Crossword poll

In My Humble Opinion
21

  1. Sunday NYT

  2. Ink. And it upsets me if I misplace the pen I started with and can’t complete it in the exact same color.

  3. Lying on the floor while I watch television.

  4. About 50% now. A few years ago it was maybe 10%, so I’m getting better.

  5. Don’t have one

  6. No, I won’t use dictionaries or google to figure out what I don’t know.

  7. None.

  8. Sometimes I’ll find a puzzle from several years back that I didn’t get to. But nothing more than 10 years old. Cultural references change, but ASTA the dog is eternal.

22
  1. Which crossword puzzles do you like best? - Cryptics and the ones from GAMES magazine
  2. Ink or pencil? - Pencil (I remember Cecil saying he doesn’t use ink or pencil - he types)
  3. Where/when do you like to do crossword puzzles? - In my living room chair or potty
  4. What percentage of the puzzle do you usually complete? - 99%
  5. Your favorite crossword puzzle word? - Can’t think of any
  6. Do you cheat? - I don’t look at the answers, but I do research
  7. Favorite crossword pun question(s)/answer(s). - Clue: Bashful roommate?
    Answer: Doc
  8. Is there a maximum age for a puzzle? - Idioms sometimes fall out of use, but generally age is not a factor unless the puzzle is themed
23

Damn. And I thought I was pretty good for very occasionally getting the Friday one done here. There’s folks here that don’t even START until the NYTimes puzzles are at Thursday level or harder. I salute you hardcore cruciverbalists!

24

I have only done maybe a dozen in the past 30 years and I no longer finish any of them. When I was doing them regular I think I finished about 1/2 of them with some cheating. This was in my prime crossword days. I did the Los Angeles Times daily when I was active.

25

  1. Which crossword puzzles do you like best?
    I do the NY Times most days, and the LA Times syndicated in the Washington Post a couple of times a week.

  2. Ink or pencil?
    When I do them on paper I always use ink. I don’t like using pencil on newsprint, although I do make mistakes then it gets a bit ugly.

  3. Where/when do you like to do crossword puzzles?
    Either over breakfast, or last thing before I go to bed.

  4. What percentage of the puzzle do you usually complete?
    100%. Usually. Although I rarely complete the Fri or Sat NY Times.

  5. Your favorite crossword puzzle word?

  6. Do you cheat?
    Define “cheat”. If a word is used in the clue that I don’t know I will look it up so I can at least understand the clue. Sometimes I will look up highly obscure pop culture, historical, or geographical references, which often appear in a Saturday NYT. I never google the clue and go to a page that says, “Here is the answer for that crossword clue.”

  7. Favorite crossword pun question(s)/answer(s).
    The best ones are always the unique ones, so I don’t have one favorite that I can remember. Once every week or two there is one in the NYT that makes me laugh when I get the answer.

  8. Is there a maximum age for a puzzle?
    You mean for the puzzle, or for a solver? I don’t understand the question.

26

I don’t get it.

27

My method is I start with 1 across, but if it stumps me I’ll go to the next across in the same “block”. Once I fill in the first one, I do a down. From that point, I always do one that has at least one letter filled in.

28

Clue: “How to make aunty jaunty”

Answer:popinjay

Son of a bitch! Damn it all! The hell with it!
Those are some of my favorite crosswords.

29

“Sense” less “ness”

So, take away the letters “ness” from “sense” and what are you left with? “E”.

30

It’s a cryptic – how many letters, please.

31

I do something similar, I try to get 1 across or 1 down, then try to complete the puzzle with words that already have one letter filled in. It’s pretty hard to do without making any mistakes for a Sunday puzzle because of the size. I don’t get the daily Times anymore but I used to use the method of only across words in order for the daily puzzles. Saturday puzzles were killers.

32

  1. I like all the major newspaper (NYT, LAT, Boston Globe, etc) Sunday puzzles, but NYTimes is my favorite. I also like Merl Reagle’s (sp?) Sunday puzzles which in my paper appear in the Sunday magazine. I buy books of these puzzles so I can do them whenever I want.

  2. I make mistakes but I find pencil hard to read so I use eraseable ink, which works better in the books than on newsprint. I’m not trying to impress anyone, least of all myself.

  3. I do them mostly when the TV is on. Rarely is TV so compelling that I can’t look down and do a few words on a puzzle, and then there are commercials to get through. I find I usually can’t bear watching TV by itself any more, even PBS, I need my puzzle to fill up the space.

  4. 95-100%. I sometimes find a confluence of words (or names, which I think is unfair) that I don’t know, so anywhere from 1 to a few spaces may not be filled in at the end. When I’m working in a book, at some point when I know that I don’t know something and I’m otherwise done with the puzzle, I will look it up in the back.

  5. Don’t have a favorite word.

  6. No, except as described in #4. I don’t look stuff up online or in a book, what’s the point? If I know that I don’t know something, then I don’t know it. I just look in the answers when it’s necessary to finish the last few spaces.

  7. No answer.

  8. When I buy books I find that many of the puzzles come from 30 years ago or more. This is actually an advantage to me as an older person, because I remember a lot of the references that a younger person wouldn’t. New puzzles are also fine. But it helps to know which is which, if the clue refers to, say, the secretary of state or something.

33

General note: The Wall Street Journal also has good crosswords, but their Sunday-size puzzle is on Saturday.

34
  1. Which crossword puzzles do you like best?
    Cryptics, of course. Mind you, British ones have lots of more or less British-only references I don’t get. Otherwise NYT or whatever.
  2. Ink or pencil?
    Mechanical pencil if I have it, else pen
  3. Where/when do you like to do crossword puzzles?Usually as a passenger in the car. Sometimes at work if someone left a paper around. Mea culpa.
  4. What percentage of the puzzle do you usually complete?Usually all, except when I have to actually work too much.
  5. Your favorite crossword puzzle word?They’re all good. Pick one.
  6. Do you cheat?Very rarely.
  7. Favorite crossword pun question(s)/answer(s).As noted, they’re all good. Pick one. My top isn’t a pun but it’s a classic.
  8. Is there a maximum age for a puzzle?As I said, and others as well, obscure references start to show up the older the puzzle is. Sooner or later I have no idea.
35

I should have added that I also enjoy Games Magazine’s “World’s Most Ornery Crossword” every month. Hard Clues only, but I may have to look at 1 or 2 Easy Clues to finish.

36

Let’s see:

Pretty much only the NY Times.
Online, or on the app on my phone.
Often at work, with my first cup of coffee (don’t tell my boss!).
As much as I can. That’s generally all up through about Thursday, but it depends on other factors, including if I get pissed off at the construction like I did with the 1/7/18 NYT Sunday.
I hate crosswordese, and frankly see it only as a means to an end.
Sure, especially if it’s something that can actually be looked up and I can’t get it from the crossings. Obscure (to me anyway) people, specific capitals, etc. If I can get all the theme answers without cheating and need to look up for completion, that’s good enough for me.
I don’t really remember them after solving.
The app can go fairly far back, but I rarely do so.

37
  1. Which crossword puzzles do you like best? NY Times
  2. Ink or pencil? I use the App on my iPad
  3. Where/when do you like to do crossword puzzles? Usually during my commute
  4. What percentage of the puzzle do you usually complete? The app currently tells me I’m at 97.3%
  5. Your favorite crossword puzzle word? OREO
  6. Do you cheat? I may check an answer for spelling, especially if it’s a person or location
  7. Favorite crossword pun question(s)/answer(s). N/A
  8. Is there a maximum age for a puzzle? - I tried doing some NYT puzzles from the 40s, but there were a lot of references that were probably current at the time that escape me now. So maybe?
38

Unwound artist (6)

39
  1. NYTimes. It’s the only one I do.
  2. Online
  3. I start them every morning.
  4. Mostly all of it, even if it takes me several days. Occasionally I just give up.
  5. Don’t really have one
  6. See below
  7. I like the NYTimes Thursday puzzles, because they usually have a twist of some sort. Other than that, no real favorite.
  8. um, no?

re: Cheating.

I guess I do “cheat”, but I don’t really consider it cheating to look things up. How do you get better if you just give up on the clues you don’t know? Ideally, sure, you can figure out the answer. But we all have those areas where we’re not experts - for me, any sports question poses an issue. So I look them up, and next time, I know it. Even the NYTimes Crossword Puzzle getting started guide says:

I’ve definitely found the above is true for me; I was only able to consistently start doing the Friday / Saturday puzzles when I started looking things up. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon for me to breeze through the Saturday without “cheating” at all.

That said, I do have my own rules around it:

  • looking up stuff on Monday/Tuesday puzzles? I hang my head in shame. I almost always breeze through those in less than 10 minutes, so I definitely feel like a loser if I can’t figure them out.

  • looking up spelling of an answer I know but am not 100% sure of the spelling isn’t really cheating. Especially when it comes to oddly-spelled names. I’m looking at you, Saoirse Ronan.

  • Using those “crossword answer” sites is definitely cheating. They are a last resort. If I can google “Modernist painters” and figure out an answer, that’s one thing. I learned something, and it’s all good. If I just look up the answer in the crossword solver, it’s not learning anything, and I always feel dirty after I do it.

  • No lookups until I go through the puzzle at least a few times without any lookups. As someone else said, sometimes going away for a while and coming back does wonders.

Now, I gotta go finish last Sunday’s puzzle. That one is a beast!

40
  1. I really only do one now… The NYT Online Puzzle.
  2. Digital pencil
  3. In bed in the evenings and then the following day if I haven’t figured it all out yet.
  4. Depends on the day. Like many regularly featured crosswords, they get progressively harder as the week goes on. I can usually complete Monday and Tuesday, I’ll need help to complete Wed - Fri.
  5. They’re words. No I don’t have a favorite word.
  6. Yes, when I reach a point where I can’t go on. usually by googling pop culture info. I rarely just look up the answer if I can help it.
  7. See #5
  8. No; the references might be old, but that is no different in my mind that a difficult puzzle.