Will Shortz is just about the best thing to have ever happened to crossword puzzles.
So I do the Times puzzled every day.
For books, I prefer Sunday-sized puzzles. But I don’t want to buy any Times puzzles. Also, I’d like to discover some other exceptionally talented xword editors.
So.
Could some of you recommend a book or an anthologist on a par with Shortz?
Right now, I’m suffering through an awful book, “The Ultimate Crosswords Omnibus #4” by Mel Rosen.
I could be dead wrong, but it looks to me that Rosen creates all the puzzles by computer and then makes up Constructors names for all of them - to give the book some semblence of an anthology. But there’s a mind-numbing samness to the puzzles. Dull and witless.
For magazines, try “Superb Crosswords” (all are themed, but they’re mostly daily size) or “Collector’s Crosswords” (all Sunday-sized, but not all are themed).
twicks, who ain’t gonna bother to try to pretend she’s not shilling company product here.
You probably do the NYT puzzles, so you know that this week, on Frida, a clue was "Teen-ager’s term for a weirdo’ and the answer was FREAKAZOID. Next day, ‘Hitman’s target’ WHACKJOB.
I don’t know if it’s still in print, but a collection of the crosswords from the first (ten?) years of the Crossword Tournament (organized by Will Shortz) has the best crosswords I’ve ever done, including what most consider the greatest crossword of all time (a Merl Reagle construction called "Traffic Jam that is Sunday-sized, and has three sets of three columns running full-length, and three sets of three rows running full-length, for a total of 18 full-length entries.
I believe the name of the book is “Tournament Crosswords.”