Some years ago I decided I wanted to be able to do the New York Times crossword. It's hard. So I bought a book, "How to Conquer the New York Times Crossword Puzzle," and I learned all kinds of interesting things. Some puzzles have themes, others have puzzles within the crossword puzzle.
Monday and Tuesday are the easiest, and most straightforward, so that's where I started. I just did those two days each week. The puzzles get harder each day, peaking on Saturday. Thursday is sometimes called "Gimmick Day," because Thursday crosswords sometimes feature the unexpected. One crossword near Halloween required you to figure out that you needed to draw little ghosts in some of the squares. Sometimes an entire syllable needs to go in a square and is part of two words that cross each other.
Now I generally solve the Monday Tuesday, and Wednesday puzzles. I give Thursday a try most weeks. Nowadays it's easy to look up the answers on the internet. There are multiple sites that give the answers to the clues. Though I might look up something I truly don't know, like names of athletes or TV stars, it obviously is more of an accomplishment if you can figure it out without looking it up!
I really like words and word games. I will probably never "conquer" the New York Times crossword, but I'm enjoying the journey.
One of the disappointments of reading the Times online is the crossword puzzle. I do Wordle these days - faster - not as challenging - but rewarding in its own right!
ReplyDeleteI like wordle too, and Scrabble if I can get someone to play with me.
DeleteI wasn't aware of the ins and outs of the New York Times crossword. I never attempted any of them. I know that you can by books of the Times crossword puzzles in book stores. I am more of a word jumble person instead.
ReplyDeleteI find that solving, or even making some progress with the NY Times crossword is a combination of understanding the structure of crosswords, having a pretty good vocabulary, and figuring out the clever tricks with creator puts in. I completely fall down on people -- celebrities and sports stars.
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