Post
Cranky word-nerd rant alert. You should skip this short thread if hearing me complain about crossword puzzles isn't your thing.
Every morning, I sit down with my coffee and solve the NYTimes crossword puzzle. Mostly I do that online, but my Sunday morning ritual is steaming cup of coffee, my good pen, paper copy of the puzzle in the Times Magazine. That's the only reason I still subscribe to the dead-tree edition of the Times on the weekend.
1/
This morning, I was totally stymied. Puzzle title is "Nuclear Fusion," which is always a hint to the Sunday puzzle theme. However, the clue numbers printed with the puzzle didn't line up with the grid. That's super weird -- never happened, that I can remember. Was it related to the theme in some clever way?
I spent forty minutes staring at the thing, trying to figure it out.
Stymied.
2/
The Times always prints a companion article to the puzzle, explaining its construction, offering hints and some clues, a few of the tricky answers. I try never to look at that until I'm done.
Today, though, I couldn't even get started, so decided to use it.
3/
First paragraph:
"If you plan to solve the Sunday Crossword in this week’s New York Times Magazine, you will find that the answers will not fit. After the issue had already been printed, we discovered that there was an error with the solvable grid of the Sunday Crossword. A corrected version of the puzzle can be found on Page 25 of Sunday’s daily New York Times. We sincerely apologize for the confusion. The grids available to print online are correct."
4/
AYFKM?
You had one job!
I'm pretty sure that there are lots of hard things about making a newspaper, but honestly, making sure the clue numbers and the square numbers are all lined up nice and tidy can't possibly be one of them.
Grumble grumble.
I'll stow my frustration -- it's a small thing! -- but come on, man. There can't be that many of us still paying your delivery guys for the paper. Keep us happy.
5/5
And now, having finished the crossword on-line:
Shame they messed it up because it's actually a pretty fun, and very well-constructed, puzzle.
6/5
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