Wednesday, November 16, 2005

 

It's Come to This

From the Department of Lame Prizes, to the commenter who offers the most satisfying answer to the question "What qualities make the New York Times crossword puzzle superior to all the others?": a 2006 MoMA members calendar, still shrink-wrapped and perfect for regifting.

posted by DO at 8:50 AM

2 Comments:

Blogger Orange said...

I don't want no stinkin' prize, but maybe I have an answer you'll appreciate.

First, it's not that the Sun puzzles are harder—it's that Will keeps the early-week NYTs uniformly easy to retain entry-level NYT solvers. Peter Gordon seems to have more of a fondness for the high-Scrabble-value letters (I love 'em, too), so you do see more exotic fill in the Sun.

Not every NYT puzzle is great. Some are kind of dull. But out of those 365 puzzles a year, most are high-quality. Factors that help you like the NYT:

1. A fairly consistent difficulty gradient throughout the week lets you know what to expect based on what day it is. Big surprises are rare.

2. The best constructors often submit their best stuff to Will. If a puzzle doesn't tickle Will more than 50% or 90% (I have no idea what the actual numbers are) of what gets submitted, he's not publishing it. If I knew something wasn't my best work, I'd never submit it to the NYT. Self-selection surely improves the quality of the NYT puzzles.

3. Will is known to change plenty of fill and clues before he deems a puzzle ready to print. Having published over 3,000 NYT puzzles and having rejected many thousands more, he's just plain seen and honed more crosswords than anyone else alive, probably. Practice makes perfect.

4. Will appreciates the little humorous touches, tricky clues, and "aha" moments as much as anyone, so he tries to include them in the amounts that are suitable to the day of the week.

5. Since new constructors probably all dream big and try the NYT first, Will also sees puzzles with fresh styles. Occasionally a debut puzzle can really knock your socks off.

6. What really makes you enjoy the puzzles as much as you do? One word: Voodoo.

Amy
Diary of a Crossword Fiend

9:20 PM  
Anonymous VR said...

DOWN
What qualities make the New York Times crossword puzzle superior to all the others?

W
I
L
L

9:39 AM  

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