Matt Gritzmacher

DCL Highlights, Week of 5/3

Scroll on for our recommendations from the last week of puzzles!

Universal: Universal Freestyle 123 (5/4) by Jess Rucks. Easy breezy themeless teeming with fun fill. – Rich

The New Yorker: The Crossword (5/6) by Wyna Liu. Not the hardest New Yorker Monday but a lovely puzzle nonetheless. – Rich

Fireball: ($) What’s Next? (5/8) by Paul Coulter. Really impressive theme that puts up a fight till the very end. – Rich

Lucky Streak: ($) puzzle #170: cruel summer (themeless) (5/9) by Ada Nicolle. An impressive lattice of stacks with some absolutely killer clues and entries. I’ve been absolutely loving Ada’s stuff lately. – Matt

Los Angeles Times: (5/8) by Rebecca Goldstein & Rachel Fabi. A remarkably full theme set for a pattern that you’d think would be hard to pull together. – Matt and Norah

Wall Street Journal: Hand It Over! (5/9) by Karen Steinberg. If you like Evan Birnholz’ Sunday puzzles at the Washington Post, this very much has that vibe in a smaller package. You’ve probably seen a theme like this before, but the extra layer sets Karen’s puzzle apart. – Matt

Universal: Center Lane (5/9) by Lisa Senzel and Jeff Chen. Just a plain darn good theme, with a spot-on revealer. – Matt

DCL Highlights, Week of 4/26

Scroll on for our recommendations from the last week of puzzles!

Los Angeles Times: (4/27) by Evans Clinchy. Deft mix of tricky clues with big payoffs and accessible entries to help move through the grid. – Matt

Slate: Slate Crossword (4/28) by Chandi Deitmer. Delightful grid and a truly standout 42-Across clue. Slate’s crossword has quickly become a must-solve. —Rich, Norah, and Parker

Nautilus Puzzles: Inkblot’s Inferno (4/29) by Ben Tolkin. A fun challenge all around, but I’m picking this because of the clue for 56-Across. —Rich

New York Times: ($) (4/29) by Tom Locke. A damn good theme given room to breathe. One of the better early-week NYT themes in recent memory IMO. – Matt

Lil AVC X ($): Knights of the Wrong Table (4/29) by Lydia Roth and Christina Bodensiek. A set of very funny theme entries anchor a puzzle that carries the right balance of personality and cleverness. -Norah

AVCX: ($) Urban Sprawl (5/1) by Shannon Rapp & Will Eisenberg. It’s good, it’s kinda hard, and (as spoiler free as possible) I like revealers like this. – Matt

Puzzmo: Infinity and Beyond (5/1) by Jo and Winguistics (5/3) by Corvimae. These two puzzles are the first from Puzzmo’s first submission period open exclusively to those who had never published a crossword. Both earn their place on this list this week for their creative and perfectly executed themes. Hope to see more from both of them. -Norah

Los Angeles Times: (5/3) by Jay Silverman. Theme is solid, but the themers themselves are particularly high value for my entertainment and make it memorable. – Matt

AVCX+: ($) Have Fun! (5/3) by Will Nediger. Clever themeless that more than lives up to the imperative in its title. —Rich & Matt

Vox: (5/3) by Andrew J. Ries. Been waiting for someone to make this exact puzzle! -Norah

DCL Highlights, Week of 4/19

Scroll on for our recommendations from the last week of puzzles!

Tough as Nails: Themeless #111 (4/17) by Stella Zawistowski. From last week, but too good to let slip by. As good as any maximally-hard themeless in the last several months, if perhaps a bit trivia friendly. Every entry and corner was hard-fought and well earned. – Matt

The Modern Crossword: ($) Swap Bands (4/20) by Larry Snyder. Clever theme type that could go (too) tricky, but here is deployed in a way that is friendly for solvers of all experience levels. – Rich and Norah

The Atlantic: Themeless (4/21) by Chandi Dietmer. Such a goldmine of clever cluing and delightful long entries. One of my hardest solves this week, and I loved every second of it. – Norah

Crossword Club: (4/22) by Ada Nicolle. My midi pick of the week for its fun stacks and open architecture. -Norah

Bewilderingly Puzzles: Novel Idea (4/22) by Will Nediger. Hard to explain why this one made the list without giving it away, but let’s just say it might be a little more novel than it seems. -Norah

The New Yorker: (4/23) by Erik Agard. Love seeing 45A in a puzzle, and those clues for 60A and 32D are perfection. – Norah

Universal: Permanent Record (4/24) by Daniel Bodily. Love when a theme is pretty disruptive to the solve, but all the affected areas are still pretty smooth. Great payoff in the revealer here. – Matt

Los Angeles Times: (4/24) by Alex Rosen & Brad Wilber. I found the payoff without the revealer, and got a nice chuckle out of it. – Matt

Los Angeles Times: (4/25) by Sarah Sinclair and Kelsey Dixon. In a double LAT debut, a super-fresh theme in a very fun and smooth puzzle packed with modern references. – Matt and Norah

DCL Highlights, Week of 4/12

Scroll on for our recommendations from the last week of puzzles!

ACPT: ($) Puzzle 8; A Final (4/7) by Sid Sivakumar. Listing this week because I waited to solve it. A tough but fair themeless that feels quintessentially Sid. -Norah

The Modern: ($) It’s All Greek To Me (4/13) by Aaron Ullman. Smooth and breezy with a fun theme that reveals itself in parts. Appreciation to the Modern for their willingness to run 16-wide themers. -Norah

Luckystreak Xwords: fie! (4/13) by ada nicolle. Really impressive grid, with a 9×5 stair stack in the center and four long entries going down through it—all with Ada’s typical flair. —Rich

Mental Judo: A Cryptic Blog (11): Clue Cryptic (4/13) by herzwesten and joeadultman. This murder mystery is an absolute blast—and very approachable if you’re new to variety cryptics. —Rich

The Atlantic: Mini (4/15) by Paolo Pasco. For 2D alone. -Norah

Westwords: (4/15) by the Westwords team. A clever and fun way to reveal the constructor lineup. -Norah

Boswords Themeless League: ($) Week 7 (4/15) by Nova Qi. Delightfully modern fill and lovely clues at the choppy level. I highly recommend the spring league puzzle pack if you aren’t participating. —Rich and Norah

Lil AVC X: ($) Climbing the Corporate Ladder (4/16) by Kaye Barton. Kaye takes advantage of the flexibility of the midi space offered by Lil AVC X to put a tight new twist on a classic puzzle form. Smart, fun, and not to be missed. – Norah

Lemonade Disco: Side Salad (4/17) by Kaitlin Hsu. Packed with indie voice, humor, and cultural references and approachable for beginner solvers. -Norah

Los Angeles Times: (4/19) by Rebecca Goldstein. I love everything about this theme: the themer finds, the density, the cluing. A puzzle I wish I could solve twice. -Norah

DCL Highlights, Weeks of 3/29 and 4/5

Scroll on for our recommendations from the last week of puzzles!

Remember that this is not an attempt to pick the “best” puzzles, and we won’t be commenting as critics. Our approach is best described as “puzzles we don’t think you should miss.” Kind of like staff recommendations at a local bookstore.

So great to see many of you at ACPT. For those who weren’t there, thanks for your patience as we took a week off. Two weeks’ worth of recommendations are below, though I forgot to jot down a few blurbs. Still good puzzles 🙂

Club 72: Freestyle 899 (3/29) by Tim Croce. Tim specializes in hard themelesses and it can take a bit to get used to this style. This edition, while as hard as anything he’s published, is also fair throughout and for me was well worth the grind to piece it together. –Matt

The Modern: ($) Academic Terms (3/30) by Erica Hsiung Wojcik. One of those themes where you know what’s going on, and each entry is still a small aha moment on its own. –Matt

Universal Sunday: Worduckens (3/31) by Adam Wagner. Cleverly themed and pleasant to solve –Norah

Washington Post: World Wide Web (3/31) by Evan Birnholz. –Matt

Puzzmo: First Words (4/1) by brooke. A fun April Fools’ Day challenge as only Brooke can do it. —Rich and Norah and Matt

The New Yorker: The Crossword (4/1) by Caitlin Reid. Really enjoyed the wordplay in this one. —Rich

Puzzmo: It Takes Two (4/3) by Erik Agard. Adorable meta-theme. –Norah

Crossword Club: Daily Crossword (4/3) by Kate Chin Park and Lil AVC X: ($) Eclipse (4/8) by Katja Brinck. These different takes on the eclipse theme are a great example of how much creativity there is in the midi space. —Rich

The New Yorker: The Crossword (4/3) by Robyn Weintraub. Especially satisfying middle stack –Matt

Universal: Beginning Bird-Watching (4/3) by Rebecca Goldstein and Will Eisenberg. So glad this theme set worked in mirror symmetry, because it’s a fun group. –Matt

AVCX: ($) Seeing Double (4/3) by Sam Brody –Matt

Trash Panda Puzzles: Hawaiian Drinks on the Ghost Ship (4/4) by Jason “Jac” Crabtree –Matt

ClassiCanadian Crosswords: ($) Custom-built for Critters (4/3) by Barb Olson –Matt

Universal: Universal Freestyle 119 (4/6) by Rich Feely –Matt

New York Times: (4/5) by Rebecca Goldstein –Matt

Kieran Boyd: Ambitious Constraint Practiced Thoroughly (4/8) by Kieran Boyd. It’s true to its title, both the ambitious constraint and the practiced thoroughly parts, in the best way. –Matt

The New Yorker: The Crossword (4/10) by Rebecca Goldstein. Surprise themed New Yorker! And a delightful one at that. —Rich

Slate: Slate Midi (4/10) by Chandi Deitmer. I’ve really been enjoying Slate’s new crossword; this one is probably my favorite so far. —Rich

Los Angeles Times: (4/12) by Amie Walker & Wendy L. Brandes. Lovely theme with a truly satisfying revealer. —Rich and Norah

Crossworld News & Notes: ACPT Sunday

Congratulations to Paolo Pasco, winner of the 2024 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, and to second- and third-place finishers David Plotkin and Will Nediger, as well as all other award winners. See full results here. Congratulations as well to Andrea Carla Michaels who received the annual Merl Reagle MEmoRiaL Award for lifetime achievement in crossword construction.

Next up on the tournament calendar: Westwords in the Bay Area in June. And, merch!

Boswords Summer Tournament is July 21 in Boston.

Lollapuzzoola 17 has been announced: August 24 in New York City. Registration is open now.

The Midwest Crossword Tournament will be held October 5, 2024 in Chicago. Registration is open now.

“Grids Just Wanna Have Fun” edited by Francis Heaney is available now. The follow up to 2023’s “New Grids on the Block” is filled with gnarly ’80s pop culture references.

“A-to-Gen Z Crosswords: 72 Puzzles That Hit Different” by Ada Nicolle is out May 7.

“Black Crossword: 100 Mini Puzzles Celebrating the African Diaspora” by Juliana Pache releases August 20, 2024. Available for preorders now.

A change in offerings from The New Yorker as they sunset the weekly cryptic and the Friday themed puzzle and reduce the number of themeless puzzles from four to three each week. New, trickyish midis Thursdays and easy mini Fridays.

New on the scene last week, Slate is now offering five midis and one full-sized puzzle each week. Edited by Quiara Vasquez, and constructed by Quiara as well as Chandi Deitmer, Hemant Mehta, Nancy Serrano-Wu, Sid Sivakumar, and Ben Zimmer.

While XWordInfo‘s future remains uncertain, the site has seemingly settled into an equilibrium, one that includes online and printable presentation of the New York Times variety puzzles, which are still produced for the weekly magazine but not posted online by the Times themselves. We’ve restored a link to XWordInfo’s NYT variety puzzle page on our Sunday posts. An XWI subscription is required to view the puzzles. Hayley Gold has also offered to help connect solvers to the Sunday puzzle page – contact her at kakumei@verizon.net for assistance there.

Matthew Stock is raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Email a copy of your donation receipt to matthew.stock@mellownet.com to receive a brand new variety puzzle.

These Puzzles Fund Abortion 4 has raised nearly $50,000. And now, merch.

Our publishing schedule didn’t quite line up with it, but Crossword Con was held Friday in New York, and featured talks from Liz Maynes-Aminzade, Ben Tausig, Rachel Fabi, Malaika Handa, Parker Higgins, and a speed-solving panel with Matthew Gritzmacher, Paolo Pasco, Tyler Hinman, and Stella Zawistowski. The entire event can be viewed here.

The Art of Crossword Puzzles was a recorded discussion at SXSW with host Robbie Kubala and panelists Kyle Mahowald, Adrienne Raphel, and Natan Last.

In sports, the Tampa Bay Rays shared their crossword solving routine.

The team at AVCX Cryptics is accepting submissions through April 30 from constructors who have never made a cryptic for them. Details.

The Puzzle Society is now accepting submissions for the Apple News+ crossword. Details.

The Midwest Crossword Tournament is accepting submissions through April 30 from Midwestern constructors for a place on the tournament roster. Details.

Ingrid, the crossword construction program by Ryan Fitzgerald has released a major update that includes features for browsing and editing wordlists. We here at DCL are big fans of Ingrid and highly recommend it as an option for new and veteran constructors.

The ACPT may be over but Variety Cryptic season never stops! Join us on April 19th at 9pm ET at twitch.tv/bewilderingly to get the news on and group solve all the hot variety cryptics, with special guests Mike Shenk, Evan Birnholz, and Derek Allen plus boring regulars Will Nediger, Al Sanders, and Hayley with 2 ys.

Congratulations to everyone who has made debuts since our last edition:

Los Angeles Times: Alan Levin (3/15), Mary Crane (3/18), Matthew Faiella (3/27), Rich Katz (4/4), Katy Steinmetz (4/4)
USA Today: Rachel Simon (3/12), Dob Olino (3/13), Marc Raila (3/17), Bill Thompson (3/19), Ryan Mathiason (3/23), Lynn K. Watson (3/29), Dennis Nullet (3/30), Joe Rodini (4/1), William Seeley (4/6)
New York Times: E.M. Capassakis (3/20), Mansi Kothari (3/22), Will Eisenberg (3/25), Laura Dershewitz (3/26), Jake Bunch (3/29)

DCL Highlights, Week of 3/22

Scroll on for our recommendations from the last week of puzzles!

Remember that this is not an attempt to pick the “best” puzzles, and we won’t be commenting as critics. Our approach is best described as “puzzles we don’t think you should miss.” Kind of like staff recommendations at a local bookstore.

Programming note: No highlights post next Friday, as we’ll all be in Stamford for the ACPT. Will be back on 4/12 with two weeks’ worth.

Los Angeles Times: Themeless (3/23) by Nate Cardin. I loved so much of the cluing in this puzzle – just the right amount of tricky with highlights in 33A and 37D. I appreciate the fills of 8A, 22D, 40D, and more. – Norah

Autostraddle: AF+ Crossword (3/23) by Darby Ratliff. Pretty developed theme for a midi, and it got a laugh out of me when I got it. – Matt

USA Today: Primetime (3/23) by Ryan Mathiason. Great theme + themeset find. – Matt

The Modern: Themeless 67 (3/24) by Ryan McCarty. I’ve missed Ryan’s themelesses and this is a textbook example of why. This one’s a don’t-miss. – Norah

Ryan is a master of this themeless shape and we’ve seen too little of him lately. Trademark McCarty, and a joy to solve. – Matt

Crossword Club: Daily Crossword (3/24) by Will Nediger. Fun 11x with a cool grid design and pair of lovely triple stacks. – Rich

Alta Magazine: Curl Up with a Good Book (3/25) by Rebecca Goldstein and Rafa Musa. Cute and cozy theme, breezy solve. – Norah

Lutercross: Getting Down To It (3/26) by Matthew Luter. Matthew is consistently putting out solid themelesses just about every week. This time the grid architecture especially stood out to me, but I also admire the commitment to cluing common stuff interestingly, like 43D AND 24A. – Norah

Lil AVC X: “Who’s Even in Charge of This Place?” (3/26) by Owen Bergstein. I know I’m biased, but Lil is doing some fantastic things already this year and this is one of the best so far, with seven (!) spanners and a notched-up difficulty that make for an extra pleasing experience. – Norah

New York Times: ($) (3/26) by Laura Dershewitz and Katherine Baicker. I didn’t found DCL to direct clicks to the New York Times, but I did do it so Laura and Katherine, and those before and after them, could get there due. This is a neat theme with interesting entries kicked up to “check it out” by an absolutely pitch-perfect revealer – Matt

AVCX Classic: Cover All Your Bases (3/27) by Matthew Stock. A cute theme that surprised me in the end. – Norah

Crossword Club: March 27 (3/27) by Kate Chin Park. Quick and easy diagonally symmetrical midi with two fun spanners. – Norah

Luckystreak+: ($) yada yada blah blah blah (3/27) by Ada Nicolle. The indie vibes all over this grid, so much fun to solve. Ada has recently added a free trial option! – Norah

Wall Street Journal: Going to Pieces (3/27) by Alexander Liebeskind. Slightly different theme, placement-in-the-grid wise. Fun. – Matt

A Crossword Rose: Epic Highs and Lows (3/28) by acommonrose. Not one but TWO perfect revealers? We love to see it. – Rich

DCL Highlights, Week of 3/8

Scroll on for our recommendations from the last week of puzzles!

Washington Post: Color-Coated (3/17) by Evan Birnholz. This Sunday puzzle has it all for me – an engaging theme, some humor, clean fill, and a payoff that’s totally worth it. – Matt

New York Times: ($) All Over the Map (3/17) by Simeon Siegel. It doesn’t make sense, until it does, and that’s always a fun process. – Matt

Black Crossword: (3/18) by Juliane Pache. A satisfying punch in a mini package. – Matt

Inexact Puzzles: International Relations (3/19) by Zach Obsniuk. This is my kind of themeless — a pinwheel grid and open corners — that’s a bit on the downtrend lately. A banger of a marquee spanner helps, too. – Matt

Universal: What’s This? (3/19) by Tom Pepper and Zhouqin Burnikel. Fun twist on a typical theme structure. – Matt

The New Yorker: (3/20) by Robyn Weintraub. A quintessential Robyn puzzle, with conversational and accessible entries throughout. – Matt

AVCX Classic: Themeless #75 (3/20) by Kate Chin Park. Super fun themeless (and don’t worry, not as “HARD!” as AVCX advertised!) with Kate’s trademarks of clever wordplay and feel-good content. – Norah

Crossword Club: (3/21) by Erica Hsiung Wojcik. Simple and cute mini theme and four nice spanners. – Norah

The Modern: (3/22) by May Huang. Made my recs for the 3D clue alone but so much fun and fresh content all over in this fun midi. – Norah

Puzzmo: Human Reproduction (3/22) by Will Nediger. Fantastically rule breaking with a super on-point title. – Norah

The New York Times: (3/22) by Mansi Kothari and Erik Agard. My favorite NYT themeless of the year so far. – Norah

This puzzle is worth your time for a half-dozen clues alone, never mind the rest of its (high) quality. – Matt

The New Yorker: Mini (3/22) by Kate Chin Park. While I for one am super bummed at the loss of the Friday themed puzzle, if all the easy minis are this good – clean, fresh, and fast – it will be a good consolation. – Norah

The Riddles of the Sphinx: I Pronouns Thee by Anna Shechtman. A clever mechanic in a puzzle that also serves as an interesting and interactive introduction to the book. – Norah & Steve

DCL Highlights, Week of 3/8

Reminder: This weekly post is not at all an attempt to pick the “best” puzzles, and we won’t be commenting as critics. Our approach is best described as “puzzles we don’t think you should miss.” Kind of like staff recommendations at a local bookstore.

Wall Street Journal: Letter Carriers (3/9) by Peter Gordon. The theme is neat, and dense, but really I’m throwing this in here for the clue at 48d. – Matt

Los Angeles Times: Con Test (3/10) by Brian Thomas & Kate Chin Park. Just a really cute theme that I had a lot of fun solving. – Rich

The Atlantic: Caleb’s Inferno (3/10) by Caleb Madison. So devilishly tricky in the lower half. -Norah

Boswords Spring Themeless League: Puzzle #2 (3/11) ($) by Jess Rucks. A tremendously balanced grid that I hope wasn’t lost on solvers in a competitive setting. My favorite themeless of 2024, so far. – Matt

Autostraddle: Mini Crossword is a Lapsed Catholic (3/11) by Kate Hawkins. Silly, fast, and fun with more references than seems possible for a mini, and made my recommendations for 1D alone. -Norah

Bewilderingly: Word Cloud (3/11) by Will Nediger. I have not solved this puzzle yet. It’s a strong recommendation based on the instructions alone, and I have no doubt it will be great once I do get it.– Matt

LuterCross: Talking Big (3/12) by Matthew Luter. I’ve been enjoying so much of Matt’s work lately and this puzzle is a good example of why. I found this one as educational as entertaining. -Norah

AVCX: ($) Edge Play (3/13) by August Miller. August’s note from AVCX says “this puzzle was motivated in part by my rediscovery of Hyrule (after many years) during the pandemic” and for me it felt like exploring for hidden treasures. Fun and modern. -Norah

Puzzmo: Life in Plastic (3/13) by Mark Valdez. An adorable mini theme and a lot of fun evocative cluing. – Norah

The New Yorker: The Crossword (3/13) by Erik Agard. Great themeless grid with a showstopping 1-Across. – Rich & Norah

Fireball: Leaves Stumped (3/14) by Adam Vincent. I had to hold myself back from listing *every* major outlet’s Thursday puzzle this week. This one had a satisfying multi-part “aha moment.” – Matt

The New Yorker: The Crossword (3/14) by Caitlin Reid. I’m on record as preferring tougher themelesses, but The New Yorker’s easy end has been a highlight each of the last several weeks, and this one is no different: smooth as heck while still having interesting fill. Two of my favorite themelesses in a while in the same week. – Matt

Wall Street Journal: Straight to the Source (3/14) by Drew Schmenner. Lovely, tricky theme done well, with colorful entries throughout. – Matt

Crossword Club: Daily Crossword (3/14) by Quiara Vasquez. I don’t usually care about scrabble scores, but a midi with an apt grid shape is a great place to run them up. – Rich

Puzzmo: Happy Pi Day! (3/14) by Adam Aaronson. Honestly can’t believe Adam made this work. – Rich and Norah

Los Angeles Times: (3/15) by Alan Levin. I solved this one as a themeless, did a double take at the revealer after finishing, and it hit me all at once. Elegant work hiding in plain sight. – Matt

Middlemarch Crossworld News & Notes

We missed this by hours in our last edition: for folks based in New York City or arriving in the area by Friday morning for ACPT weekend, Crossword Con on 5April is “a first-of-its-kind half-day conference about crossword puzzles” presented by Puzzmo. The agenda will have something for everyone in the crossword community.

An in-person ticket is $40, and comes with a one-year subscription or subscription extension to Puzzmo (worth $40 in its own right). The team is planning on providing a free virtual option and will release details when it is confirmed. We won’t have another News and Notes before the event, so stay tuned at the Crossword Con site.

With Oscars season also comes the annual ORCA Awards, celebrating the previous year in crosswords. In addition to their longtime home at Diary of a Crossword Fiend, the ORCAs branched out this year to include public voting from a group of nominees, and an awards show streamed on Twitch.

Congrats to the winners:

BEST EASY CROSSWORD: Untitled, by Desiree Penner & Jeff Sinnock (New York Times, November 6)

BEST THEMED CROSSWORD: Two for the Price of One by Will Nediger (Bewilderingly, July 17)

BEST THEMELESS CROSSWORD: Themeless #50 by Tracy Bennett & Laura Braunstein (Inkubator, December 29)

BEST SUNDAY-SIZED CROSSWORD: Flying Colors by Rafael Musa (New York Times, June 4)

BEST TOURNAMENT CROSSWORD: Going Downhill by Rebecca Goldstein (Boswords Winter Wondersolve, February 5)

BEST CLUE: [Only human, briefly] for ADAM, in Untitled by Alex Rosen (ed. Will Shortz) (New York Times, February 9)

BEST CONTEST CROSSWORD: They Turn Into Superheroes by Quiara Vasquez (Matt Gaffney Weekly Crossword Contest, June 13)

BEST VARIETY CROSSWORD: Departure by Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon (Wall Street Journal, December 16)

CONSTRUCTOR OF THE YEAR: Rebecca Goldstein

LEVIATHAN AWARD for special achievement and service to the community: Jim Horne & Jeff Chen for their work on XWord Info

From the team here, a hearty congratulations to all winners and nominees (view the whole list here), as well as thanks to the same, and to everyone who plays a role in the crossword community to make it something worth celebrating. Special, special thanks to Rich Proulx, who has coordinated the last two years of the ORCAs and masterminded the addition of a live awards show.

With more than 12,000 puzzles published in 2023, the ORCAs nominating committee could always use more input. If you’re interested in lending a hand, fill out the Google Form here (which may be updated for 2024, but your response won’t get lost if it does). This year’s ORCAs cast a wider net into the indie puzzle community than ever before, and I hope we can do even better next year.

The in-person component of this year’s ACPT is now sold-out. Spots on a waiting list were briefly available, but even that option is no longer presented. The virtual experience, with the same puzzles and streams of the evening events and finals, has no attendance cap.

In other tournament news, the Boswords Spring Themeless League is underway. Puzzle 2 drops tonight, but it’s not too late to join the league for this season.

Registration remains open for the Westwords Tournament in Berkeley, CA, in June, and we’re expecting an update from the Midwest Crossword Tournament (Chicago, IL, October) in the coming weeks.

Preorders are still open for These Puzzles Fund Abortion 4: solvers who donate prior to 15 March will receive the pack as soon as it’s available. The team posted a preview puzzle, Forward March by Elise Corbin, earlier this weekend.

Puzzles for Palestine remains available, both the original pack and the custom puzzle option in support of UNRWA and human welfare in Gaza and the West Bank.

Will Shortz shared in a brief audio clip during last week’s NPR Sunday Puzzle segment that he suffered a stroke in early February and has been recovering since. We don’t know Will well, but know he is generally a private person. Our very best wishes to Will for his return to health.

Anna Shechtman’s long-awaited book The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle hit shelves last week, with a variety of accompanying media hits. From Harper’s Magazine: an excerpt titled “Cross Purposes”. At the Slate podcast “Working,” an interview with Anna herself, and in the Cornell Chronicle, an interview with Anna titled “‘Queen of crosswords’ recovers the puzzle’s feminist side.” (Anna is a Klarman Fellow in literatures at Cornell)

For USA Today fans, Sally Hoelscher’s daily blog at Sally’s Take has been an indispensable resource for nearly four years. Beginning today, Sally’s writeups and USA Today solutions have a new home at USA Today itself, as well as a new name: Off The Grid. Read further details about the change at Sally’s Take.

For cryptic and variety lovers:

The New Yorker released a primer on solving cryptic puzzles, including a pack of four puzzles with two levels of indicated hints for beginners to the form to bridge the gap to the magazine’s weekly offerings. Neville Fogarty’s 2019 Cryptic Triptych is another useful pack of gentle puzzles for newer cryptic solvers.

Speaking of, Hayley Gold’s monthly cryptic stream is soon. From Hayley:

Beware the Ides! Variety Cryptic stream a-coming on March 15th at twitch.tv/bewilderingly at 9pm ET featuring original puzzles by Bob Stigger of GAMES, plus special guests ACPT constructor/wordle celeb Tracy Bennet, and Tyler Hinman, who needs no introduction. (plus the usuals: Will, Al, and Hayley). Come for the puzzles, stay for the stabbing…I mean solving.

In more crossword-adjacent topics, the New York Times added another offering to its Games lineup: Strands presents a word search without a list, but the help of hints, to deliver something different. A piece from The Atlantic contains some of the now-expected PR bits, but also muses on the nature of puzzles by contrasting Wordle, Connections and Strands.

Less happily, the Times also filed DMCA takedown requests against hundreds of Wordle variations and clones, including some that existed prior to the Times’ purchase of the game from Josh Wardle. The actual move from the Times here seems to tread somewhere between trademark and copyright law, perhaps taking advantage of many peoples’ confusion between the two. Of course, as in the case of most DMCA requests, almost all will simply comply rather than contest the inertia of a corporation.

There is a lot to read at the link — we encourage you to click through — but we’ll pull this quote:

Parker Higgins, a copyright expert, software developer, and crossword constructor, reviewed the takedown request and said “the Times is operating against the spirit of both the word puzzle community and the open source software world that fostered Wordle’s creation.”

“In both puzzles and tech, people understand that you build on established conventions both to learn the craft and to discover new fun things incrementally. Wordle itself is a beneficiary of that dynamic. It builds on gameplay mechanics from the existing game Jotto, it incorporates community innovations like the emoji results-sharing system, and its reputation was absolutely bolstered by the popularity of variant versions,” he added. “To turn around and smother the ecosystem now is just kicking down the ladder. And it’s especially shameful given that the Times has enjoyed success recently with Connections, another great game with clear ties to prior art.”

Disclosure: Parker is part of the team here at DCL, providing tech support to our daily operations.

As at every point that the Times has pointed to the prestige of its crossword to credentialize other games while actively diverting resources and features from that same crossword, we are once again presented with the disconnect between New York Times Games operating as a capitalistic business venture and as a steward of puzzles as an art form. The Times has consistently chosen the former in recent years, all while telling us how wonderful they are at the latter. It’s difficult to reconcile.

Congrats to constructors who have made debuts (in the short window) since our last edition!

New York Times: Samantha Podos Nowak (3/4), Joe O’Neill (3/7), Jackson Matz (3/8)
USA Today: Dena Witkes (3/4), Jake Halperin (3/5), Glenn Cook (3/7), David P. Williams (3/9), Susan Gelfand (3/10)

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