Saturday, September 30, 2017

Clever Clue Nominees

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

Civic spaces?...........................LOTS
Components of ranch dressing?...........STETSONS
Execute camels, e.g. ...................FIGURESKATE
Go on and on, possibly about flying
robots..................................DRONE
Chamber of commerce?....................SHOP
Flight specialists?.....................COWARDS

Thursday, September 28, 2017

24 Years of NYT Crossword Answers

Here's a great article covering crossword data during the Will Shortz era of editing the NYT Crossword Puzzle. 'jtanwk', the author of the article, answers the following questions:

  • What are the most common answers?
  • Are words getting longer?
  • Average length of crossword answers by day

  • How does letter density vary by day?
  • What words have emerged recently?
  • How lexically diverse are crosswords?

Monday, September 4, 2017

Clever Clue of the Month

August 2017
Clue: Toy used on flights?.......................SLINKY
Constructor: Jeffrey Wechsler; Editor: Rich Norris
LA Times, Friday, August 28, 2017