Next Saturday's New York Times crossword is mine...

[Puzzler]

("Shameless Self-Promotion Mode: ON)

It's my 85th NYT crossword ... and you can hold the applause (if any), since I may be persona non grata that day. The Saturday NYT's are traditionally the hardest puzzles of the week. And this one is hard.

Please send any, and all complaints to Will
Shortz

Seriously though, if you have any questions about the NYT crossword (or others)... I'd be happy to answer them if I can.

(Shameless Self-Promotion Mode: OFF)

-Puzzler AKA: Martin Ashwood-Smith

[swag]

1. That is extraordinarily fucking cool.

Clearly, you rule!

[badhair77]

2. that is awesome

We had an English teacher at my school who used to do them in ink. Me, I'm a pencil girl, not that sure of myself. Congrats on your 85th!

[PJMcK]

3. Thanks for the warning

And thanks for the brain puzzling you've probably put me through with your previous 84 puzzles.

Congratulations, Martin!

[MicaelS]

4. Woo-hoo, congrats.

Just saw a piece on the national news about Will Shortz. Sounds like a really cool guy.

[Puzzler]

5. ... he is! (n/t)

-P

[still_one]

6. I'm impressed!!!

[LeftofObama]

7. I have a question about the NYT crossword...

Will you give me the answers in advance?

[Puzzler]

9. I'd be happy to, but ...

... the NYT owns the copyright, not me.

However, send me a PM a day or so before, and I can probably give you one or two of the long answers

-MAS

[elleng]

8. Congrats!

'Sorry' I'm not a Puzzle Doer.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. Excellent. Now I know whom to ask for help when I'm stuck.

[CTyankee]

16. You can get them on Google. Just fill in the nytimes and the date of the puzzle and

it will come right up for you. But you have to wait til they're published. I just get them and put them aside and take a peek at one of the answers when I get really stuck. I call it doing "research" and my husband just laughs at me...

[WinkyDink]

11. That is beyond awesome!! KUDOS!

[HoneyBadger]

12. Very cool

One of the kids in HS used to write them for the NYT too, but that was a while ago.

[panader0]

13. Congrats on # 85!

I'll have to look for the NYT next Saturday.
I will let you know how I do. I'm a big crossword fan and agree that
Saturdays puzzles are the toughest.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. Congratulations! I enjoy doing them. . . . nt

[Equinox Moon]

15. What is also really cool, is that you shared it with us.

Thanks!

May you have a ton of positive feedback from your puzzle!!

[flygal]

17. very cool!

I suck at crosswords but I love them. I only buy the easy ones from Shortz.

[Fla Dem]

18. Just saw a reprot about the NYT's C/W puzzles and Wil Shortz. They get thousands of entries.

So yours must be extremely well done. Congrats.

Was an avid puzzler at one time, but have not done one in ages. Brain slowing down.

[whistler162]

19. Only if you get up early enough to

grab it otherwise it is up for grabs! You know the rules.


Cool
O
Neat
G
R
A
Terrific
S

[JudyM]

20. Ok, what's the toughest clue in there? See if we can get it ;)

[Puzzler]

24. I can't mention any unpublished clues now, but ...

I can give you a hard clue from a NYT puzzle of mine from a couple of years ago.

(Sorry, but they're really uptight about copyright, especially this early)

There are 6 letters in the answer. Also, it's not necessarily 1 word, as with many NYT puzzle answers.

"Entrance line"

Here's a spoiler hint:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-


The answer contains an "M" and an "H" in sequence.

-MAS

[JudyM]

34. Seems like it should be simple :(

I'll bite...?

[mia]

38. my guess

imhome

[Puzzler]

41. "Bingo!" - congats! (n/t)

-MAS

[George II]

21. I could easily do the puzzles from Mon through at least Wed, sometimes even Thu and Fri. But....

...I don't think I've ever completed a Saturday puzzle. Only once did I do the entire Sunday puzzle, another toughie.

[George II]

22. BTW, I haven't done a NYT crossword puzzle since the days of Will Weng (guess they like Wills!!)

[planetc]

23. Just at the moment, I find the Thursday puzzles most annoying, but the Saturdays also ...

have me muttering to myself, "You fiend!" My life would be so boring without you folks. Thanks for all the twisted clues you supply.

I have been doing them for many a long year, and will some day take it up with the delightful Mr. Shortz, that there's a sexist slant to the puzzles. That is, you have to know all these sports heroes, and MVPs for the XXXVIIIth Super Bowl. Could we have some puzzles for fans of poetry and novels and female sports heroes? Mia Hamm turns up from time to time, but there's Lots More! Thank you for listening to my rant, and I shall make a note that "Puzzler" is available for complaints, if any.

Congratulations for making the Times Xword page. It's the top.

[Puzzler]

25. That's a legitimate complaint...

... I'll pass it along

(Seriously)

-MAS

[planetc]

32. Somebody at the NYTimes finally listened to me?

I may never recover from the shock! And thanks.

[Squinch]

26. Wow! I can't wait!

[UTUSN]

27. K&r for incredibly congratulatory & envious

I can claim "K&R" & a couple other things as a contribution to DU

[Permanut]

28. A seven letter word meaning..

cool, extraordinary, breathtaking. beautiful, amazing, astonishing, awe-inspiring, exciting, hair-raising, heart-stirring, heart-stopping, impressive, and/or magnificent.

[Kingofalldems]

29. The WP went to the LA Times crossword.

Don't like it.

[Puzzler]

30. Yes, that was unavoidable unfortunately

... I had just completed my 630th crossword for them. Unfortunately the group of 16 constructors ("CrosSynergy&quot that I was part of, had to dissolve. It was because of complications arising from some serious (and devastating) personal issues concerning one of the key members.

However, the Washington Post was pretty upset about losing us, and there is a possibility that things may change next year.

Please pass on your thoughts to the WP. They are aware!

Incidentally, the LA Times crosswords are fine, BUT they have a steep difficulty slope from Monday to Saturday. With our WP puzzles, we always made sure that the were at a consistent, medium difficulty-level (except the Sunday Challenges).

-MAS

[Puzzler]

31. Thank you everyone !!!

I'm overwhelmed by the kind words, and thoughtful feedback

Also thank you for K&R-ing the thread

Sincerely,

-Puzzler/Martin Ashwood-Smith

[Rhiannon12866]

33. Wow! Kudos, very cool!

It doesn't get better than the NYT!

[ProfessorPlum]

35. Congratulations

that is really great and prestigious

[Fresh_Start]

36. Wonderful, thank you for your contribution to my Saturday nt

nt

[Maraya1969]

37. OK why can't I do any of them. I seriously suck but I have a high IQ like most

Dems. I can do other puzzles. Is it just that my vocabulary sucks?

[Permanut]

40. I had the same difficulty..

couldn't finish them. But by repeated attempts, my vocabulary did grow, just by virtue of being exposed to the challenge. I can complete them most of the time now. Go for it.

[hermetic]

39. Hey, Congrats!

I'm so happy to see you are still here among us. You sent me some puzzles years ago and I really enjoyed them.

Cheers!

[Puzzler]

42. OK, here's another, older clue of mine...

From a Saturday New York Times Crossword (2013):

"Make a little lower?" (5)

No Googling! (says one who Googles )

-MAS

[dooner]

43. That was a tricky one!

My husband and I usually pass our NYT puzzle back and forth, and between us we can get them done...
Yours was a tricky one! i was able to get a foothold with a couple of the long answers but my husband seemed
to do better on the bulk of it. We both thought what made this puzzle particularly difficult was that most of the
answers were very far from obvious and required a lot of trial and error. I particularly hated things like "import".

How fun it must be to dream up diabolical puzzles!

[Puzzler]

44. Thanks... I hope everyone enjoyed it :)

-Martin Ashwood-Smith