Happy birthday to the man who brings us 365 gifts (plus 52 second Sunday puzzles) every year! And many happy returns, Will.
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again? seems like he just had a birthday last year.
joon, last year, Will’s birthday was the day before mine.
Are there 2 Will Shortz’s?
When I play the NYT puzzle in the Seattle Times, for example http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/comicsgames/nytimescrossword.html ,
it is not the same puzzle the Times runs that day, not the one dissected here.
Yet it is called the NYT puzzle edited by Will Shortz, and it is always the current date, not one from the archives.
So are there two Wills? Are there two birthdays to celebrate?
Seems like his birthday comes up about this time every every-year-and-a-half or so. . .
@Reybo, the Seattle Times puzzle ran originally in the New York Times on July 15. It’s the software that gives that puzzle today’s date. There’s a six-week syndication lag. You can check this out in the xwordinfo.com web site (SPOILER!)
http://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/15/2010
So you might say that Will’s birthday in syndication is October 7 (when you’ll get to see today’s puzzle). You might say it, that is, but you’ll get some funny looks.
Thanks. I can look funny right back without even trying, so it’s said.
How does one find old Matt Jones puzzles? A weekly here runs them late and later, with no clue as to the actual data of release. For example, on Aug. 26 this paper ran “Last Change, Harvey,” a puzzle where Jones used plural clues for singular answers, asked for “Hello in Chinese,” Spanish idioms, and other things not crossword kosher in my world.
Others, maybe, but not mine.
Never mind. Found it. This was his release for July 21. And some of the problems were caused by the paper printing a 15 x 16 grid for Jones’s 16 x 16 puzzle.
The plural clues took plural answers after all.
At first I thought it was another “66-across” trick, the one the Times used with a puzzle whose highest visible entry was 65-across. Clever.
But no … and Jones did call for NIHAO, “Hello in Beijing.” Which if allowed to pass muster in places like here, opens the door to any word at all in any language at all, thereby destroying crosswords as we know them.
I do 19 puzzles a week but from now on, it’s 18. No more jonesin. I’m done putting up with South Park and MTV references, obscure rock drummers, songs no one but druggies ever heard, and phonetic Chinese.
Others may love him but to me, Jones is an insult to an honored calling.
oh please, get off your soapbox. if you don’t like matt jones’s puzzles, fine, but don’t tell us why we shouldn’t like them. and it’s a far cry from “the very first word you’d learn in the world’s most widely spoken language” to “any word in any language at all.”
He doesn’t like Jonesin’ Crosswords… but still wants to know where to get the old ones!
“Jones is an insult to an honored calling.”
Are you f**king kidding me?
“I’m done putting up with South Park and MTV references, obscure rock drummers, songs no one but druggies ever heard, and phonetic Chinese.”
And what’s with kids today and their big pants?
Mr. Jones, you have dishonored my calling. Prepare to die.
so, um, happy birthday will?
You guys are all crazy. We need to have *more* public breakups with crosswords.
What the hell is up with today’s New York Times crossword? How exactly am I supposed to know what an X-BOX is, or an X-GAME, much less TWO x-games? Plus, I didn’t sign up for this to do math, much less math in Roman numerals. That’s it, I’m done. Take your crossword and shove it, Mr. Shortz.
P.S. Happy birthday!
Screw Shortz, I want to know when Matt Jones is having his birthday.
Matt is a Pisces, so you’ve got a good half a year to wait before you can rip into Will Shortz and his so-called dedication to puzzles in honor of Matt’s birthday.
Matt is pretty impressed that he’s been doing Jonesin’ for nine years and it’s taken this long for a public screed against him to appear. Keep up the good work!
Wow-ee! Not sure what’s up with this thread; not sure I want to know either. Cruciverbalism flame war on Amy’s blog? Or tongue-in-cheek insider joke?
Whatever–it’s all good. I do all the puzzles listed here, or have at them at least, and pretty much like them all. One can never know too many obscure rock drummers! They’re going to come up in the BEQ puzzles.
Happy Birtthday to Will!
Happy belated birthday, Will! And thanks for the support. I just gotta say it–can’t we all just get along?
If it’s any consolation, Nickelodeon’s already been airing the Chinese language equivalent of Dora the Explorer, “Ni Hao, Kai-Lan,” for about two years. And there’s no shame in searching the Internet if you’re stuck on an entry.
I thought it was “ko-nee-chee-wah”? That’s what I learned from watching M*A*S*H, anyway.