Monday, February 29, 2016

Clever Clue Nominees

Please vote for the best clue from February (either by email or comments below). The Clever Clue of the Month will be announced on Thursday.

Defensive line?.........................IMJUSTSAYING
Secret behind the shed?.................DIETPILL
Carrier for bum wraps...................DIAPERBAG
School in which ideally there are no
classes?................................MARXISM
Activity in which love means nothing....TENNIS
They're drunk at socials................TEAS

Sunday, February 7, 2016

What 74 Years of Crossword History Says About the Language We Use

Article by

EDUCATED Americans consider themselves a cosmopolitan bunch. We follow the conflict in Ukraine between Donetsk and Kiev, and can probably point to them on a map. We enjoy bibimbap and paella, which we try to pronounce with an appropriate accent. Some of us can identify the work of Igor Stravinsky, Youssou N’Dour and Ai Weiwei. The rest of us are going to go look them up on Wikipedia now.
But we are more parochial than our grandparents’ generation, according to one indicator: the New York Times crossword puzzle.
With the permission of Will Shortz, the Times’s crossword puzzle editor, I recently downloaded all of the newspaper’s crosswords from February 1942, when the puzzle began, through the end of 2015...



Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Clever Clue of the Month


January 2016
Clue: Mating situation..........................CHESSTOURNAMENT
Constructors: Doug Peterson & Patti Varol, Editor: Rich Norris
LA Times, Saturday, January 30, 2016