CROSSWORDS: Choose Appropriate Difficulty

Quotes | Summary | Cryptics | References

Quotes

Summary

  • Choose a level of difficulty appropriate for you
  • Balance challenge and frustration -- not too easy, not impossible
  • 'mini' (5 x 5) puzzle, e.g., NYT; very easy
  • larger puzzles are not necessarily more difficult,
    but can intimidate and take longer
  • 'commuter' puzzle = same weekday difficulty, e.g., Newsday?, USA Today
  • NYT, LAT (15 x 15): Mon = 'easiest', ..., Sat = 'most difficult';
    NYT Sun (21 x 21) = ~'hard Wed / easy Thu'
  • Crossword difficulty matrix for various mainstream(ish) puzzles, by day of week; 5/15/2021
  • Discussion of crossword (Wed, NYT 9/7/2022),
    whose theme entries described a new solver tackling Mon-Fri crosswords
  • Mon-Sun NYT Crosswords (songs; .mp3) by John Schnall;
    MayasMix @ Mo: 79:49; Tu: 79:54; We: 80:13; Th: 80:52; Fr: 81:54; Sa: 82:47; Su: 83:38
  • Saturday Stumper" (Newsday) themeless -- even harder?
  • Mon-level clues, e.g.: "Nabisco cookie," "Cookie with creme filling", "'Twist, Lick, Dunk' cookie"
  • Sat-level clues, e.g.: "Snack since 1912", "It has 12 flowers on each side", "Sandwich often given a twist"
  • Easy Mode: NYT Friday themeless crossword with easier (Wed-level) clues
  • The New Yorker’s crosswords Mon: hardest; Thu: easiest; Fri: themed
  • "How do you classify puzzles on the scale of easy to hard?
    Crossword puzzles in The NYT get increasingly difficult throughout
    the week, with our easiest on Mondays and our hardest on Saturdays.
    Friday and Saturday grids are themeless, but every other day has themes.
    On Sundays, we run a bigger puzzle (21x21 instead of 15x15),
    but it’s about as hard as Wednesday or Thursday.

    A Monday theme will be relatively straightforward; it might involve
    hidden words, rhymes, phrases with similar letter patterns or phrases
    that fit in a certain category. A “revealer” will often let the solver
    know what the theme entries have in common. In this puzzle,
    IT HAD TO BE YOU is a phonetic hint at the two BU’s hiding in the
    theme entries: HAMBURGER BUN, TRIBUTE ALBUM and BUNSEN BURNER.
    A Monday theme should come with a grid that is free of obscure entries.
    If we really like a theme for a Monday but the grid has obscure vocabulary,
    we may ask the constructor to rework it to be more Monday-friendly.

    Tuesday and Wednesday puzzles generally have themes that are a little headier,
    or more punny. They tend to be the goofiest and most playful. They often
    involve manipulating familiar phrases in some way, playing with homophones,
    rhymes, or with adding or deleting letters. The difference between a Tuesday
    and a Wednesday is a little harder to pin down. Often a theme could run on
    either day, but we decide based on the difficulty of the vocabulary in the grid.

    In this FASHION POLICE puzzle from a Tuesday, phrases like DUST JACKET
    and FOLLOW SUIT are interpreted as articles of clothing that a detective
    might wear. In this Wednesday puzzle, the phrases are made-up syllable
    palindromes like TIC TAC TOE TACTIC and GO FAR IN FARGO."
    ~Christina Iverson, Easy Mode newsletter, 1/19/2024
  • "Thursday crosswords often have a gimmick that can throw solvers for a loop if
    they’re not expecting it. Puzzles with rebuses (those with multiple letters
    in a square) and other dastardly tricks are usually reserved for Thursdays.
    Sometimes, theme entries might change direction in the grid or skip over squares.
    Perhaps there are letters that should be written outside of the grid or on top
    of black squares. Occasionally, letters in the clues should be ignored.
    If there’s a trick we’ve never seen before, there’s a good chance we’ll
    run the puzzle on a Thursday.

    Friday and Saturday puzzles are themeless and challenging because
    of the tricky clues. When we review them, we’re looking at the vocabulary
    in the grid to determine whether it’s a more approachable themeless grid
    on a Friday, or a tough puzzle that we expect more experienced solvers
    to try on a Saturday. Sometimes a puzzle with relatively familiar phrases
    and vocabulary might end up on a Saturday not because the grid is difficult,
    but because it has a lot of potential for tricky wordplay. We think about both
    the clues and the entries when determining whether a puzzle is better suited
    for a Friday or Saturday." ~Christina Iverson, Easy Mode newsletter, 1/26/2024
  • "It takes time to pick up a skill, and learning to solve crosswords can be
    like learning a new language. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are a
    great way to start. Thursday puzzles can be much harder to master because
    they often involve gimmicks. Sometimes there are rebuses, with multiple
    letters in one box, or there might be theme entries that twist and turn
    or jump over other squares. If you haven’t encountered these tricks,
    they can be baffling and frustrating. The more you encounter Thursdays,
    the faster you’ll pick up on what’s going on. Practice is really the
    best advice I can give. If solving a Thursday puzzle makes you want to
    throw your phone across the room in despair, you might want to consider
    reading about it on Wordplay. Deb Amlen gives a lot of tips and tricks
    for solving Thursday puzzles and very clearly explains that day’s theme.
    When I started solving late-week puzzles, I frequently read her column
    when I got stuck. Sure, some might call it cheating, but it helped me
    understand the wide array of tricks I might expect to encounter.
    One of the most satisfying and exciting “aha” moments I’ve ever had was
    the first time I uncovered a Thursday gimmick by myself. Be gracious
    with yourself, and allow yourself to take on late-week puzzles with
    as much hand-holding as you need. It’s supposed to be fun after all."
    ~Christina Iverson, Easy Mode newsletter, 2/23/2024
  • "Why do older puzzles from the archive seem so much more difficult than same-day ones today?
    People have different opinions about whether crosswords are getting
    harder or easier; I’ve also heard people ask why crosswords are getting
    harder! I tend to agree, though, that puzzles today feel more approachable
    to more people than puzzles from, say, 10 years ago. When crossword
    constructing software became more popular, it became easier for constructors
    to make puzzles that rely less heavily on 'crosswordese.' Some entries
    that frequent older puzzles are rarely used today. For instance, AARE,
    the Swiss river, was used 317 times before 2014; in the last 10 years,
    we’ve used it 10 times. Other bits of crosswordese that have fallen
    out of fashion: the Latin ESSE, the Algerian port ORAN, the Russian city
    OREL, the Greek colonnade STOA and the old term for a feudal laborer, ESNE.

    When constructors are able to speed up the constructing process with software,
    they’re more able (and more willing) to work to find fun entries, rather
    than getting stuck with whatever convenient string of letters holds the
    puzzle together. As more and more people have started constructing puzzles,
    editors can afford to be far pickier than they used to be. We put more
    focus on having “real words” in the crossword, and we make an effort
    to make puzzles feel fun, rather than like a history or geography exam."
    ~Christina Iverson, Easy Mode newsletter, 3/1/2024
  • supermegaYou can make any puzzle easier, e.g., by asking a partner/friend or using tools (later)
  • How to Tackle a Humongous (50 x 50) Crossword Puzzle 768 clues; mid-week difficulty; NYT; 12/13/2023
  •    -- or harder, e.g., 'Crossword Golf' -- or use ink
  • When you're ready for a bigger challenge,
    try a bigger puzzle: Terminology&Types: Grid Size: examples, e.g., NYT Super Mega
    [right: Steve solving 2022 Super Mega: 67 x 41; 728 clues]
  • or enter a tournament, e.g., American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT)
    -- or at least try their puzzles? others: Fame: Tournaments
  • or maybe a British-style Cryptic (solve one in class -- upon request?) -- see next
British grid
British-style grid by MeekMark,
public domain via Wikimedia Commons

"And Now For Something Completely Different": Cryptics

  • "There are crossword puzzles and crossword puzzles."
    One kind, the conventional American crossword:
    "mechanical test of tirelessly esoteric knowledge
    [that would send you] either to Webster's New International or to sleep.”
    The other kind (cryptic):
    “[possessed of] cleverness, humor, and even a pseudo-aphoristic grace."
    ~Stephen Sondheim, 1968.
  • Wikipedia: Crossword, Cryptic Crosswords
  • British (UK) and US (American) crosswords differ in several ways
    -- these two formats/styles appear in many other countries too,
    but we'll use the terms British & US as convenient labels:
  • Name of Puzzle: British: Cryptic (or Quick/Concise) (sometimes Crossword?);
    US: Crossword; (in 1910s: Word-Cross, then Cross-Word); some US Cryptics, e.g., NYT, New Yorker
  • Authors: British "Setters" or "Compilers" typically use a pseudonym;
    US "Constructors" usually identified with real names
  • Theme: British puzzles are themeless;
    many US puzzles have themes (some with titles),
    some are themeless, e.g., NYT Fri&Sat, Newsday Saturday Stumper
  • Grid: British puzzles normally use an alternate-letter grid pattern;
    US newspaper-style puzzles are fully-crossed;
    free-form / vocabulary-style word puzzles aren't fully crossed
  • Fill: British lattice-like grids allow more word possibilities, spelling & vocabulary differences;
    US puzzles have fewer word options due to more crossings.
  • Clues: Cryptic-style clues usually include two parts:
  • 1) a definition (straight part), usually at beginning or end;
    'Quick' or 'Concise' puzzles use only 'Straight' definitions for clues.
  • 2) a cryptic/'wordplay' part , e.g., anagram, charades (homonyms), deletions, reversals, etc.;
    with a hidden rule for the type suggested by Abbreviations and Indicators
  • Sometimes it's difficult to figure out which part is which;
    occasionally both clue parts might be combined;
    end of clue often includes word lengths for phrases, e.g., (3,2,5).
  • The Browser: Cryptic Clue Quiz
  • video: How To Solve a Cryptic Crossword Games Magazine; 1:21:21; 8/19/2020
  • Cryptic crosswords: A puzzling British obsession BBC; 3/3/2021
  • New Yorker interactive Cryptic clue guide Anagram, Hidden Word, Homophone, Double Definition,
    Assemblage (Charade), Deletion, Reversal, Container, Bits and Pieces, Multiple
  • Cryptics in America: part 1; part 2 Guardian; 7/19/2012, 11/5/2020
  • Comparison of cryptic crosswords difficulty ranked by source
  • For more guides, see: Solving:Refs:Cryptics
  • NYT: Puns and Anagrams (PandAs) crosswords have a fully-crossed grid,
    but use a small subset of cryptic-style clue types
    -- no longer in NYT archive (see xwordinfo.com: Variety)
  • Aries: PandAs
  • Stephen Sondheim Didn't Just Change Musicals Forever Slate; 12/4/2021

MTReferences