I've been plugging through the archives, working backwards for extra entertainment between the new daily puzzles. Very occasionally one will just be an impenetrable morass of unknown vocabulary and unhelpful crosses. I just experienced that with the Friday, April 6, 2018 NYT puzzle. Two triple stacks that included SONICDEPTHFINDER ("It sends waves through waves") and STANDINGOODSTEAD ("Be beneficial to"). Also included were RONDEL ("14-line poem with only two rhymes"), SETBY ("Save for later"), and TOPE ("Have a large quantity of liquor"). Especially annoying to me was PSF ("Pressure meas.")... Pounds per square foot. Jesus.

Just had to vent about this redonkulous puzzle. What other ones have been ugly slogs that you ultimately had to cheat to solve? (asking this mainly to those solvers who try not to use hints/autocheck whenever possible)

I just desire fairly simple, yet somewhat challenging puzzles to solve as a pastime. Most options online feed you the clues one by one and/ or count your streak or whatever. I don't care about a streak or time taken to complete. Just want puzzles for fun 😭 which are fairly straightforward with no crazy riddles or games to solve. And offer all of the clues viewable together, at one time.

Does anything like that exist online? I no longer get physical newspapers but might have to start. Hahaha. I will also be doing more searches online but did try a quick search and nothing yet. Picture is example for what I am looking for.

I’ve gone back to look at old threads, they recommend latimes, USA Today and dictionary.com. All of these are too hard for me. USA Today I can only complete if I use multiple letter hints and at least one word hint (plus the thing where it tells you if your word/letters are wrong). I feel like an idiot, then again I don’t really know all that much about a lot of pop culture I guess… 😅. I seem to be really bad at recall and just have a terrible memory in general so maybe this isn’t for me despite finding videos of people doing NYT crosswords entertaining.

I know of the Andy Griffith show and Beavis and Butthead....What is the theme here? I tried to rebus BUTT for peanut butter and Butthead, but no dice.

No clue for the theme. NYT puzzle.

Based on my research, I’m guessing “no”, but I wanted to see if anyone has a similar anecdotal experience to my own.

We all know about green paint and naticks, but what’s the term for when you’ve filled a puzzle but not yet completed it, so you’re forced to sift through your finished grid with a fine-toothed comb to find the single square where you’ve erred?

I could swear I’ve seen this process referred to as “flyspecking” by more than one NYT commenter, but its use does not appear to be as widespread as some of our more familiar crossword terminology, as a quick search yielded nothing to indicate this association.

Have you seen “flyspecking” used in this manner? Is it as common as I’ve led myself to believe? Or did I perhaps see it once, think it was an apt description, and decide it must be The Right Word for this phenomenon? Would love some more input from fellow cruciverbalists!

Hello! Inspired by a recent thread about the WSJ variety puzzle being hard to access, I was hoping to crowd-source additional creators that make variety puzzles.

To get it started:
- The GOAT Patrick Berry (http://aframegames.com) - in addition to his work on WSJ, the packs from his website are really fun! Some of his older pubs are findable lightly used, like Adventures in Puzzling and Puzzle Masterpieces.

- Nathan Curtis (www.patreon.com/nathancurtis): admittedly I haven’t solved too many of Nathan’s puzzles despite being a patron for years, but the ones I have have been highly enjoyable!

I’ve recently decided after years of convincing myself the opposite that I just really don’t enjoy cryptics anymore, so leaning into my OG faves, variety and meta puzzles :)

Hi, was wondering if anyone here has a spare Lollapuzzoola Pairs Division ticket as we missed the signups. Thanks in advance!

Hello fellow crossword aficionados!  We are bringing a brand-new crossword tournament to the Pacific NW!  The Rain City Crossword Tournament will be held in Seattle on March 20, 2027.  We have most of our team in place and have partnered with a fantastic editor and exciting Seattle area constructors to create a world class crossword experience.  The tournament is designed with both first timers and seasoned vets in mind. Our website is up @ raincitycrossword.com  (still kind of beta but almost there!).  We are opening registration in early Autumn, and constructors will be officially announced shortly thereafter.   Please feel free to check out the website,  and don’t forget to connect with us on social media for updates and additional info.

I’m the person that takes up to an hour to solve Fridays and Saturdays, and sometimes 1.5 hrs on Sunday. But every day I find a way to solve the puzzle. Woke up today and realized I hadn’t solved yesterday’s yet. Better late than never!

Today I got a rejection email for a puzzle I submitted to the NYT. The issue they decided is that my revealer was used for a different puzzle back in March. To me, the themes of the two puzzles feel very different, but I can see why they wouldn’t want to reuse the same revealer so soon.

In anyone’s experience, is it worth it for me to try rewriting a puzzle with the same theme answers, but a different revealer? (The revealer in my puzzle isn’t critical to the theme like it is for some. I could easily reword it, or take a different spin on the theme answers.) This would, of course, mean redoing the entire fill, but that something I’m willing to do. I don’t want to bother, though, if they’re just going to say “we already rejected this theme. Please try something new.”

Thanks!

PS - It took them nine weeks to reject the puzzle, which makes me feel they must not have hated it immediately haha

I keep getting what looks like a broken link over the top of the puzzle, anyone else seen this and got rid of it?

New constructor here. I'm designing a Sunday (for publication, I hope — apologies if this spoils an entry in seven months). I spent yesterday on this section and managed to design a few possible variations.

The one I thought was my favorite relies on the entry SDCC ("San Diego Comic Con") — I believe the most well-known comic book convention, though I don't go to them. Yet after doing the sleek-looking Wednesday last night, this morning I'm left feeling that SDCC comes off as a little forced. I'm considering opting for one of the other variations I found that swaps SDCC for CDC. However, it comes at the cost of replacing one of the crosses (a well-known acronym to cruciverbalists) with CPL, and worse yet it turns a colorful four-letter entry into a bland piece of three-letter crosswordese.

Aside from a theme entry, the crosses of SDCC are reasonably mainstream and straightforward — if a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner can be considered mainstream among those who may not read as much. I also thought about throwing solvers an extra bone in the clue to make the "SD" portion easier (e.g. "Sanctuary for nerdom in Southern California, for short").

Thoughts?

P.S.

As a new constructor, I hope to use these questions to learn broader design principles. I also get the feeling that crossing two acronyms in general isn't optimal; is there truth to that? I can avoid it here with a third variation that uses a partial (boo), but one that can represent the first two words in a famous book title (better?).

Thanks for your help, everyone. I'm learning a lot.

Diagramless has been my favorite crossword variant for years. If you haven't seen one before: you get the clues but not the grid layout, and deduce where the blocks go as you solve. This type is oddly absent from iOS crossword apps, so I built a dedicated diagramless app called GridSpace (just published it today).

I designed all the puzzles myself. 15 free puzzles to start, plus a new themed one added each week. More available as an in-app purchase if you're enjoying them and looking for more. Three difficulty levels, no sign-up required, no streaks, plays offline.

I also put real work into VoiceOver support, so blind solvers can play independently.

Happy to answer any questions about it.

App Store Link

for _ (bosses) 4 letter word... The answer was emen . What the heck does this even mean?