It’s been a while – certainly longer than we’d like. The good news, at least, is that there’s always crossword news. And uh, this draft is nine pages long in Google Docs, so hunker down, I guess.
As always, if you’ve got news that we’ve missed, get in touch with us here, and when I’m done apologizing for going six months between editions, we’ll include it in the next News & Notes.
Things to read and listen to
Way back in June, Ben Zimmer appeared on the Grammar Girl podcast discussing crosswords, their history, and the Crossword Craze project he, Parker Higgins, and others spun up this spring.
I can’t remember, but think that we’ve covered Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon’s step away from the biweekly acrostic byline at the New York Times. The Times’ new acrostic constructors, Dave Balton & Jane Stewart, have set up a companion blog at nytacrostics.com.
Washington University in St. Louis did a short feature (with a puzzle!) on MD/PHD student Sid Sivakumar, whose name you might recognize: Uncovering ‘the basis of humanity’ one puzzle at a time
The New York Times’ Mike Isaac had a piece in June on the raft of news and tech sites spinning up games departments.
When Will Nediger stopped doing monthly Indie Puzzle Highlights, we stepped in with our own highlights posts. Recently he’s brought back (roughly) monthly offering reviews and analysis – much more detailed than before – of puzzles that struck him. Be sure to visit the puzzles linked at the top of each post before scrolling down if you want to avoid spoilers. June | July | August | September | November
An article from The Guardian on a common topic: the balance of younger setters, solvers, and content in UK-based cryptic crosswords, with some attention towards similar trends in American puzzles: Less Elvis, more Taylor Swift: a clue for ‘dated’ cryptic crossword setters
A profile on Kate Chin Park, Rebecca Goldstein, and the inaugural Westwords crossword tournament in Alta Magazine: Four Letters, Opposite of East
A profile in Slate of Wyna Liu and the New York Times’ Connections game: The NYT Connections Editor Knows What You’ve Been Saying
A fun reflection on the ethos over at Puzzmo and their crosswords under the leadership of Brooke Husic, from intern Madison Greenstein: What is it like to construct Puzzmo Cross|words?
Connecticut Public, a PBS and NPR member station, spoke with the New York Times’ Joel Fagliano and Everdeen Mason in August: Puzzling over crosswords with the editors of NYT Games.
The Times held a Mini-themed event in August. A brief writeup from Digiday: Why puzzle fans lined up around the block for New York Times Games’ first live event
Rolling Stone is the latest media outlet to feature Black Crossword’s Juliane Pache and her book Black Crossword: 100 Mini Puzzles Celebrating the African Diaspora: How Juliana Pache’s ‘Black Crossword’ Book is Changing the Puzzle Game
AP News, as well: She didn’t see her Black heritage in crossword puzzles. So she started publishing her own
Brooke Husic appeared on an episode of the podcast female intern with danielle deluty in an engaging 90-minute conversation on her journey in crosswords and approach to the medium
A profile on the constructors in the University of Chicago community, particularly Pravan Chakravarthy and Henry Josephson at the Chicago Maroon newspaper: Puzzling Behavior
A guest essay from Natan Last at the Times: Why We Turn to Crosswords in Times of Crisis
Daily Crossword Links was founded during Covid, when streamers and podcasters were popping up all the time. It’s been a bit beyond our scope to stay as up to date with them as puzzles themselves, but we got a note this month pointing us to the YouTube channel Wine Down with Christopher & the NYT Crossword. Check it out if you’re looking for a companion to your daily solve.
Things to solve (and fond farewells)
Tim Croce over at Club72 published his 1000th crossword this summer. That’s a big deal! Congrats to him. I won’t list others who I believe have hit that milestone out of fear of snubbing someone, but it’s a very short list. Visit Tim’s site if you want hard themelesses featuring a cluing voice unlike anyone else, a willingness to go anywhere for new wordlist content, and an occasional twist on the themeless format.
Crossword Club, which has been published midis for a little bit now, expanded to 15×15 puzzles on Sundays in July.
Alex Boisvert continues to expand the tools and resources available at Crossword Nexus, including now a tool for constructing Rows Garden puzzles.
If you were a fan, you already know, but in October the Puzzle Society decided to cancel the Modern Crossword. Growing in size from early-week minis to weekend 15x15s, the Modern set out to normalize contemporaneous cluing voices and grid content while also making the most out of the possibilities offered by online solving interfaces. If there’s any consolation, it’s that constructors who were regular at the Modern haven’t suddenly stopped making puzzles – take a click through our daily emails to find constructors and outlets that work for you!
Andrew Ries announced recently that he is ending his weekly Rows Garden subscription after 11 years and 444 puzzles. Free monthly puzzles will continue, and Andrew leaves open the possibility that there will be new Rows Gardens in the future, but we’re sad to see him step back all the same. Read Andrew’s announcement and reflections at his site.
Atlas Obscura’s weekly puzzle has also ended since our last News & Notes.
In honor of her third anniversary making puzzles, Kelsey Dixon (aka Crosstina Aquafina) released a delightful zine in mid-October featuring “some art, some personal thoughts, some personal photos, and 14 midi puzzles.” Kelsey’s full remarks and the puzzle suite available for download here.
New to our DCL rolodex since June: Graeme’s Puzzles || Gruswords || India Mini || Major Arcana || star-crossed || Scientific American || blogat
Things to Support
AVCX is in the midst of a subscriber drive, seeking to add 1000 new subscribers by the end of this year. From an email sent to subscribers in mid-November:
Many of you know that we have expanded our offerings in recent years to include cryptics, a themeless, a midi, and a trivia contest, in addition to our weekly crossword. This winter, we’re reorganizing our finances to support all of this, fully independently.
In order to do so, we’re now running a subscription drive in hopes of adding 1,000 new solvers by January 1. If you’re not currently subscribed, you can be one of them! We’re doing several things that our solvers have asked for to move this forward, including:
-Adding a web-based solving interface, which is live! Active subscribers can choose from a year of archival materials, and anyone can try the sample puzzles.
-Adding a tiered pricing system for subscriptions, also live! This allows you to choose from different prices for an annual subscription depending on what you want to pay.
-Adding a newsletter filtering option so you can choose which emails you get (or don’t).
-Sprucing up the look of the emails and other stuff.
If you’re not already a subscriber, AVCX’ homepage is here, and their bluesky is a pretty good place to get a sense of their ethos, as well.
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Closer to home, I’ve never been good at highlighting how you can support our work here at DCL. Our team is fully volunteer, and I’ve covered all expenses personally for nearly five years now. But it’s an ever-growing project just to keep up with the standard we’ve established, let alone venture into wish-list projects, and I need to be a bit more forward with that Support Us link.
Beyond the existing content at our site, we are planning to release a fundraiser puzzle pack later this month in the same style as BEQ’s biannual drives, and have hopes of spinning up a monthly (or more) subscription puzzle for donors in 2025. Stay tuned, and thank you for your support.
Things to buy
We missed this when it first published, so we’re extra delayed now, but a book from Aimee Lucido and Matthew Stock: Crossword Puzzles for Brain Fitness
Following up on ‘80s (“Grids Just Wanna Have Fun”) and ‘90s (“New Grids on the Block”) themed collections, editor Francis Heaney and Puzzlewright Press move into the new millennium with Grids Don’t Lie: Hot 2000s Crosswords
Andrew Ries announced in September a puzzle pack of Section Eight puzzles. Occasionally featured in joon pahk’s Outside the Box subscription, Section Eight puzzles are for my money one of the toughest and most satisfying variety formats out there. Andrew’s pack comes in two difficulties, in both .jpz and .pdf formats. Purchase the eight-puzzle pack for $8 here. A two-puzzle “Bonus Bundle” is available for $2 more, as well.
Australian setter LR (Liam Runnalls) published Birdle: Fun Word Games About Australian Birds – a mix of crosswords and other challenges.
A second puzzle collection from entertainment company A24 and editors Brooke Husic and Will Nediger, 99 TV Crosswords, is now available. And, you know, if you missed the first collection, 99 Movie Crosswords, from editor Anna Shechtman, you can still pick that up, too.
Puzzmo has released its first compilation of puzzles, featuring 30 Cross|words from the site in 2024, 10 book-exclusive puzzles, and additional remixes of other Puzzmo games Flipart and Really Bad Chess. Order here
Morning Brew has also curated a puzzle collection featuring grids from Jack Murtagh and Mary Tobler. Morning Brew’s puzzles typically sit in the midi range, with a few larger and a few smaller from time to time. This collection features puzzles published in 2024 alongside a few new ones. Order here
Adam Aaronson turned the 2025 calendar into a series of twelve mini puzzles. That kind of undersells it, so be sure to check out his blog post and purchase here if that’s up your alley.
It’s Puzzlemania time from New York Times Games again. The physical insert was in newspapers this past Sunday, 1 December, and is now only available from the New York Times store. Historically the Times has offered “limited copies” for online purchase, but it’s still available Tuesday evening as I write this.
BEQ over at brendanemmettquigley.com is again offering two 21×21 bonus puzzles for a donation to his semiannual fundraiser. He also dropped this week his annual puzzle-focused gift guide, which is always worth a few clicks through.
Tournaments!
There have been … almost the entire tournament calendar in our absence, most recently the Boswords Fall Themeless League, which wrapped up just this past Monday.
Westwords: congrats to champion Paolo Pasco. Full standings and tournament puzzles still available for purchase
Boswords: Congrats to in-person Summer Tournament champion Glen Ryan. I’m not certain whether the Fall Themeless League standings are fully finalized yet but complete standings are here – congrats to all. Scroll down a bit on the Boswords main page to view complete Summer Tournament results as well as purchase puzzles from all past Boswords events.
Lollapuzzoola: Award winners here (congrats to Express Champion Ada Nicolle) and puzzles available for purchase here. Historically Lollapuzzoola puzzles are not available for purchase this long after the tournament, so I recommend you hop on that link quick if it’s of interest.
Midwest Crossword Tournament: Congrats to in-person champion Will Nediger. Full standings and puzzles for purchase available here.
Bryant Park Crossword Tournament: This tournament is more local to NYC, but being in NYC always has a good turnout. Congrats to winner Paolo Pasco. Puzzles have not been made available to purchase for my knowledge, but if anyone knows of a share link, send it our way and we’ll spread the word.
On the horizon in 2025:
ACPT: April 4-6; Stamford, CT. Registration begins 1 January, 2025
Boswords: Winter Wondersolve; February 2 (Online) // Spring Themeless League; March and April (Online) // Summer Tournament; July 27; Boston, MA (In-Person & Online) // Fall Themeless League; October and November (Online)
Lollapuzzolla: A Saturday in August; New York, NY
Midwest: October 11; Chicago, IL
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