The New York Times Crossword Puzzle thread


lanky said:

Printed (or from paper) and with my Pilot G-2 07. Absolutely no cheating (what's the fun / point?). I also enjoy the KenKens but Sunday's 7-grid KenKen is a bear!

I love Ken Ken. My goal on the 7-square one is to not place potential numbers in the squares. Not always successful, so when I do I never place more than two potential numbers. Makes it more challenging to recall wheee you're at.


As to the others, I love Spelling Bee (though never have matched their max total), Diagramless and Puns & Anagrams. To that last, they're like the ultra-lite version of the Cryptics which, if you've ever done the London Times crossword with any frequency, are way less stressful.

(And the Sinew/Screw ones--nice description above btw!--are also fun, and called Split Decisions.)


I've looked at the London Times a few times. It's gobbledygook to me.


Puns and Anagrams is my favorite! I wish it was more frequent than it is. I think the Sunday degree of difficulty is somewhere between Wednesday and Thursday with added themes. I always use a pencil, but hate the magazine section paper for pencil work.



Elaborating on the pen vs pencil thing, I was a religious pen guy for many years - didn't like the way pencil looked and felt, and probably also a bit of a macho thing. But, as mentioned now that I mostly use pencil late week I find that my solving times have noticeably improved (or is it just that I've been doing the puzzles for so many years my times were bound to improve cool cheese). Due to the magazine paper-stock, if I do Sunday it is an exercise in pen.

Side note - it would be fun to do the tourney one of these days....


On top of the macho thing, pencil doesn't provide enough contrast. Pen really shows up. Especially the bright blue that I use. And pencil smudges. I got enough of a mess without pencil smudges and erasures.

Someone recently told me they use an erasable pen. I could only laugh.


I found today tough for a Wednesday. Hard time with the intersection of 47 down and 44 across but I guessed right.


Puns and Anagrams is wicked fun, enjoy the diagramless too but sometimes get burned with placement. Regardless...wish both were weekly regulars!



Somaper said:

Puns and Anagrams is my favorite! I wish it was more frequent than it is. I think the Sunday degree of difficulty is somewhere between Wednesday and Thursday with added themes. I always use a pencil, but hate the magazine section paper for pencil work.

Hats off to you if you are good with the Puns and Anagrams puzzles. I keep making a pass at them, try to read the solutions the next week to learn, and still suck at them.


Split Decision - love those.

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:



mfpark said:

Some of the other small puzzles are fun for a diversion, like the ones where there is a flower arrangement where the answers spiral inwards and outwards simultaneously.

I like those, too. and the "Screw/Sinew" ones. (Know what I mean? I don't recall what they're called.)




Somaper said:

Puns and Anagrams is my favorite!

What's your secret? As much as I enjoy puns and anagrams, when it comes to PandA puzzles I'm bamboozled. I can barely fathom where my own come from, let alone reverse engineer what the puzzlemaker was thinking.


assume everything is an anagram first



fillyboy64 said:

assume everything is an anagram first

I might manage a Seuss fan's t-r-r-r-y. Naive?


Where does one find the P&A puzzles?


I hated "TEENER".


jimmurphy said:

I found today tough for a Wednesday. Hard time with the intersection of 47 down and 44 across but I guessed right.



It's on the "Variety Puzzles" page. They rotate with Diagramless, Split Decision, etc. They probably come out 6 or 7 times a year.

drummerboy said:

Where does one find the P&A puzzles?



I have been able to finish them a few times, but hated every minute of it. I feel like they try way to hard with the clues.

mfpark said:



Somaper said:

Puns and Anagrams is my favorite! I wish it was more frequent than it is. I think the Sunday degree of difficulty is somewhere between Wednesday and Thursday with added themes. I always use a pencil, but hate the magazine section paper for pencil work.

Hats off to you if you are good with the Puns and Anagrams puzzles. I keep making a pass at them, try to read the solutions the next week to learn, and still suck at them.




debby said:

I hated "TEENER".

jimmurphy said:

I found today tough for a Wednesday. Hard time with the intersection of 47 down and 44 across but I guessed right.

Because of this thread, I gave Wednesday's crossword a shot online last night. That was my last letter, and I hated it, too. Guess I just don't dig the teeners and their mod devices.



DaveSchmidt said:



fillyboy64 said:

assume everything is an anagram first

I might manage a Seuss fan's t-r-r-r-y. Naive?

Nice.



debby said:

I have been able to finish them a few times, but hated every minute of it. I feel like they try way to hard with the clues.
mfpark said:



Somaper said:

Puns and Anagrams is my favorite! I wish it was more frequent than it is. I think the Sunday degree of difficulty is somewhere between Wednesday and Thursday with added themes. I always use a pencil, but hate the magazine section paper for pencil work.

Hats off to you if you are good with the Puns and Anagrams puzzles. I keep making a pass at them, try to read the solutions the next week to learn, and still suck at them.

They're rather easy I think. It's just that the clues are, as you mention, quite forced. Once you realize that, and get a sense of what words are easily mixed in a sentence, it gets easier... you'll eventually get to the point where you can guess the answer without looking at the letters required in the grid. The cryptics are where it gets interesting. LOVE those.



drummerboy said:

I've looked at the London Times a few times. It's gobbledygook to me.

They're an entity unto themselves. Doesn't help that they have a U.K. bent to them either. But some of the clues and solutions are insanely clever.


That's how I do them, Fillyboy. I assume it's an anagram, count the spaces, and try to match the number of spaces with a word or words in the clue. I do the short ones first. Most are anagrams.


yeah me too. I was gonna put boomer at first.

debby said:

I hated "TEENER".



jimmurphy said:

I found today tough for a Wednesday. Hard time with the intersection of 47 down and 44 across but I guessed right.




ctrzaska said:

(And the Sinew/Screw ones--nice description above btw!--are also fun, and called Split Decisions.)

This is the only puzzle that I DON'T try to finish as quickly as possible. I like to leave this one on the DR table and play with it for a few days


If you can never get enough crossword puzzles, and I can't, I have them all over the house, you might subscribe to American Values Club crossword. Don't let the name fool you. They're clever, funny and very contemporary puzzles with political, pop culture and media content and not a few swear words. No NY Times traditions or other constraints. Each puzzle's difficulty is rated 1-5. The typical puzzle is a 3 - 4.5. Lots of fun.

It's $20 for a year and they email you a PDF puzzle about once a week with some fun commentary in the email. I subscribed for a year about 3 years ago and the puzzles haven't stopped coming. They can also send you the puzzles in app-friendly formats, compatible with the various crossword apps out there.

Get a free sampling of 5 puzzles here.

(I save the email the puzzle comes in in an email folder so I when I need a puzzle, I can go back to one I got a year or two ago, re-print it and do it again. With my memory, it seems totally new!)


I finished today's puzzle, but I don't understand the theme.

(trying to avoid spoiler)



drummerboy said:

I finished today's puzzle, but I don't understand the theme.

(trying to avoid spoiler)

Haven't had a chance to look at it. I'll report back later.


SPOILER ALERT! (Are we or are we not discussing actual solutions in this thread?)

So, I did it this afternoon. A classic style of inserting multiple letters in a single box. Once I got the shtick, it didn't take too long to figure out where the others went. I stumbled (i.e., made a a mess) a bit at the "pixel" vs. "vegan diet" thing. The whole thing? Maybe 20-25 minutes all in. Stopped a time or two to do other things. Thursday. I like 'em. I'd like to get a book of these Thursday-style gimmicky puzzles.





drummerboy said:

I finished today's puzzle, but I don't understand the theme.

(trying to avoid spoiler)

REPEAT SPOILER ALERT. Me too, although I took significantly longer than 25 minutes. Did it on a long round trip subway ride to the hinterlands of Brooklyn. Recognized the double letter, already spoiled, but did not get the theme at all either.


Theme? No theme. Just a lettering gimmick.


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