About NYT Puzzle Dating

Because the New York Times (NYT) daily crossword is published in syndication six weeks after it appears in the NYT paper and on the NYT Web site, I am using a two-date title on NYT puzzles. The format is {syndicate_date} "NYT syndicated crossword ("{NYT publishing date} "; Puzzle No. " nnnn")". So, for example, if you got a NYT puzzle out of the Orange County Register on Thursday 07/17/08 it was actually published Thursday 06/05/08 and has a puzzle number of 0605. WARNING: the schedule has changed to five weeks (summer 2008). I don't know how long this will stay the same.

Friday, August 29, 2008

August 29th, 2008 WSJ--Double Dealing By Myles Callum/Edited by Mike Shenk

A relatively easy puzzle for the weekly Wall Street Journal puzzle, and for author Myles Callum. I haven't seen a puzzle by him for a while, but my recollection is that the previous onces I've done by him were much harder. The theme seemed to simply be that them answers would have two words which both start with D. If there was something else there it was too subtle for me to pick out. Theme answers:
  • DollarDiplomacy
  • DishingDirt
  • DearDiary
  • DraftDodger
  • Demolition Derby
  • DimeDefense
  • DannyDeVito

The last two of these were downward answers in 35D and 38D. The other five were across answers.

The level of difficulty of the clues varied as I moved through the puzzle. Some were easy, some medium, some hard and some just really obscure. As an example, ENDGAMES for the clue [Board finishes] in 57A, or AWLS for [Punches] in 3D. Because there were a lot of references to proper names which I did not know many of, it took me fifty minutes to complete this 21x21 grid while eating lunch.

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