How to Solve the New York Times Crossword
A crossword puzzle is a cross between a word game and a board game, but the crossword variant is not limited to the traditional board and paper format. In fact, a crossword has branched out to the web, where every thirty seconds someone is putting up a new crossword online. While the number of solvers has declined precipitously, there are still enough people out there to satisfy the demand. The New York Times crossword is a prime example.
The New York Times has been publishing crosswords since February 15, 1942, a welcome distraction from World War II. During that time, the publication has published a variety of themed and unusual crosswords. One of the most recent examples was the April 26, 2005 crossword, which featured five themed entries based on tree parts. It was edited by Will Shortz, who has been the puzzle editor at the paper for almost two decades.
As for the actual crossword, the best bet is to try a few online sites, including PlayFour and Universal Uclick. Some of the better ones feature the latest in clue and answer technology, like the SmartAss crossword from Crosswords.com. This is a nifty little program that displays the clues as a picture and lets you choose which letter to answer each. You can also use it to display only the answers you want, a nice feature if you are looking for a particular answer. Likewise, the site also offers a “quick search” function that lets you type in the name of a specific crossword to quickly find it.
While it’s not the only crossword out there, it is the smallest and is distributed by the USA Today as “QuickCross”. The most common and simplest variant is the 4×4 crossword, which is a standard in the USA Today’s QuickCross line of publications. For those who want something a little more challenging, a series of three 300-puzzle Mega series is available from the publisher, which is a pretty good deal considering that they appear only three times a year. If you need a little more help with the crossword, there are several online services that offer free and paid solutions.
There’s also a cryptic crossword that has been around for a while. This one has a few notable merits, including being the longest in the history of the world. Other notable atributes include the highest quality, most interesting clues, and most creatively crafted theme and layout.
Of course, the most important factor of all is the ability to play the game. The best news is that there are a wide variety of crossword sites out there, with some having a higher percentage of females than the Times. Plus, the company that publishes the aforementioned Mega series isn’t just one company, but a family of companies. By combining forces, they’ve launched The Inkubator, a crossword-centric publisher, which raised over $30,000 through Kickstarter. Since then, they’ve published hundreds of high-quality, high-tech, high-brow, and low-brow crosswords and have enlisted some of the world’s leading crossword constructors.
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