At a time when debates about language anchor political discourse and incorrect pronouns spark vicious attacks, the fact that culture wars are being played out in crossword puzzles makes sense. Sex is just one of the many contentious issues surrounding crossword puzzles. The AV Club crossword, however, has published “pegging.” While an article on pegging might run in the actual newspaper, Taussig said, in the crossword, things are kept more PG. References to “pegging,” will never show up in The Times, according to Benjamin Taussig editor of the indie American Values Club crossword (which formerly ran in The Onion), and author of The Curious History of the Crossword. “Really, the job of a setter is to lose gracefully, otherwise it’s a pointless, joyless endeavor.” Shortz, who works extensively on every puzzle, has written, “The ideal is for you to be stressed to the limit and then finally break through and finish.There is a limit to sex in the puzzle. “The mistake a lot of first-time setters make is to act as though their job is to be uncrackable,” says Connor. However, another is that the puzzle is meant to be solved. One thing to bear in mind is that Chen is really smart. It took me about five years to get to the point where I was confident I could solve any puzzle, given enough time.” Breaking into Friday/Saturday was harder, but again, once I dove in, I failed less and less with time. ![]() Every time I hit a theme type I’d never encountered, I’d still grind to a halt and have to look up the answers. “After six months of intensive solving, I was regularly solving Thursdays. “When I first started, I could barely finish a Tuesday puzzle,” he says. That said, Chen is confident anyone can eventually master the Gray Lady’s crossword with a bit of grit and dedication. ![]() (Nothing rude, though - in 2006, the inclusion of the word SCUMBAG drew dozens of complaints due to its occasional use as a synonym for condom.) ETS, for instance, isn’t a word, but with the clue “Kept in Area 51, supposedly” it sort of is. Some linguistic gymnastics will generally be required of the setter ( and longtime NYT crossword editor Will Shortz ) to make it all fit - tightly packed grids often involve shoehorning abbreviations, obscurities, initialisms and occasional luck-pushers into them. Fun! But there will also frequently be clues that don’t exactly seem like they require high-level smarts - knowing “Actor Benjamin of Law & Order ” is BRATT isn’t, like, an ooh, look at how clever that guy is feat. In another, the clue “Bearing small arms” had the answer TREX, i.e., T-rex - pretty much a joke. For instance, a recent NYT crossword clue was “Gold star,” with the answer SIMONE BILES - impossible without getting a few words criss-crossing it first. Clues are generally a couple of words long, and are a mixture of those that require a bit of lateral thinking and more straightforward filler to make the others doable. Monday’s puzzle is meant to be solvable by “ anyone in America ,” and up it goes. It also operates on a weekly schedule, increasing in difficulty from Monday to Saturday (with Thursdays occasionally going a bit weird) - on Sunday, the crossword is bigger but around the middle difficulty-wise. The crossword generally has a theme linking the longest words in it. Understanding how the puzzle works, for instance, will prove extremely helpful. ![]() The second time is easier, the third time even more so, and by the tenth time, you’re finding yourself filling in an entry without needing a single crossing letter.” “You’ll likely fail the first time you encounter a certain type of trick or entry. “You need to have some basic vocabulary and knowledge, but so much of solving crosswords is repetition,” Chen explains. Chen knows a hell of a lot about the New York Times Crossword - he has set it over 100 times and both solves and analyzes it daily, providing commentary and insight on the process at Xword Info. There are definitely elements of both, according to Jeff Chen.
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