nytimes crossword reruns?

July 12, 2005 2:10 PM

Does the NY Times ever rerun its crossword puzzles?

I started doing the NYT crossword today (no. 0531) in my local paper and it seemed oddly familiar. After filling in some more squares, I KNEW that I had done this crossword before, and within the past two months. I figured it was just a mistake, but the other local paper has the same repeat puzzle. Would they actually repeat crosswords in the Times and not expect obsessive puzzlers to notice? I haven't been a junkie long enough to really know. And if anyone who gets the NY Times could confirm that this is not just a mistake in both local papers, that would be great. The clue for 1 Down is "warhead weapon, briefly."

posted by jetskiaccidents to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

no.
posted by alkupe at 2:12 PM on July 12, 2005

I don't think they repeat puzzles, but they probably repeat some clues and answers.

My sister and I bought a few books of NY Times crosswords, and some of the puzzles were the same or had the same clues.
posted by daninnj at 2:19 PM on July 12, 2005

I've seen repeats of the NYT puzzle published in the Dallas Morning News. As I recall, they don't publish the same puzzle as the Times does.
posted by sanko at 2:23 PM on July 12, 2005

On Sunday the Memphis paper always publishes the NYT crossword from the Sunday before. I usually also pick up the NYT on Sunday so it's pretty obvious. I've never noticed the same puzzle coming up again in the NYT.
posted by Carbolic at 2:28 PM on July 12, 2005

The New York Times never repeats its puzzles. They're submitted to the paper by various puzzle makers, and then selected for publication and edited by puzzle editor Will Shortz. The Times does syndicate out its puzzles to many other publications, which usually run them a week after the initial publication in the Times. And, of course, you can purchase past puzzles in NYT crossword books available in nearly every bookstore. But you can count on the fact that the puzzle you see in today's New York Times is new to the world.
posted by TBoneMcCool at 3:20 PM on July 12, 2005

Since that seems to be answered, may I ask:

I just read recently that Mr. Shortz writes all the clues to the puzzle. Really? The "puzzle-maker" just submits the crossword itself? What about the theme/long-answers of the week?
posted by hackly_fracture at 3:30 PM on July 12, 2005

Best answer: And to address your specific question, it looks like the syndication lag is a little longer than a week, as I mentioned above. Puzzle No. 531 most likely ran on May 31 in The Times. Today's puzzle published in the New York Times was No. 712 (as in July 12). Chances are you ran across puzzle 531 a month and a half ago when it was initially published in The Times, or maybe another publication has a less of a syndication delay in publishing the NYT crosswords -- though it seems likely that every publication that subscribes to The Times crossword would be bound to publish them in the same order under the same delay so as to not give any one publication an advantage over the other.
posted by TBoneMcCool at 3:30 PM on July 12, 2005

I just read recently that Mr. Shortz writes all the clues to the puzzle. Really? The "puzzle-maker" just submits the crossword itself? What about the theme/long-answers of the week?

No, puzzle makers will submit clues with their puzzles, but Shortz has said in many interviews that he often rewrites or tweaks clues for consistency, clarity and to avoid crossword cliches. But if the clues work for him, presumably he'll leave them alone.
posted by TBoneMcCool at 3:35 PM on July 12, 2005

I just read recently that Mr. Shortz writes all the clues to the puzzle. Really? The "puzzle-maker" just submits the crossword itself? What about the theme/long-answers of the week?

He rewrites about half the clues.

Article
posted by johndavi at 3:56 PM on July 12, 2005

Response by poster: Ahhhhhh the world makes sense again. I just so happened to have picked up a copy of the actual NY Times on May 31 for my flight home. I'm not insane, there are no repeats, problem solved. And now I know how the numbering works, too. fun.
posted by jetskiaccidents at 5:16 PM on July 12, 2005

Ok, since this thread is resolved, I have a funny request. In the movie Waking Life, there's a discussion of an "experiment" that was done where people were given the NY Times crossword puzzle every day for a while. Then one day they gave them the previous day's puzzle (but not allowing them to see it before the day they took it). Supposedly their scores improved dramatically, and the theory is proposed that the answers are "out there" in the global consciousness sort of way, because of the millions who do that puzzle every day.

I searched on Google for any info to back up this scene and I came up empty. My Google-fu is quite good, too. Anyone have any details as to where this came from, or if it's made up? (And if it's made up, why??)

I like that. It's like there's this whole internal linktelepathic thing going on that we're all a part of, whether we're conscious of it or not. That would explain why there are all these seemingly internal linkspontaneous worldwide innovative leaps in science and the arts, you know, like the same results popping up everywhere independent of each other. Some guy on a computer figures something out, and then almost simultaneously a bunch of other people all over the world figure out the same thing. They did this study where they isolated a group of people over time, you know, and monitored their abilities at crossword internal linkpuzzles in relation to the general population, and they secretly gave them a day-old crossword, one that had already been answered by thousands of other people, and their scores went up dramatically. Like 20%. So it's like once the answers are out there, people can pick up on them. Like we're all telepathically sharing our experiences.

Just seems more-than-a-little hokey to me, I'd be very impressed if someone found an actual source for this story. As of now, I'm just disappointed that someone would make it up and pretend it's real.
posted by knave at 10:03 PM on July 12, 2005

Crap, sorry about the 'links' in that quoted paragraph, bad copy/paste job.
posted by knave at 10:05 PM on July 12, 2005

knave: no source for your specific story, but the basic theme is similar to that of the Hundredth Monkey.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:59 AM on July 13, 2005