THEMELESS MONDAY: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF]
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Interesting article in the Atlantic about the future of crosswords showed up last week. Does the puzzle have a future with newspapers going under? From what I can gather about the article, it’s just another one of the solipsistic pieces people in the business churn out regularly about print media dying. Big whoop. I don’t really think it was well researched especially considering that not only were crosswords one of the early adopters of paywalls, but also more people than ever before are doing crosswords today because of the ease in which you can get them on the web. Two colossal points the writer just ignored to make, … what point exactly? Besides, the Atlantic shouldn’t get all haughty about print media killing off crosswords when they in fact are covered in Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon’s blood. (The Atlantic stopped running their puzzle twice: first in print, then on the web.)
Anyway, it’s worth a look see. Two of my friends were quoted in there extensively, the inimitable Michael “Rex Parker” Sharp, and the Guardian’s Alan Connor. Speaking of Alan, he just wrote a book about crosswords, “The Crossword Century,” and it includes a cryptic puzzle by yours truly in the back. How about that?
Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
Yes, I read the Atlantic piece and was puzzled by it also. It was stuck in the old rut that crosswords are skewed to older people, but as a solver in my early 60’s I find that the best grids often stump me because I am too old to know the kid or teen pop culture or music references from the 80’s, 90’s, etc. (especially music!) And I get nearly all my puzzles on line.
That Atlantic article is all over the place. While it may be true that paper solving is on the decline, the abundance and diversity of online sources suggest that word puzzles have entered into a kind of golden age. Is TV viewing dying just because fewer people are watching the Big Three?
Anyway, on today’s masterpiece I’m having trouble getting the clue for 53D.
Movie scenes? “Lights, camera, action … Cut!”
On a different note, the clue for 30D seems ungrammatical to me … or maybe I’m missing something. (Always possible.)
Gangs have and use/flash signs/codes.
Did BEQ provide the answer to the twitter puzzle he posted last week. Some may want to see that maybe.
puzzle: When I downloaded the puzzle this morning (and, I believe, when I posed my question), the clue read “Group with signs” — which is why my question was grammatical rather than substantive, since “gang” seemed obvious, but “gangs” did not match. The clue now reads “Groups with signs” — with which I have no issue. I suppose I could just emailed BEQ, but I did wonder if I was missing something. Regards.
Glad you caught it before it caught me.
🙂