![]() Even though I wholeheartedly disagree with his dim view of his puzzle. Now, this post is not intended to be a burial of Rex and his opinions. Certainly, from a blogging perspective, this is much much worse, as there’s really hardly anything to say. Solving one of these unthemed Sundays, even a very competent one like this, isn’t necessarily better than solving a disastrous themed Sunday, to be honest. Time passes, and then the puzzle is done. There’s no real low, no real high, just … middle middle middle. There’s a reason the NYTXW didn’t do Sunday themelesses until, what, like two or three years ago? It’s because they’re a cop-out. It’s a very clean grid, and many of the entries here are interesting, but the overall effect of said entries in a Sunday themeless is ho-hum. A vanilla malt is the best thing in the world. And today’s grid shape was really vanilla. I just don’t care as much as I ought to care. That is, yeah, you can get a lot of longish answers into a 21×21. A Sunday-sized “we give up, here’s some stuff.” It’s too easy to be that interesting, and since the grid is so big, the construction doesn’t feel particularly special. As I’ve said before, it’s a giant (literally, giant! 21×21!) shrug. This is very good for what it is, but unfortunately (for me), what it is is a Sunday themeless, and these are just never going to be interesting to me. But again, sometimes he can’t see the forest for the trees, and when your brand is “guy who bellyaches about crosswords,” you often play into what people expect from you.Īnd on Sunday, he carved into a Robyn Weintraub 21x themeless crossword with some serious vitriol: I genuinely believe his commentary, however inconsistent or caustic at times, comes from a sincere desire to be engaged, entertained, and wowed by the puzzles he is so clearly invested in. Which is not the same thing at all.) He’s sort of a “you love him or you don’t” figure in the crossword sphere. ![]() ![]() (Often, if he doesn’t know it, it’s obscure. He frequently makes fair points, but they can be lost amid his personal views regarding particular clues and entries. If you’re unaware, Rex is a constructor in his own right, but is far better known in the crossword world for his curmudgeonly reviews of the New York Times crossword. So how did all this start? With a blog post by crossword reviewer Rex Parker. themed puzzles, and as you might expect, fellow puzzler, I have thoughts on the subject. I ask because something of a kerfuffle was sparked on Twitter over the weekend regarding themeless puzzles vs. When you think of crossword puzzles, what comes to mind? The grid first, or maybe the clues? When you picture your default crossword, is it a themed puzzle or themeless? ![]()
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