MetaFilter posts tagged with crossword

2 Across: Send in the ______. (6 Letters)

grumblebee — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:16:14 -0800

Stephen Sondheim's crossword puzzles for "New York Magazine." Incredibly rare.

Why yes, I do have a clue

Mitheral — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:28:10 -0800

EclipseCrossword is a powerful windows tool for automatically creating crossword puzzles. You can create multiple puzzles from the same word list; print the puzzles in assorted formats; or export interactive puzzles for web pages. Or you can create crossword puzzles online.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the NY Times crossword puzzle

Zed_Lopez — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:03:22 -0800

XWord Info soberly describes itself as containing "data about NYT puzzles dating back to November, 1993, covering the entire time that Will Shortz has been Puzzle Editor," understating the cornucopia of geeky goodness within. See any crossword over that time. Look up every appearance of a word with every clue ever used for it. See the most frequently used 500 words, and the most popular by length. Look at unusual puzzles: those with fewest and most black blocks (with thumbnails of fewest and most); those with most and least words; the most frequently used grid patterns, and examples of grid art; pangrams (puzzles using each letter at least once), and puzzles using the fewest letters (the least is ten); puzzles whose words have the highest Scrabble score; or the freshest (according to a measure of how unusual the words are.) Check stats for the crossword constructors: the most prolific (Wordplay and the Simpsons may have misled you -- Merle Reagle doesn't make the list); which constructors' puzzles have appeared by which day of the week, and which have "hit for the cycle", had a puzzle on each day of the week; sorted by Shortz number (their order of publication by Shortz.) And there's even more. You don't have to be a crossword fan to enjoy it, but it doesn't hurt. Essentially, it is to the NY Times crossword puzzle what J-Archive is to Jeopardy! (previously discussed.) Previously: 1 Across: Mathowie's community blog.

NY Times Crossword Drawings

mediareport — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:45:37 -0800

NYTimes Crossword Drawings. Emily Jo Cureton creates an illustration for every Times crossword, using a handful of clues to create odd little scenes. [via]

Most people have never heard of Metafilter, will not see this link, and those who do will forget it soon

klangklangston — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:02:28 -0800

The Ephemera Society was glancingly mentioned prior, but deserves a better mention. It includes:
—An exhibit, an article, and links to Michael Ragsdale's 9/11 ephemera.
—A history of Coca-cola print ephemera.
—An article by Will Shortz on the ephemeral history of the crossword.
—Articles from the Louisiana Library Association's journal issue on ephemera, including Principles for Organizing an Ephemera Collection and an Overview of Political Ephemera.

1 Across: Matthowie's community blog

painquale — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 13:07:31 -0800

Since Wordplay has come out, crossword puzzles have been on the rise. If you want to join in on the fun, read this primer by Will Shortz to get started, then download Across Lite, head to Cruciverb, and do free puzzles in the right-hand sidebar. Will Johnston's page contains a huge repository of Across Lite puzzles. If you get stuck, can't figure out why an entry is correct, or just want to chat about a grid's brilliant construction, try reading the crossword blogs. The best two are Diary of a Crossword Fiend and Rex Parker Does the New York Times Crossword Puzzle. (Caution! Spoilers abound!) And, if you want to try your hand at constructing some crosswords of your own (submission guidelines for various papers here), Crossword Compiler is an outstanding piece of software. [Via this AskMetafilter question]

5D: Snark (var.)

DeepFriedTwinkies — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 18:17:07 -0800

Tyler Hinman: Legend, Zoalesquianist, Champion. The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament has a new kid in the grid.

39 Across

BradNelson — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 15:48:14 -0800

A New York Times crossword puzzle printed on November 5, 1996, election day, was designed to predict the winner of the election, no matter who won. That takes some skill to design.