New York Times Crossword

PBAR · #1 07-14-2007, 08:29 PM

I started doing crossword puzzles from the newspaper a couple years ago. I recently moved and the newspaper in my town prints the New York Times crossword. After Wednesday I don't have much hope in doing it. When I look at the Sunday puzzle, I always wonder, who can actually do this? Are there OOTers who can solve the Sunday puzzle without assistance (ie Google). Were you always able to do it or did it just come with time? I think age plays a large role (I'm 23), how old are the people who can solve it? Also, how beneficial is it to fill in blanks once the solution is received? Any tips would also be appreciated.

kidcolin · #2 07-14-2007, 08:36 PM

my mom does it every single weekend. Sometimes she needs a little help from my dad or me if I'm around, but she's pretty damn good at these things.

She's 56.

TiK · #3 07-14-2007, 08:37 PM

I started doing the NYTimes crossword puzzle during HS (circa 1995; I'm currently 27). When you first start, you won't be too good, but after a while, you'll start being able to do more and more. FYI, the Sunday crossword is about as difficult as a Wednesday or a Thursday puzzle. It's the Saturday one that's been described as the "bitch mother" of all crosswords.

Currently, I can finish Monday - Thursday and Sunday crosswords to completion pretty consistently (about 90% of the time). The Friday crossword, maybe I'll finish 25% of the time, and Saturday, I've completed maybe 10 in my entire life.

Edited to add:

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Also, how beneficial is it to fill in blanks once the solution is received? Any tips would also be appreciated.

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In recent times, I don't even do the Monday-Wednesday ones any more. It's helpful if you're really stumped if you don't try to solve it at one sitting. Sometimes, it'll come to you after a while.

I rarely look up the answers. If I haven't finished, I basically carry it around until I do (yeah, I walk around with a bunch of Friday and Saturday NY Times crossword puzzles in my bag; yes, I'm a dork).

PBAR · #4 07-14-2007, 08:57 PM

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It's helpful if you're really stumped if you don't try to solve it at one sitting. Sometimes, it'll come to you after a while.

I rarely look up the answers. If I haven't finished, I basically carry it around until I do (yeah, I walk around with a bunch of Friday and Saturday NY Times crossword puzzles in my bag; yes, I'm a dork).

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I too find that taking a break and coming back helps a lot. Often I'll look at it and wonder how I missed some answers before. I didn't realize that the Sunday crossword wasn't the hardest, I'll give it a go tomorrow.

punkass · #5 07-14-2007, 10:33 PM

I remember looking at the NY Times Crossword and not being able to get any of the clues. I hate it. I R DUM.

Duke · #6 07-14-2007, 10:59 PM

Once I had a job on a loading dock at a factory, so I had to route the UPS shipments. UPS went on strike, so crossword puzzles it was.

They were always one day late, so on Monday I'd do Sunday, and so on.

One thing that is different about me than most typical people is that I never fill in anything until I'm sure, since I do them in pen. That means I need to basically know an entire region before I'll fill it in.

I finished 2 or 3 of the sunday ones, one of them needing 3 squares to be filled with the word "man" - I think they were going for the stick figure symbol for a man indicating those letters. Remember that when there i a "symbol" on the board, and not a letter, that symbol has to be symmetrical too in its placement. Meaning, if there's one in the top left there will be one in the lower right.

Anyhow, the Sundays are definitely the toughest ones. If I weren't 18 at the time I think I would have finished more of them, since as you get older you hear more words.

Edit: Sundays are tougher than M-Th, apparently. I never had occasion to try a Friday or a Saturday.

Duke · #7 07-14-2007, 11:02 PM

This is funny - I never happened to do a friday or a saturday because of the situation I was in. Sunday is tougher than the other days.

AntonHeat · #8 07-14-2007, 11:38 PM

Man these things are hella hard or im just a dumass lol [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

TiK · #9 07-14-2007, 11:46 PM

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Man these things are hella hard or im just a dumass lol [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

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They just take practice. After you do them for a while (years), it'll get to the point where you start recognizing the styles of the frequent crossword makers.

cbloom · #10 07-14-2007, 11:57 PM

I wish they would just write the clues like Jeopardy questions. I have no idea WTF they are asking for with most of the bizaaro terse clues in the NYT. It's like they're trying to use as few words as possible to write the clues and be as obtuse as possible. But it's not like real difficulty, it's just a retarded in-crowd thing where once you learn the code words and style you can decrypt their cyphers.