Just an FYI for those who are not NYT subscribers.
Sounds like stupid management running (ruining?) the show.
The crossword puzzles used to be a good reason to get the paper (when it was paper).
The Captain
For those who have to have a quick X-word fix to get the day started, the linked article has links to the LATimes and the Seattle Times free mini X-word puzzles.
The LA Times link shows the puzzles but does show the games when clicking on Play
Seattle Times
The Captain
I discovered this a couple of days ago! I’ve been doing it for years. I subscribe to the Times and pay them over $200 a year; I’m not about to pay them additional monies for the any of the games! They would also want extra money for the Athletic sports section they bought a few years ago. They continue to make decisions that p*ss me off!
JimA
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Is it possible to simply tell an AI to generate a mini crossword? And would it generate a proper one that is solvable? Worth a try for those who miss the NYT mini crossword.
AI should be able to do it but the online versions are much more than the puzzles, they give hints, score the results, etc., etc.
I did a bunch of mini puzzles today and a big one. When newspapers were papers I used to do a lot of crossword puzzles and other riddles and often found errors in the published texts. I hadn’t done a puzzle in decades and was quite happy to be able to solve them today.
That brought up a question, does puzzle solving improve memory? I was very good at remembering some stuff and quite bad at remembering names. Now I’m more forgetful, it takes longer for some stuff to come back. I believe that memories don’t disappear from the brain, the brain just has a harder time finding them (pattern matching). The question is, does doing crossword puzzles improve memory? Any takers? Any opinions?
The Captain
My grandmas both added crosswords to their lifelong playing of cards, especially Bridge, precisely to exercise memory as they aged. Seemed to work great. Dad died too soon, at 75, from leukemia now linked to his exposure to various experimental Rocketdyne rocket fuels. Mom followed grandmas’ examples and was sharp all the way into her last months at age 97. I am following their example, and have also become quite fond of the NYT Wordle game as a waking up exercise.
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If the NYT takes Wordle away, here’s a 6 letter version of the game.
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I’m crossword fan. My current streak of consecutive solved NYT puzzles is at 1632. With an assist from Mrs Wyomingtim.
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