Friday, 23 December 2022

BEQ: Here’s the Kicker by Brendan Emmett Quigley. .puz, .pdf, online.
The Chicago Maroon: 52. 2022 MCPT #2: Clove is in the Air by Pravan Chakravarthy. .pdf, online.
Crosshare Community: Daily Mini and Featured Puzzles.
Crossword Nexus Blog: Puzzle #72: Can We Talk? (feat ???) by Alex Boisvert .jpz, .pdf, online.

Autostraddle: Autostraddle Mini — December 23, 2022 by Brooke Husic. .pdf, online.
Crossword Club: Daily Crossword: December 23, 2022 by Kelsey Dixon. .pdf, online.
Crucinova: ($) Alphabits by Lisa Bunker. Subscribe at link.
Inkubator: ($) Holding Pattern by Joanne Sullivan. Subscribe at link.
Planet Crossword: Sweet Talking by Carly Schuna. Online.

The Atlantic Mini: by Paolo Pasco. .pdf, online.
Crosswords with Friends: by Andy Kravis. App Store | Google Play
Daily POP Crosswords: by Matthew Stock. App Store | Google Playonline.
Los Angeles Times: by Lewis Rothlein. Online, pdf. Free Cruciverb account for .puz.
LA Times Mini: by Elizabeth Gorski. Online.
The Modern Crossword: Friday, December 23, 2022 by Anna Gundlach. Online, .pdf.
New York Sun: ($) Warrior by Bob Peoples. Reissues from 2003.
New York Times: ($) by Brandon Koppy. Online, .pdf, app.
New York Times Mini: by Joel Fagliano. Online, app.
The New Yorker: The Holiday Crossword: Friday, December 23, 2022 by Erik Agard. .pdf, online.
Newsday: Timely Message by Stanley Newman. Online, .pdfbackup online.
Universal: Downtime by Michael Berg. Online, pdf. .puz.
USA Today: Split Ends by Li Ding. Online, .pdf, app.
Vox: by Andrew J. Ries. .pdf, online.
Vulture 10×10: The Buddy Puzzle by Stella Zawistowski. .pdf, online.
The Wall Street Journal: Jolly Old St. Nick by Mike Shenk. Online, .pdf. .puz.
Washington Post Daily Mini Meta: by Andrew White & Pete Muller. Online, .pdf.

Darren’s Puzzles: Cryptic Tree 2022-12 by Darren Miller. .pdf
Mental Playground: December 23 by MP. .pdf, online.
Out Of Left Field: ($) Cryptic #143 by Joshua Kosman & Henri Picciotto. Patreon subscription.
Puzzles For Progress: #99: Morseword, Tatamibari, Yajilin by Jacob Cohen. .pdf, .puz, online.
Real Puzzling Stuff: Slide + Seek #5 by Ryan Patrick Smith. .pdf, online.
Square Pursuit: Eight Cryptic Nights #5 – Shin by Steve Mossberg. .pdf, online.
Some Variety: Advent 2022: #19 by Elgel online.
Some Variety: Advent 2022: #18 by Elgel online.

Financial Times: FT Weekend Magazine Crossword Number 620 by Aldhelm. .pdf.
Financial Times: FT Crossword: Number 17,285 by Gaff. .pdf.
The Globe and Mail: The Daily Cryptic Crossword. .pdf, online.
The Guardian: Cryptic crossword No 28,948 by Brendan. .pdf, online.
The Independent: Cryptic Crossword by Filbert. .pdf, online.

Other American-style crosswords:

Reviews and Discussion at Diary of a Crossword Fiend | Boatload Puzzles/AARP | Crosshare | CrosswordsBackwards | Cruciverbalista (en español) | Dictionaries6 | Easy Crossword | FreeDailyCrosswords | GameLab | Hard Crossword | r/crossword | Squares.io | YourPuzzleSource | XWord-Muggles Meta Calendar

Other Cryptic/Variety crosswords:

A Frame Games | cf.kmbweb.de Links Library | Harper’s ($) | Lovatts | Magpie ($) | Mokelfish Links Library | MyCrossword | NPL | Panda Magazine ($) | Private Eye | PuzzleCrypt archives | Puzzling StackExchange | r/crosswords | Split Decisions | Sydney Morning Herald ($) | The Telegraph | The Times (UK) ($), includes The Listener

Crossworld News and Notes, October 2022

This is the first News & Notes since we left Substack entirely. We’ve made every effort to preserve the lists of folks who opted out of the daily emails while still receiving News & Notes, and vice versa, and appreciate your patience if you receive this in error – an unsubscribe link is at the bottom and will not affect the daily links distribution.


The Boswords Fall Themeless League is on! The puzzles and Twitch streams from September 26 and October 3 are available now. Late registrations are accepted; sign up here.

Cruciverbology is a new blog by constructor Elise Corbin. Elise has published with The Inkubator and Fireball Crosswords and made the only puzzle for FiveThirtyEight to date following a memorable indie debut just over two years ago — seriously, solve “Election Tampering” ASAP if it’s new to you. She calls her blog “Crosswords with a nerdy twist,” and the three puzzles available so far fit that description perfectly. We look forward to what more she will bring to the indie space.

Emma Oxford and Will Pfadenhauer of Pandora’s Blocks weekly meta crossword have started a podcast, “Outside the Blocks: A Puzzle Podcast.” In the first episode, released September 18, they review and explain a handful of meta puzzles from a variety of sources. They promise interviews with meta constructors in the future.

We’ve been listing weekly puzzles from Morning Brew for a bit now, but only recently caught up to their expanded offerings. Mary Tobler now oversees four puzzles a week: a Tuesday mini, a “more experimental” Thursday midi, the (typically) 15x you’ve seen us link for a bit, and a current events-minded Sunday 10x. Having passed 4 million subscribers earlier this year, Morning Brew creates puzzles for a wide range of solvers, and this new lineup is their latest initiative to encourage readers and puzzle fans, from daily devotees to first-timers, to engage with crosswords through innovative, fun formats. Mary talks more about her work in puzzles in the Morning Brew piece, “How puzzle master Mary Tobler makes a living playing games.”

A new puzzle is available at Planet Crossword, edited by Stella Zawistowski and Brooke Husic. A robust “About Us” section can be found here, but a particular highlight of this new outlet is that it uses software designed specifically for collaborative solving–on Zoom calls, on streams, or otherwise–filling the grid from correct answers typed into a chat. New puzzles are published each weekday at noon.

Writing for the Washington Post, Evan Birnholz published an interview with Jim Quinlan, crossword constructor and commenter, who recently retired from reviewing Evan’s puzzles at Diary of a Crossword Fiend after five years.

For cryptic fans, we learned recently of the Global Indian Crossword league 2022, an online worldwide cryptic crossword tournament, thanks to a news blurb about Erik Agard and Neville Fogarty’s places on the leaderboard. An in-person finale is scheduled for December 25 in Bangalore. Anyone is welcome to join and late registrations are accepted. Sign up here.

The New York Times Gameplay team has a new series called “Mini to Maestro,” in which they promise “Everyone can solve the New York Times Crossword.” Using progressively more difficult puzzles as examples and explaining solving strategies to use for each day of the week, they help teach solvers how to improve their skills. Each piece lists un-paywalled NYT crosswords chosen by members of the Gameplay team to practice the techniques explained.


Congratulations to Kate Chin Park, who has joined The New Yorker puzzles and games team as Assistant Editor. We’re big fans of her work at her own site, Crossword Club, and elsewhere, and excited to see what she brings to the TNY team.

Lil AVC X is seeking constructors and expert solvers who are interested in being first-time editors to join the team for 2023. Applications due October 21. Details here.

Since the last News & Notes, Helen Chen (9/22), David Karp (9/30), Sarah Sinclair (10/2), Jason Reich (10/5), and Ailee Yoshida made their NYT debuts; and Li Ding (9/19), Kavin Pawittranon (9/26), and Nijah Morris (9/26) made their USAT debuts! Congrats to everyone! Sarah has designed knitting patterns based on Wordle, the Spelling Bee, and the NYT Crossword. Helen’s puzzle is the second and Ailee’s the third to be published from the NYT Diverse Crossword Constructor Fellowship inaugural class, and Ailee is the youngest woman to have a crossword published in the New York Times.

Creating Crossword Puzzles” is a course taught by Brooke Husic and Natan Last in cooperation with Atlas Obscura. The second offering of the course begins October 11 (tonight!) with four weekly sessions over Zoom. The content is intended for very new constructors and those who are interested in how crosswords are made. Reduced price tickets are available.

In “How I Crossed Crosswords,” David Ding details his journey in writing a crossword puzzle, culminating with the publication of the September 27 Universal puzzle with Ross Trudeau. Aspiring constructors might appreciate the behind-the-scenes perspective of developing a puzzle with editors and working through the process with an experienced mentor.

Amuse Labs hosts a free monthly webinar for constructors. This month, they will discuss PuzzleMe features for creating and solving puzzles with a live Q&A session with developers. The webinar is scheduled for October 20 at 11am ET. Sign up here.


Have a news tip for us? An idea to pitch? A puzzle or puzzle site to share? Let us know!

Monday, September 19, 2022

“Waaay better than a repository.” – Fill Me In

Bewilderingly: Throwing Spanners in the Works by Will Nediger. .puz, .pdf, online.
Crosshare Community: Daily Mini and Featured Puzzles.
The Daily Princetonian: Drift By My Window by Gabriel Robare and Juliet Corless. Online.
Grids These Days: Remedial Chaos Theory (Meta Suite) by Paolo Pasco. .puz, .pdf, online.
Jack Of All Squares: State of Limbo Vibes (Themeless #5) by Lyle Broughton. .pdf, online.
Jeff’s Puzzles: Themeless 38 by Jeff Linder. .puz, .pdf
Monday Fills: Here’s Your Change by Dave Murchie. .puz, .pdf, online.
QVXwordz: Five by Five #9 by Quiara Vasquez. .puz, .pdf, online.
Rossword Puzzles: Power Grid by Ross Trudeau. .puz, .pdf, online.
xwordswithbabka: Bread Week by Dan Schwartz. .puz, .pdf, online.

Atlas Obscura: Just Deserts by Brendan Emmett Quigley. .puz, .pdf, online.
Crossword Club: Daily Crossword: September 19, 2022 by Kate Chin Park. .pdf, online.
The Hub Crossword: ($) Going to Pieces by Joon Pahk. Patreon subscription.
Lil AVC X: ($) It’s Midterm Season by Emily Sharp. Subscribe at link.

The Atlantic Mini: by Paolo Pasco. .pdf, online.
Crosswords with Friends: by Stella Zawistowski. App Store | Google Play
Daily Beast: Arrr! by Matt Gaffney. .pdf, online.
Daily POP Crosswords: by Beth Rubin. App Store | Google Play, online.
Los Angeles Times: by Katie Hale. Online, pdf. Free Cruciverb account for .puz.
LA Times Mini: by Elizabeth Gorski. Online.
New York Magazine: Please See Attached by Matt Gaffney. .pdf, online.
New York Sun: ($) Logic With Holes by Byron Walden. Reissues from 2002.
New York Times: ($) by Leslie Young and Andrea Carla Michaels. Online, .pdf, .puz, app.
New York Times Mini: by Joel Fagliano. Online, app.
The New Yorker: The Crossword by Elizabeth C. Gorski. .pdf, online.
Newsday: Going Up and Down by Doug Peterson. Online, .pdf, backup online.
Universal: RAsputin by Matthew Faiella. Online, pdf. .puz.
USA Today: First Contact by Li Ding. Online, .pdf, app.
Vox: by Patrick Blindauer. .pdf, online.
The Wall Street Journal: Pirate Program by Gary Larson. Online, .pdf. .puz.
Washington Post Daily Mini Meta: by Andrew White & Pete Muller. Online, .pdf.

A Cleverly-Titled Logic Puzzle Blog: Perplexing Pairs by Grant Fikes .pdf
Redhead64: Honeycomb 4 .pdf.
Steve’s Cryptic Crosswords: Puzzle 286 by Steve Townsend. Online.

Financial Times: FT Crossword: Number 17,203 by PETO. .pdf.
The Globe and Mail: The Daily Cryptic Crossword. .pdf, online.
The Guardian: Cryptic crossword No 28,866 by Soup. .pdf, online.
The Independent: Cryptic Crossword by Lark. .pdf, online.

Other American-style crosswords:

Reviews and Discussion at Diary of a Crossword Fiend | Boatload Puzzles/AARP | Crosshare | CrosswordsBackwards | Cruciverbalista (en español) | Dictionaries6 | Easy Crossword | FreeDailyCrosswords | GameLab | Hard Crossword | r/crossword | Squares.io | YourPuzzleSource | XWord-Muggles Meta Calendar

Other Cryptic/Variety crosswords:

A Frame Games | cf.kmbweb.de Links Library | Harper’s ($) | Lovatts | Magpie ($) | Mokelfish Links Library | MyCrossword | NPL | Panda Magazine ($) | Private Eye | PuzzleCrypt archives | Puzzling StackExchange | r/crosswords | Split Decisions | Sydney Morning Herald ($) | The Telegraph | The Times (UK) ($), includes The Listener