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Channel: Emily Cox – Diary of a Crossword Fiend
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Sunday, April 7, 2013

Matt Ginsberg’s New York Times crossword, “Fitting Rearrangements” I enjoy anagrams, but apparently I have been enjoying anagrams for far too long because at least three of the anagram pairs in this...

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Sunday, April, 21, 2013

Jonah Kagan’s New York Times crossword, “Front Flips” Great theme this week: The first word in each base phrase is reversed to create the often amusing theme answers. 24a. [Tammany Hall corruption,...

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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Alan Arbesfeld’s New York Times crossword, “Crunch Time” The “time” that gets “crunched” in this puzzle consists of days of the week, in abbreviated form: 23a. [Early entrepreneurial efforts],...

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Sunday, May 19, 2013

Jean O’Conor’s New York Times crossword, “Befitting” The title promised some “B” action and it delivers, changing V sounds into B sounds: 23a. [Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic?], TENNIS SERBS. Tennis...

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Sunday, June 2, 2013

Tip for online/.puz solvers of the Sunday NYT crossword: When keying in your solution, remember this: “Across is the boss.” If you solve on paper, disregard this. It’s the beginning of June! That means...

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Sunday, June 16, 2013

Last call for the Fireball Newsweekly Crosswords venture on Kickstarter.com—Sunday afternoon is the deadline. Easier puzzles from Peter Gordon—and with super-topical fill. Click here for more details...

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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Alex Vratsanos and Jeff Chen’s New York Times crossword, “Matching Wits” This puzzle includes the black squares in the theme—the theme answers all have M.W. initials, like the crossword’s title, and...

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Sunday, July 14, 2013

I meant to tell you all that the Sunday NYT is best appreciated in printed form. However, even though the Black Ink software didn’t tell me my solution was correct, I am pleased with how it came out....

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Sunday, August 11, 2013

Announcement: With much of Team Fiend at Lollapuzzoola, there may be a few delays in puzzle postings today. We’ll see how it goes. — pann {Well, I’m here – Jeffrey} Robert W. Harris’s syndicated Los...

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Sunday, August 25, 2013

Victor Barocas’s New York Times crossword, “Capital L’s” I enjoyed this theme very much indeed. There are eight state capitals, all of the 6-letter capital names, that are formed from the beginning of...

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Sunday, September 22, 2013

Note to raters: Is your hobby stopping by Crossword Fiend and lowering puzzles’ average ratings by assigning 1-star ratings to puzzles that most solvers liked better than that? If so, knock it off....

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Sunday, October 6, 2013

I’ll be away from my keyboard when the NYT puzzle comes out and will review it later this evening. In the meantime, Merl’s puzzle is out and the write-up appears after the jump. Merl Reagle’s...

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Sunday, October 20, 2013

Liz Gorski’s New York Times crossword, “Country Road” This centennial puzzle taught me a lot about a road I grew up a mile south of. If you’re local to the south suburbs of Chicago, you may know it as...

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Sunday, November 3, 2013

Andy Kravis and Victor Barocas’s New York Times crossword, “Stolen Produce” Terrific NYT debut from Million Second Quiz champion Andy Kravis and his cruciverbal colleague Victor Barocas. Both of these...

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Sunday, November 17, 2013

Julian Lim’s New York Times crossword, “Vowel Play” The theme’s made up of made-up phrases that have all five vowels sandwiched together in the middle: 23a. Paintings of French estates?], CHATEAU OILS....

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Sunday, December 1, 2013

Alan DerKazarian’s New York Times crossword, “Two Halves In One” This puzzle, by a constructor whose NYT debut was just a few weeks ago (Matt Gaffney declared that 11/7 puzzle to be one of November’s...

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Sunday, December 15, 2013

Jeff Chen’s New York Times crossword, “A Cut Above The Rest” So, I had the gimmicky answers filled in just fine, but then the Down theme answers clued [See above] left me mystified. I couldn’t see how...

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Sunday, December 29, 2013

Joel Fagliano’s New York Times crossword, “Take a Break” I’ve done (essentially) this puzzle before and it was memorable. Back in 2006, it was one of my favorite Sunday puzzles of the year. Cruciverb...

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Sunday, January 12, 2014

Andre Chaikin’s New York Times crossword, “It’s Only ‘A’ Game” The theme this week is words and phrases that contain only one vowel, A. The theme answers’ clues are also univocalic (one-voweled). 22a....

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Sunday, January 26, 2014

Daniel Finan’s New York Times crossword, “It’s All Relative” Twelve vertical theme answers appear in pairs that in which relative position subs for the word “over” or “under”: 3d. [See 51-Down], A...

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