at all. that punny use of “natural” seems pretty obscure to me?

Same here. The entire puzzle is a pile up of obscure cluing and/or answers, NE is absolutely heinous.

So are y'all using the app, web and/or phone? Does it affect your solving speed or do you care?

App is my only access and I usually do the easier ones in bed when I wake with raging anxiety. I make so many typos I reckon it adds 10% to my solve times tho.

I guess the way you can switch between the phone app and web app is nice.

Probably best for me not to worry about time for the time being

I use all "three" (really, it's just mobile vs. web IMO), though tellingly, the only time I posted a sub-4:00 solve was on web (via laptop).

mostly use apps these days. i did just do that super-mega crossword from the NYT puzzlemania insert the other day in pencil, but it’s not like i had any other choice. i do enjoy the physical act of writing in letters but apps are just more convenient for how i solve in everyday life i guess

I usually do the daily NYTs on the website via laptop. The app is frustrating because it's hard to see the acrosses and downs at the same time. I can do a Monday on the app because it is literally just typing, but past Wednesday I need more information before committing to an answer.

Fireballs I print out and do in ink on paper.

For the Bee I use the app until I get to Genius, then I need a different window for the Forum hints, which are usually required to get to Queendom.

Another nice thing about the web and phone apps is that they are integrated with other things so clicking on a date or link in xwordinfo, say, brings up the puzzle in question.

I like printing em out, idk

Probably for the best. B-b-but then you don't get the instant gratification of e-checking! Oh wait.

When I'm working on paper and finish a New Yorker or Fireball, I am starting to hear the NYT "finished" noise in my head

I let my Fireball subscription lapse finally, despite the flood of emails Peter sends to remind me what I am missing

yeah I let fireball lapse this year too. still subscribing to avxclub and the great aries themelesses.

Oh yeah, Aries. Does he still do the Rows Garden?

yeah I think so. didn't keep up with those, but they're a cool puzzle.

Okay, I like Wednesday’s gimmick.

Okay, so do people generally like the default setting that when you are done with one word you skip to the next, or does anyone switch that off, like me?

Anyway, Stella's Saturday Stumper for Newsday yesterday was reallly good.

under ten minutes for the nyt saturday this week is close to a record for me, think it was an easy one tho

https://kotaku.com/new-york-times-crossword-puzzle-making-history-will-sho-1848440135

Cool. Wish they hadn’t kept misspelling Tausig though.

The very beginning of timethe Shortz Era has some bizarre puzzles by constructors from the prior epoch who only got one puzzle in with Will and then were gone. Talking to you, Tom Underhill.

The article leaves out a lot of the more damning stuff about the beanball kerfuffle, i.e. Jeff Chen pointing out the offensiveness prior to the puzzle's publication.

Also the recent "clean coal" nonsense: https://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/2022/01/forlorn-directionless-type-mon-1-10-22_10.html

also 'beaner' isn't really a baseball term ('beanball', sure)

On March 21, 1943, the New York Times crossword clue was “author of a bestseller.” The answer: five letters long “HITLER.”

I...

Um...

I counted several times and keep getting six letters. What am I missing?

Might have something to do with the extra ‘s’ in *Taussig*

Article about the "Surprisingly Messy Culture Wars Within The New York Times Crossword Puzzle" has surprisingly messy editing

That whole paragraph about the word "gluttonous" makes no sense

Enjoyed today’s NYT but then I caught up on one rare (for the puzzle and probably outside, although it makes sense) word that had two crossings I wasn’t sure of. One I could figure out the other I couldn’t.

Kind of kicking myself because I have seen and maybe even used this word but in context couldn’t see it.

Friday was a really smooth solve with albeit with some traps to be dug out of.

yep

liked saturday's a lot, kameron austin collins makes great crosswords

Doing cryptics on my lunch break and then finishing them right before heading home has helped make it so I now average doing one a day. It helps that there are 5 (soon to be 6) weekly US/Canadian publications releasing cryptics now.

what are they? I do the weekly ones in the globe and mail and the new yorker

KAC is one of my favorites, he consistently makes hard and chewy but fair puzzles, wish he showed up more in NYT though.

in general i liked it but i was not happy about the non-proliferation answer

symsymsym, besides G&M and NY-er:

Saturday National Post by Cox & Rathvon (available free here: https://natpostcryptic.blogspot.com/)
The Browser (UK-based, but all the setters are American: thebrowser.com, need to subscribe for access)
Out Of Left Field (the guys who used to do The Nation cryptic, $4/month, https://www.patreon.com/leftfieldcryptics)

AVCX is starting a weekly cryptic later this month or so too

thank you so much! I'm looking forward to the AVCX cryptic starting. My perception is that G&M on NY-er are on the easier side (because I can usually get close to finishing them). do you think the other ones are more challenging?

AVCX Cryptic? Tausig keeps his cards pretty close to his chest!

It was announced in their recent successful kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/avcx/avcxpansion-embiggening-an-indie-puzzle-outlet

National Post cryptic is usually at the same level as The Globe & Mail. The Browser is a step up but is a bit more modern, and Left field is a further step up from that.

Cool. Just noticed the name of an ex-ILX0r on there. Maybe had some dim awareness he was doing that. Are they doing variety cryptics or just regular? Was making a bad joke about Tausig since he literally lives a block away from me. I sometimes have a very brief chat with him when we cross paths but I don’t really know him.

NYT with an unusually clever themed Monday today. Not difficult, just unexpectedly charming.

OTM. Had almost forgotten about Hägar the Horrible's wife, maybe that's for the other thread. Assuming this is not the Rebecca Goldstein that wrote The Mind-Body Problem and married Steven Pinker.

this is very cool

Fun little trick in the Sunday New York Times crossword yesterday: the central theme clue was "The better of two sci-fi franchises", and regardless of whether you put Star Wars or Star Trek, the crossing clues worked pic.twitter.com/NS4LDxwxxl

— ℳatt (@matttomic) February 7, 2022

Great stuff
think they did something similar in the 90s for the presidential election winner

Yes, Tuesday, November 5, 1996. There was one before that, earlier that year, and so far there have been 17 of these Schrödinger, or quantum, crosswords, as they are known, including this latest.