The New York Times crossword, measured independently of the rest of the paper, is more profitable than ever… but the company itself faces a grim decline in profits which could still affect that fabled institution over the long run. (Is it really a good excuse that some of the lost profits reflected businesses that the company sold off in the last year?)
The NYT‘s increasingly important online arm, by the way, has a guide to dictionaries for the smartphone and tablet.
Two crossword-related Kickstarters launching this week, for the “cross-math” game Sum Wars and the multilingual Scrabble variant Luna-C. Videos shown below. Sum Wars’ presentation is more polished, it’s more straightforward about where the funds will go, and, at this writing, its drive is much further along. But both are interesting projects, and I hope they find a support base.
The Washington Post‘s new puzzle placement and design seems to please its readers.
The Guardian‘s P.G. Wodehouse cryptic clue series approaches its conclusion.
Dear Annie, can you solve this question of crossword etiquette (scroll to the bottom of this page)?
Curmudgeonly Gregg Popovich softens his image a little by offering some help with a crossword clue.
Woot ran a puzzle with many, many fabulous giveaways for those who offered answers first (okay, actually it was stuff they openly called “crap,” but still, free prizes). Hat tip: Adam Rosenfield.
Stars: They’re just like us! Tyler Hinman, Jeremy Horowitz, Kevin Der and Brendan Emmett Quigley walk into a bar…
Ego-solve of the week: Chris Anderson, founder of TED Talks.
Too-modest-by-half-solve of the week: Alex Boisvert. I mean, I can’t even in good conscience label this a “humblebrag,” under the circumstances. The odds of Boisvert getting another shout-out increase every time he does something cool for the community. For instance…
This week, in lieu of another crossword race, Alex has a quick instructional video for beginning designers who aspire to New York Times publication (below). You may find this familiar material at first, but Alex has some good recommendations I didn’t know about until recently.
Also, retweet-worthy: Rex Parker, and Bob Dively’s reply found at the same link.
For the pol, a Matt Gaffney crossword dedicated to White House Correspondents’ Dinners. For the MMA fan, a crisscross of Michael Bisping insults.