It may sound complicated, but you can play it even if you’re completely illiterate-hell, even if you’re innumerate, since Sudoku doesn’t even require math. Sudoku is the complete antithesis of the crossword: You fill in a nine-by-nine grid with the numbers one through nine so that no digit repeats in any column or row-nor can there be any repeats in any of the nine three-by-three boxes that make up the whole grid. You’ll find something else-his books of Sudoku, the arriviste number puzzle that became a smash hit last year. Yet here’s the weird thing: If you pump Shortz’s name into Amazon these days, you won’t find his many crossword books at the top of the list. They regard his puzzle as the last true showcase for elegant language, sparkling wit, and groan-inducing puns. This week, his reputation as a word-nerd hero will be cemented with the premiere of Wordplay (see David Edelstein’s review), a documentary that profiles Shortz fans as diverse as Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, and Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina. Twenty-five percent of the people who pick up The New York Times Magazine on Sundays flip to Shortz’s puzzle first.
In his thirteen years at the Times, Shortz has revolutionized the paper’s immensely popular crossword. But Shortz’s fan base generally does-the millions of word freaks who revere him as the nation’s master of linguistic play. AAMES, of “Willie Aames,” turns into AIMAT AMMO becomes OLIO and NLE becomes ULA-a “diminutive suffix,” such as at the end of “spatula.” It only took him a few minutes to deftly scribble in a new tangle of words. GIJOE, great! Only five letters, yet it has a J in the middle-very pretty.” Shortz has only one complaint about the puzzle: It uses the abbreviation nle for “NL East,” which he thinks is too obscure. “See, now this grid is jam-packed with fresh uses of language,” Shortz says, sitting in his home office amid stacks of reference books like Brands and Companies 1995 and The Encyclopedia of American Cars.
The crossword editor for the New York Times is giving me an advance peek at the Sunday puzzle he will publish a week later. #NYTXW is a great puzzle,” says Will Shortz. “But I assure you this viewpoint is expressed with a pure heart.”Ī response from Will Shortz about the entry 2D in today's crossword puzzle. “I want your focus to be on the puzzle rather than being distracted by side issues,” Shortz said. Shortz added that if enough people are offended, he would rethink this opinion on benign uses of otherwise offensive slurs.Īlso Read: USA Today Cuts Ties With Crossword Editor in Plagiarism Scandal These are legitimate words,” Shortz said. (which we clued last April as “Proceed all right,” but which as a solid word is a slur), CHINK (which is benign in the sense as a chink in one’s armor,” etc. “This is an issue that comes up occasionally with entries like GO O.K. The original clue to 2-Down in Tuesday’s puzzle, which was written by Gary Cee, was “Pitch to the head, informally.” And Shortz defended the use of the word by explaining that in past puzzles, a “benign” meaning of the word was fair game. “It is simply not acceptable in The New York Times Crossword and we apologize for including it.” “Tuesday’s Crossword puzzle included an entry that was offensive and hurtful,” a spokesperson for the New York Times told TheWrap. “Meanwhile, for any solver who was offended by 2-Down in today’s puzzle, I apologize.”Īlso Read: 'Weird Al' Yankovic Wrote a NY Times Crossword Puzzle, and It's Pretty Cheesy Maybe we live in rarefied circles,” Shortz said in a statement issued to Twitter. “Neither Joel nor I had ever heard the slur before – and I don’t know anyone who would use it. The answer to clue 2-Down in Tuesday’s puzzle was “BEANER,” which is a derogatory term used for people of Hispanic origin. New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz issued an apology late Tuesday for a word used in the New Year’s Day puzzle that was considered by some readers as an offensive slur.
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