The Week In Crosswords

Or maybe “the week and a half.” Shortly after Araucaria’s cancer announcement, he gave this interview to The Guardian and got a moving memorial from The Age. This week’s image of a monkey puzzle tree (scientific name Araucaria araucana) is taken from this tweet.

I missed last week’s news that we also lost George Brederhorn, the developer of the “Split Decisions” puzzle genre, whose last published work is running in the Times today. I picked up a collection of his work yesterday at Barnes & Noble (bittersweetly, it was in the discount section).

The Daily Mail remembers the greatest solve in Wheel of Fortune history.

Kotaku reports a major flaw in the Crosswords Plus game: you’ve got to start with the easy puzzles, whether you’re a Saturday solver or not.

Will Shortz spent his Saturday watching a whole lot of beer-chugging. He may’ve had a few himself… after his 7,000th Times crossword, he’s entitled.

One argument in favor of paper crosswords over digital distractions: they seem to supply just the right level of distraction to keep pilots from getting too bored in the air without causing them to miss their exit. Also, puzzle books can be more useful in spying.

The Guardian has a tip for solving cryptics: “reading regularly” can mean something different in that context.

While Minnesota and Kansas City gear up for their tournaments (which Amy covered here), Oliver Cross outlines the benefits of solving collaboratively, rather than competitively.

Twitter’s got a few witty morsels this week.

Some news in education…

Will on selecting puzzle difficulty level…

And a couple of comedy videos that’ve been in circulation for a while, but recently came to my attention via social media:

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