For those who like word puzzles

[thewayne]

The Atlantic has a (currently) free puzzle called Bracket City that's quite interesting. A single daily puzzle related to 'this day in history' where you complete phrases to collapse bracketed clues. The tricky bit is that you can only guess the currently highlighted portion, which the below example does not illustrate:

a [one one [who shalt not in [lift one [[" the club" (said with resignation)]t involved in a proposal] while sliding the opposite foot back, then alternate legs in quick, repeated motions — you are doing "The [⏳ "in the long" ➡️ ⬅️ "for your life!" ‼️]ning " 🕺]y command[👨‍💼👨‍💼👨‍💼]ts]sand 💵, for short]u[men[like many red[the biome you might be trying to get out of 🌲🌲🌲] or b["don't me" 🤷‍♀️]etball players]y ➡️ ⬅️ gotten gains]o[the point of [metal for the [life era for a [the US went to DEF[one on a list next to the pros] 2 during the Cuban Missile one]]dle medal]ware?] is installed in front of the Tuileries Palace

(and I'm a little too lazy to bold to show what's going on)

Anyway, you may get the idea. Check it out, it's kinda fun!

Russet and I do the NY Times crossword every day, and took a look at the Atlantic's Saturday puzzle, which was their second hardest. And we 'noped' right out of it. We're really used to the NYT's editors styles. I think if we worked at it we could do it, but we really don't need a second crossword right now. Doing Strands, Connections, the crossword, and now this Bracket City together is enough. And Russet does several other daily puzzles beyond this that I do not join her in normally.

https://www.theatlantic.com/games/bracket-city/

Comments

[richardf8]

I played with it and did pretty well. I also took a shot at the crossword they have up. It was far crunchier than even the late week NYTXW's have been of late, despite being a smaller grid. I'm not afraid to cheat, so I learned some interesting things too.

[thewayne]

We try to avoid using Google on crosswords, we'll use it on specific sports and entertainment things that we know absolutely nothing about, but otherwise try to avoid it. I'm sure we'll give it more shots as time permits.

[richardf8]

And you've named my two major use cases for it. The big challenge with a small grid like that is if the constructor relies too much on stuff like that you don't have as many crosses to help you out, and despite living in MN, the banner answer at 1 across was so far outside my wheelhouse as to be on a different ship on a different ocean.

[murakozi]

Oof. I did kinda-okay after I got the gist of it. I'm really not good at it though.

[thewayne]

My wife and I are vast hives of trivia and weird vocabulary and phrases. We consistently are in the 90s thus far, we'll probably start working our way through the archive.

[disneydream06]

Me thinks that's above me. lol...
And very impressive that you do the NYT's crossword. WOW...
I like doing crossword puzzles, but I am better if they are centered around entertainment. LOL.......
Hugs, Jon

[darkoshi]

I enjoyed playing the Bracket City game for a while when it first started. I like how when you can't figure out the current clue, you can use the surrounding clues to help narrow it down. I quit playing it after a while though, as when I couldn't figure out a clue, it would keep pestering me. And somehow I didn't really enjoy reading the linked-to articles at the end, though of course I was curious to read them and did.

[silveradept]

Bracket City is fun to work with, but there are some regionalisms in there that can spoil a good run if you're not up on the right lingo.

[thewayne]

That's a problem with the NYT crossword in general.  Talking about east coast ice cream, for example.

[kellan_the_tabby]

I've been playing it for a couple months now, & it is FUN.

[thewayne]

We just learned about it last week and are enjoying it.  Our best thus far is 98, normally score in the 90s but the stupid Mona Lisa puzzle threw us for 62!  Haven't gone into the archives yet, I expect that'll be coming soon.