Wordplay

September 1, 2016 5:20 PM

One of the Most Important Crosswords in New York Times History - the story behind a very special puzzle
posted by a lungful of dragon (21 comments total)

I can barely solve crossword puzzles, despite being a reasonably smart person generally. I stand in awe of people who can make them. I stand in double awe of people who can make them weird.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:29 PM on September 1, 2016 [5 favorites]

The 1996 election crossword has to go down as the most bravura performance in the history of the form, but this is pretty great.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:50 PM on September 1, 2016 [16 favorites]

Spoiler alert of sorts: If you're thinking of working the crossword puzzle, don't click on the article because it has a picture of the solved puzzle.
posted by mmoncur at 5:52 PM on September 1, 2016 [4 favorites]

This is going to change a lot of minds in the subset of people who are religiously/socially conservative and yet complete NYT crosswords.
posted by efalk at 6:07 PM on September 1, 2016 [6 favorites]

"You need a subscription to see this puzzle."
posted by charlesminus at 6:25 PM on September 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

As we were discussing a few posts down this is a pretty bravuro piece of crosswording, and (do the whole puzzle, M/F-ers, if you can) quite correct with current language and cultural cluing. HOWEVER, if Tausig had decided to go with GENDERNEUTRAL vs. GENDERFLUID, there would not be this spare, untransmorgrophiable F in the revealer of the theme... or so I SURMise

I know, details details, but crossword people are long known to be nitpicking insufferable know it alls.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 6:35 PM on September 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

I happily solved it last night without realizing the trick at all.

I was surprised to see QUEER in a NYT xword puzzle. But then I never expected to get married in my lifetime. So it goes!
posted by a lungful of dragon at 6:50 PM on September 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'm glad that there was a spoiler warning at the beginning of the article. It spurred me to open up my app and do the puzzle myself.

Knowing that something was special about the puzzle, the clue for 1A was so open-ended and imprecise that I immediately suspected a Schrodinger's Puzzle... though I've never heard that term before and I've always called them Quinean Crosswords (a name coined by Daniel Dennett). I've been waiting one day for a whole crossword to be a Quinean Crossword: one grid, one set of clues, two permissible fills. It's basically impossible to create -- I've certainly tried! -- but I hold out hope. So I was disappointed that it turned out that this was just 4 indeterminate squares. Politically progressive, sure, but not a dazzling technical masterpiece.
posted by painquale at 6:53 PM on September 1, 2016 [3 favorites]

That is just fucking brilliant.
posted by Bringer Tom at 7:33 PM on September 1, 2016

This is going to change a lot of minds in the subset of people who are religiously/socially conservative and yet complete NYT crosswords.

Maybe this is a good place for the periodical reminder that change is a gradual process and for all the hot reactions that social events catalyze the longer term outcome is always a smooth curve shaped by Overton conditions.

I am elated that this puzzle exists and I can't get over how delighted I feel every time I stumble across an acknowledgement of (my) identity in the wild.

In the Public Consciousness Olympics gender fluidity is way out there. You can be gay and a woman and a PoC and trans nowadays (at least haters know what you are,) but moving targets like me aren't yet really depicted anywhere. So this is a big deal, to me.
posted by an animate objects at 7:44 PM on September 1, 2016 [14 favorites]

I just solved the puzzle, and even though I didn't figure out the trick without cheating, it was well done.

I'll admit that I didn't see the problem with the cluing for "harem", but if that's really the first time that the puzzle has acknowledged feminism, that's kind of uncool.
posted by sparklemotion at 8:25 PM on September 1, 2016

I LOL'd at this:

I asked Shortz if publishing the “gender fluid” puzzle was a response to any criticism.

“No, this puzzle is not a response to anything,” he said. “It’s just a good puzzle.”

Meanwhile, back to the regular NYT programming today, with "BRASTRAP" clued as "Cup holder?"
posted by chavenet at 6:15 AM on September 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

Well, to be fair, JOCKSTRAP wouldn't have fit the grid.
posted by sparklemotion at 6:58 AM on September 2, 2016 [4 favorites]

In the Public Consciousness Olympics gender fluidity is way out there. You can be gay and a woman and a PoC and trans nowadays (at least haters know what you are,) but moving targets like me aren't yet really depicted anywhere. So this is a big deal, to me.

One of my favorite parts of this year's annual family vacation was getting to watch a trans family member try and explain the concept of "non–binary gender" to my delightful 80–year–old grandmother, as everybody in the room drank progressively more.

These concepts are really hard. People who fail to get them often do so because they're difficult. Hell, my house is occasionally host to two trans Magic: the Gathering players who bicker over Dante's Seven Layers of gender identity terminology while they play, because even for people who are as immersed in queer/trans culture as you can get, there are several encyclopedias worth of interpretation of literally everything involved.

You don't need everybody to abruptly be able to pass their gender identity driver's test for steps like this to be important. Change, when it consists of two dozen different smaller changes simultaneously, will always look gradual.
posted by rorgy at 7:13 AM on September 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

Oh, I am so happy to see this! In addition to being an incredibly talented crossword writer and ethnomusicologist, Ben is also the nicest guy ever and so deserving of the attention.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 8:51 AM on September 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

Weird to see this response. This puzzle was nearly the straw that broke my subscription to the NYT crossword.

The puzzle itself is a good one. Not amazing, but very good.

The thing that rubbed me the wrong way though is how much back-patting is being passed around because is it 20 fucking 16 CE and the New York Times crossword puzzle is SO progressive for cluing "queer" in terms of sexuality for the first time and vaguely understanding what "gender fluid" means. If this puzzle is important, it's to point out that it's crazy that any of that took this long or even qualifies as an event.

However, seeing that Will Shortz claims to have not meant it as any kind of statement is a little redeeming.
posted by cmoj at 10:10 AM on September 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

You don't need everybody to abruptly be able to pass their gender identity driver's test

Failed mine the first time, I forgot the hand signals for all the pronouns.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 10:32 AM on September 2, 2016

I solved this on Wed. and did not know that I was solving a "historic" puzzle!! :)

I still cannot for the life of me finish a Saturday puzzle though, even after 6 years of doing these damn things.
posted by indianbadger1 at 10:56 AM on September 2, 2016

I have problems with the words "most important" being slapped onto this puzzle, because, well, it's a crossword puzzle. There's a really low ceiling to how important a puzzle can really be.

I do think there's a little tinge of gamergater/mra/alt-right logic to: “No, this puzzle is not a response to anything,” he said. “It’s just a good puzzle.”

I wouldn't be surprised to hear him say: "The reason why I've rejected every other puzzle submission that touched on social justice themes because they were bad puzzles." Which is a whole can of worms that hopefully never has to be opened.

So, was this a good puzzle? Yes. Should there be more like it? Yes. Will their be more like it? Yes. Will there be more like it in the Times? Well, Will Shortz is only 64 but even if you think he's the gatekeeper that's got the Times puzzle stuck in its fusty ways, I'm pretty sure that the new guard is younger, and they will be the ones making more and more of the submissions.
posted by sparklemotion at 11:41 AM on September 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

Meanwhile, back to the regular NYT programming today, with "BRASTRAP" clued as "Cup holder?"

Wait -- you think that's sexist? I'd love to hear a breakdown of exactly how. Discussing things specific to women (in one of their meanings) is not, as far as I'm aware, sexism. What am I missing?
posted by msalt at 4:33 PM on September 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

All I can say is word up!
posted by Bob Regular at 2:05 PM on September 3, 2016