The New York Times has started up a new blog called Wordplay and it is, not surprisingly, a crossword puzzle themed blog. I looked through some of the previous posts and most of them seem to be about the NYT crossword that day, with a few news items about Will Shortz sprinkled in.
Here’s a quick news tidbit. Next week, the New York Times will feature crossword puzzles constructed by students aged 15-19.
The New York Times crossword puzzle, constructed by Cathy Millhauser with clues written by President Bill Clinton, is available online now. On this site, you can fill it in on line. For some reason the first clue was already filled in when I clicked over to it. Not a particularly had clue, but crossword purists should be warned. There’s also a PDF available.
The puzzle comes with an Editor’s Note from Will Shortz: The clues in this puzzle are a little more playful and involve more wordplay than in a typical crossword. You have been warned.
Yes, Bill Clinton loves the NYT crossword. But we all knew that before Wordplay, right? The May 6th edition of the NYT will feature a crossword created by Bill Clinton, presumably with a baby-boomer theme.
A recent press release has announced a new widget for your Google personal homepage that features New York Times crossword puzzles. The puzzle is changed daily and is selected from an archive of over 1000 puzzles. The newest puzzles are still available only to subscribers.
The New York Times ran an article today on Nikoli. The most interesting part of the article is a discussion of why Nikoli is so successful. Maki Kaji, who runs Nikoli, attributes their success to open forums that allow readers to submit criticisms for puzzles and post some of their own inventions.
Of course, the question that is sure to arise from all of this is: “What’s going to be the next sudoku?“ And it’s a question that’s been asked for the past two years or so. On the NYT site, they have three Nikoli puzzle types that you can play: Kakuro which I think would have exploded by now, if it were going to. Nurikabe which both Wordstream and Mochikoro are derived from. And Masyu which is an interesting loop drawing puzzle. My prediction: None will be the next sudoku.
Your privacy is important to me. Read my privacy policy.
