The New York Times crossword puzzle

The New York Times crossword puzzle is a daily puzzle published in The New York Times, online at the newspaper's website, syndicated to more than 300 other newspapers and journals,^[1] and available as mobile apps.^[2][3][4][5]

The puzzle is created by various freelance constructors and has been edited by Will Shortz since 1993. The puzzle becomes increasingly difficult throughout the week, with the easiest puzzle on Monday and the most difficult puzzle on Saturday.^[6] The larger Sunday crossword, which appears in The New York Times Magazine, is an icon in American culture; it is typically intended to be as difficult as a Thursday puzzle.^[6] The standard daily crossword is 15 squares × 15 squares, while the Sunday crossword measures 21 squares × 21 squares (previously, 23 × 23 square Sunday puzzles were also accepted; in addition a special set of 25 × 25 Sunday puzzles, with two sets of clues—easy and hard—was published in 1999 to commemorate the upcoming millennium).^[7][8]

History

While crosswords became popular in the early 1920s, it was not until 1942 that The New York Times (which initially regarded crosswords as frivolous, calling them "a primitive form of mental exercise") began running a crossword in its Sunday edition.^[9][10] The first puzzle ran on Sunday, February 15, 1942. The motivating impulse for the Times to finally run the puzzle (which took over 20 years even though its publisher, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, was a longtime crossword fan) appears to have been the bombing of Pearl Harbor; in a memo dated December 18, 1941, an editor conceded that the puzzle deserved space in the paper, considering what was happening elsewhere in the world and that readers might need something to occupy themselves during blackouts.^[10] The puzzle proved popular, and Sulzberger himself would author a Times puzzle before the year was out.^[10] In 1950, the crossword became a daily feature. That first daily puzzle was published without an author line, and to this day the identity of the author of the first weekday Times crossword remains unknown.^[11] There have been four editors of the puzzle: Margaret Farrar from the puzzle's inception until 1969; Will Weng, former head of the Times's metropolitan copy desk, until 1977; Eugene T. Maleska until his death in 1993; and the current editor, Will Shortz. In addition to editing the Times crosswords, Shortz founded and runs the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament as well as the World Puzzle Championship (where he remains captain of the US team), has published numerous books of crosswords, sudoku, and other puzzles, authors occasional variety puzzles (a.k.a. "Second Sunday puzzles"; see below) to appear alongside the Sunday Times puzzle, and serves as "Puzzlemaster" on the NPR show "Weekend Edition Sunday".^[12][13]

The popularity of the puzzle grew over the years, until it came to be considered the most prestigious of the widely circulated crosswords in America; its popularity is attested to by the numerous celebrities and public figures who've publicly proclaimed their liking for the puzzle, including opera singer Beverly Sills,^[10] author Norman Mailer,^[14] baseball pitcher Mike Mussina,^[15] former President Bill Clinton,^[16] conductor Leonard Bernstein,^[10] TV host Jon Stewart^[15] and music duo the Indigo Girls.^[15]

The Times puzzles have been collected in hundreds of books over the years from various publishers, most notably Random House and St. Martin's Press, the current publisher of the series.^[17] In addition to their appearance in the printed newspaper, the Times puzzles also appear online at the paper's website, where they require a separate subscription to access.^[18] In 2007, Majesco released The New York Times Crosswords game, a video game adaptation for the Nintendo DS handheld. The game includes over 1,000 Times crosswords from all days of the week. Various other forms of merchandise featuring the puzzle have been created over the years, including dedicated electronic crossword handhelds that just contain Times crosswords, as well as a variety of Times crossword-themed memorabilia including cookie jars, baseballs, cufflinks, plates, coasters, mousepads, and the like.^[17]

Style and conventions

Will Shortz does not write the Times crossword himself; the puzzles are submitted to him by a wide variety of contributors. A full specification sheet listing the paper's requirements for crossword puzzle submission can be found online (see "External Links") or by writing to the paper. Aside from increasing in difficulty throughout the week, the Monday-Thursday puzzles and the Sunday puzzle always have a theme, some sort of connection between at least three long (usually Across) answers, such as a similar type of pun, letter substitution, or alteration in each entry. Another theme type is that of a humorous quotation broken up into symmetrical portions and spread throughout the grid. For example, the February 11, 2004, puzzle by Ethan Friedman featured a theme quotation: ANY IDIOT CAN FACE / A CRISIS IT'S THIS / DAY-TO-DAY LIVING / THAT WEARS YOU OUT.^[19] (this quote has been attributed to Anton Chekhov, but this attribution is in dispute and the specific source has not been identified). Notable dates such as holidays or anniversaries of famous events are often commemorated with an appropriately themed puzzle, although only two are currently commemorated on a routine annual basis: Christmas and April Fool's Day.^[20] The Friday and Saturday puzzles, the most difficult in the paper, are usually unthemed and "wide open", with fewer black squares and more long words. The maximum word count for a themed weekday puzzle is normally 78 words, while the maximum for an unthemed Friday or Saturday puzzle is 72; Sunday puzzles must contain 140 words or fewer.^[8] Given the Times's reputation as a paper for a literate, well-read, and somewhat arty audience, puzzles frequently reference works of literature, art, or classical music, as well as modern TV, movies, or other touchstones of popular culture.^[8]

The puzzle follows a number of conventions, both for tradition's sake and to aid solvers in completing the crossword:

• Nearly all the Times crossword grids have rotational symmetry: they can be rotated 180 degrees and remain identical. Rarely, puzzles with only vertical or horizontal symmetry can be found; yet rarer are asymmetrical puzzles, usually when an unusual theme requires breaking the symmetry rule. This rule has been part of the puzzle since the beginning; when asked why, initial editor Margaret Farrar is said to have responded, "Because it is prettier."^[10]
• Any time a clue contains the tag "abbr." or an abbreviation more significant than "e.g.", the answer will be an abbreviation (e.g., M.D. org. = AMA).^[6]
• Any time a clue ends in a question mark, the answer is a play on words.^[6]
• Occasionally, themed puzzles will require certain squares to be filled in with a symbol, multiple letters, or a word, rather than one letter (so-called "rebus" puzzles). This symbol/letters/word will be repeated throughout in each themed entry. For example, the December 6, 2012 puzzle by Jeff Chen featured a rebus theme based on the chemical pH scale used for acids and bases, which required the letters "pH" to be written (together in a single square) in several locations in the puzzle (in the middle of entries such as "triumpH" or "sopHocles").^[21]
• French-, Spanish-, or Latin-language answers, and more rarely answers from other languages are indicated either by a tag in the clue giving the answer language (e.g., 'Summer: Fr.' = ETE) or by the use in the clue of a word from that language, often a personal or place name(e.g. 'Friends of Pierre' = AMIS or 'The ocean, e.g., in Orleans' = EAU).^[6]
• Clues and answers must always match in part of speech, tense, number, and degree. Thus a plural clue always indicates a plural answer (and the same for singular), a clue in the past tense will always be matched by an answer in the same tense, and a clue containing a comparative or superlative will always be matched by an answer in the same degree.^[6]
• The answer word (or any of the answer words, if it consists of multiple words) will never appear in the clue itself. Unlike in some easier puzzles in other outlets, the number of words in the answer is not indicated in the clue itself—so a one-word clue can mean a multiple-word answer.
• The theme, if any, will be applied consistently throughout the puzzle. e.g., if one of the theme entries is a particular variety of pun, all the theme entries will be of that type.^[8]
• In general, any words that might appear elsewhere in the newspaper, such as well-known brand names, pop culture figures, or current phrases of the moment, are fair game.
• No entries involving profanity, sad or disturbing topics, or overly explicit answers should be expected, though some have snuck in. The April 3, 2006 puzzle, contained the word SCUMBAG (a slang term for a condom), which had previously appeared in a Times article, quoting people using the word. Shortz apologized and said the term would not appear again.^[22][23] The word PENIS also appeared once in a Maleska-edited puzzle, clued as "The __ mightier than the sword."
• Spoken phrases are always indicated by enclosure in quotation marks, e.g., "Get out of here!" = LEAVE NOW.
• Short exclamations are sometimes clued by a phrase in square brackets, e.g., "[It's cold!]" = BRR.
• When the answer can only be substituted for the clue when preceding a specific other word, this other word is indicated in parentheses. For example, "Think (over)" = MULL, since "think" only means "mull" when preceding the word "over" (i.e., “think over” and “mull over” are synonymous, but “think” and “mull” are not necessarily synonymous otherwise). (The point here is that the single word “think” can be replaced by the single word “mull,” but only when the following word is “over.”)
• When the answer needs an additional word in order to fit the clue, this other word is indicated with the use of "with." For example, "Become understood, with in" = SINK, since "Sink in" (but not “Sink” alone) means "to become understood." (The point here is that the single phrase “become understood” can be replaced with the single phrase “sink in,” regardless of whether or not it is followed by anything else.)
• Times style is to always capitalize the first letter of a clue, regardless of whether the clue is a complete sentence or whether the first word is a proper noun. On occasion, this is used to deliberately create difficulties for the solver; e.g., in the clue "John, for one" it is ambiguous as to whether the clue is referring to the proper name John or to the slang term for a bathroom.
• A good rule of thumb when in doubt of a given clue/answer is to apply the 'substitution test': Create a sentence featuring the clue word(s) and then see if you can substitute the answer and leave the parsing and meaning of the rest of the sentence unchanged. If not, the answer is almost certainly incorrect. For example, if you are unsure of the clue/answer combination "Approach, perhaps" = HIT ON, you could try substituting in the sentence "The shy man jealously watched the smooth talkers effortlessly APPROACH women at the party" / "The shy man jealously watched the smooth talkers effortlessly HIT ON women at the party." Since the meaning of the sentence remains unchanged, this would be a valid clue/answer combination (although not necessarily the correct one in a given puzzle).

Variety puzzles

Second Sunday puzzles

In addition to the primary crossword, the Times publishes a second Sunday puzzle each week, of varying types, something that the first crossword editor, Margaret Farrar, saw as a part of the paper's Sunday puzzle offering from the start; she wrote in a memo when the Times was considering whether or not to start running crosswords that "The smaller puzzle, which would occupy the lower part of the page, could provide variety each Sunday. It could be topical, humorous, have rhymed definitions or story definitions or quiz definitions. The combination of these two would offer meat and dessert, and catch the fancy of all types of puzzlers."^[10] Currently, every other week is an acrostic puzzle authored by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon, with a rotating selection of other puzzles, including diagramless crosswords, Puns and Anagrams, cryptics (a.k.a. "British-style crosswords"), Split Decisions, Spiral Crosswords, word games, and more rarely, other types (some authored by Shortz himself—the only puzzles he has created for the Times during his tenure as crossword editor).^[18] Of these types, the acrostic has the longest and most interesting history, beginning on May 9, 1943, authored by Elizabeth S. Kingsley, who is credited with inventing the puzzle type, and continued to write the Times acrostic until December 28, 1952.^[24] From then until August 13, 1967 it was written by Kingsley's former assistant, Doris Nash Wortman; then it taken over by Thomas H. Middleton for a period of over 30 years, until August 15, 1999, when the pair of Cox and Rathvon became just the fourth author of the puzzle in its history.^[24] The name of the puzzle also changed over the years, from "Double-Crostic" to "Kingsley Double-Crostic," "Acrostic Puzzle," and finally (since 1991) just "Acrostic."^[24]

Other puzzles

As well as publishing a second word puzzle on Sundays, the Times publishes a KenKen numbers puzzle (a variant of the popular sudoku logic puzzles) each day of the week.^[18] The KenKen and second Sunday puzzles are available online at the New York Times crosswords and games page, as are "SET!" logic puzzles and a monthly "bonus" crossword with a theme relating to the current month.^[18] The Times Online also publishes a daily "mini" crossword, usually 5x5 but occasionally 7x7 or larger, which is significantly easier than the traditional daily puzzle.

Records and puzzles of note

Fans of the Times crossword have kept track of a number of records and interesting puzzles (primarily from among those published in Shortz's tenure), including those below. (All puzzles published from October 23, 1996 on are available to online subscribers to the Times crossword.)^[18]

• Fewest words in a daily 15x15 puzzle: 50 words, on Saturday, June 29, 2013 by Joe Krozel;^[25] in a Sunday puzzle: 128 words on July 15, 2012 by Randolph Ross^[26]
• Most words in a daily puzzle: 86 words on Tuesday, December 23, 2008 by Joe Krozel;^[25][27] in a 21x21 Sunday puzzle: 150 words, on June 26, 1994 by Nancy Nicholson Joline and on November 21, 1993 by Peter Gordon (the first Sunday puzzle edited by Will Shortz)^[26]
• Fewest black squares (in a daily 15x15 puzzle): 17 blocks, on Friday, July 27, 2012 by Joe Krozel^[28][29]
• Most prolific author: Manny Nosowsky is easily the crossword constructor who has been published most frequently in the Times under Shortz, with 241 puzzles,^[30] although other authors may have written more puzzles than that under prior editors. The record for most Sunday puzzles is held by Jack Luzzato, with 119 (including two written under pseudonyms);^[31] former editor Eugene T. Maleska wrote 110 himself, including 8 under other names.^[31]
• Youngest constructor: two 14-year-olds, Ben Pall and David Steinberg, have authored Times puzzles. Of these two, Pall was the younger at time of publication on November 23, 2009, aged 14 years and two months.^[32][33]
• Oldest constructor: Bernice Gordon was 100 on August 11, 2014 when her final Times crossword was published.^[34] (She died in 2015 at the age of 101.)^[35] Gordon published over 150 crosswords in the Times since her first puzzle was published by Margaret Farrar in 1952.^[36]
• Greatest difference in ages between two constructors of a single puzzle: 83, a puzzle by David Steinberg and Bernice Gordon with the theme AGE DIFFERENCE.^[37][38]
• 15-letter-word stacks: On December 29, 2012, Joe Krozel managed to stack five fifteen-letter entries on top of one another (VANESSA WILLIAMS, ELECTED OFFICIAL, NARRATIVE POETRY, A TEENAGER IN LOVE, and LIECHTENSTEINER), something never before (or since) achieved (four puzzles, two by Krozel, one by Krozel and Martin Ashwood-Smith and one by Kevin G. Der, have managed to stack four 15-letter-entries).^[39]

A few crosswords have achieved recognition beyond the community of crossword solvers. Perhaps the most famous is the November 5, 1996 puzzle by Jeremiah Farrell, published on the day of the U.S. presidential election, which has been featured in the movie Wordplay and the book The Crossword Obsession by Coral Amende, as well as discussed by Peter Jennings on ABC News, featured on CNN, and elsewhere.^{[12][13][40][41]} The two leading candidates that year were Bill Clinton and Bob Dole; in Farrell's puzzle one of the long clue/answer combinations read "Title for 39-Across tomorrow" = MISTER PRESIDENT. The remarkable feature of the puzzle is that 39-Across could be answered either CLINTON or BOB DOLE, and all the Down clues and answers that crossed it would work either way (e.g., "Black Halloween animal" could be either BAT or CAT depending on which answer you filled in at 39-Across; similarly "French 101 word" could equal LUI or OUI, etc.).^[40] Constructors have dubbed this type of puzzle a "Schrödinger puzzle" after the famous paradox of Schrödinger's cat, which was both alive and dead at the same time. Since Farrell's invention of it, four other constructors: Patrick Merrell, Ethan Friedman, David J. Kahn, and Joe Krozel have made use of a similar trick.

In another notable Times crossword, 27-year-old Bill Gottlieb proposed to his girlfriend, Emily Mindel, via the crossword puzzle of January 7, 1998, written by noted crossword constructor Bob Klahn.^[42][43] The answer to 14-Across, "Microsoft chief, to some" was BILLG, also Gottlieb's name and last initial. 20-Across, "1729 Jonathan Swift pamphlet", was A MODEST PROPOSAL. And 56-Across, "1992 Paula Abdul hit", was WILL YOU MARRY ME. She said yes. The puzzle attracted attention in the AP, an article in the Times itself, and elsewhere.^[43]

On May 7, 2007, former U.S. president Bill Clinton, a self-professed long-time fan of the Times crossword, collaborated with noted crossword constructor Cathy Millhauser on an online-only crossword in which Millhauser constructed the grid and Clinton wrote the clues.^[16][44] Shortz described the President's work as "laugh out loud" and noted that he as editor changed very little of Clinton's clues, which featured more wordplay than found in a standard puzzle.^[16][44]

The Times crossword of Thursday, April 2, 2009, by Brendan Emmett Quigley,^[45] featured theme answers that all ran the gamut of movie ratings—beginning with the kid-friendly "G" and finishing with adults-only "X" (which, however is now replaced with the less crossword-friendly NC-17 rating). The seven theme entries were GARY GYGAX, GRAND PRIX, GORE-TEX, GAG REFLEX, GUMMO MARX, GASOLINE TAX, and GENERATION X. In addition, the puzzle contained the clues/answers of ""Weird Al" Yankovic's '__ on Jeopardy'" = I LOST and "I'll take New York Times crossword for $200, __" = ALEX. What made the puzzle notable is that the prior night's episode of the US television show Jeopardy! featured video clues of Will Shortz for five of the theme answers (all but GARY GYGAX and GENERATION X) which the contestants attempted to answer during the course of the show.

See also

• Wordplay (film), a 2006 documentary about the crossword

References

External links

• Online version of New York Times Crossword Puzzle (subscription required)
• New York Times crossword specification sheet
• XWordInfo.com, blog featuring statistics on the Times puzzles
• The Times's "official" crossword blog, featuring daily commentary and discussion on each day's puzzle
• Magmic Games New York Times Crossword Micro-site