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thewayneI completed the New York Times Monday crossword - by myself! 18 and a half minutes!
Russet has been doing it for ages, and I would help her out occasionally on music and some other older pop culture references. When we were doing long-distance driving at night, I'd load up the puzzle on my iPad and we'd thrash it out while driving - she driving, me working the iPad.
About three months ago we started doing it together every night. When she worked, I'd call her and we'd do it over the phone. She liked the higher difficulty level of not being able to see it, though last week there was a tough one and I'd pause it, she'd pick it up, and eventually we thrashed it. Last night's was interesting: there were eight "locks" - the theme was safe-cracking, and each lock would rotate, and the four letters it contained would change the words as it rotated! It was pretty cool.
Tonight I was infusing and she decided it was nap time for her, after my infusion was over I grabbed my laptop and went to it. Now, granted, Monday is the easiest of the week's puzzles as they increase in difficulty with the weekend being the most challenging, but I was still pleased with completing it entirely on my own, and in a fairly good time as the two of us together usually take 15-20 minutes on early week puzzles.
Her specialty is jigsaw puzzles. She has competed in tournaments and will flip a completed puzzle over and do the blank back! Have I mentioned that she's just a teensy-bit insane?
Russet has been doing it for ages, and I would help her out occasionally on music and some other older pop culture references. When we were doing long-distance driving at night, I'd load up the puzzle on my iPad and we'd thrash it out while driving - she driving, me working the iPad.
About three months ago we started doing it together every night. When she worked, I'd call her and we'd do it over the phone. She liked the higher difficulty level of not being able to see it, though last week there was a tough one and I'd pause it, she'd pick it up, and eventually we thrashed it. Last night's was interesting: there were eight "locks" - the theme was safe-cracking, and each lock would rotate, and the four letters it contained would change the words as it rotated! It was pretty cool.
Tonight I was infusing and she decided it was nap time for her, after my infusion was over I grabbed my laptop and went to it. Now, granted, Monday is the easiest of the week's puzzles as they increase in difficulty with the weekend being the most challenging, but I was still pleased with completing it entirely on my own, and in a fairly good time as the two of us together usually take 15-20 minutes on early week puzzles.
Her specialty is jigsaw puzzles. She has competed in tournaments and will flip a completed puzzle over and do the blank back! Have I mentioned that she's just a teensy-bit insane?
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Date: 2024-04-22 06:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-04-22 02:09 pm (UTC)The weekend ones and the ones with themes/patterns are lots of fun! Though the rebus ones are especially tricky.
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Date: 2024-04-22 06:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-04-22 02:11 pm (UTC)I believe they sometimes use cryptic clues, but the entire puzzle is not.
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Date: 2024-04-22 06:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-04-22 09:59 pm (UTC)Thanks! It is the easiest, but still, I was happy. And I do contribute considerably to the others.
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Date: 2024-04-22 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-04-22 10:00 pm (UTC)Yeah, well, you knew we were both more than a little nuts.
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Date: 2024-04-22 01:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-04-22 10:01 pm (UTC)That's what my wife found and I've noticed. There's no way I could do the weekend solo, but I do a lot of contributing on them.
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Date: 2024-04-22 04:24 pm (UTC)subscribed several months ago, and just ignored that part altogether
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Date: 2024-04-22 10:03 pm (UTC)They have a lot of very cool games, though there's a lot of American sports and pop culture stuff that frankly I have trouble with! Sometimes you just have to work around the trouble spots and wait for cross-clues to fill in. But they have lots of good word games on that site, I'd recommend it.
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Date: 2024-04-22 04:47 pm (UTC)When I lived for six months with a friend whose house received the paper, between us we could finish most days (me for pop culture, at least). A fun joint project, for sure.
I didn't know there were jigsaw puzzle contests! Doing the blank back? Have you & Russet talked about how visual you each are, and how that manifests? I'm thinking of photography for you, at least.
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Date: 2024-04-23 02:27 am (UTC)She definitely has quite the brain, with her being an astronomer.
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Date: 2024-04-22 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-04-22 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-04-23 11:30 am (UTC)I've never done the NYT's puzzle.
I have completed a few of the only Washington Post puzzles. :)
They seem to vary greatly. Some fairly easy to some impossible, at least for me. lol.......
Hugs, Jon
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Date: 2024-04-23 04:07 pm (UTC)NYT has very good editors, they're excellent at grading the difficulty of puzzles and increasing it as the week goes on.
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Date: 2024-04-23 11:35 pm (UTC)I use to really like the big crossword that was in The Star tabloid, but I stopped buying the rags. lol...