Crosswords for couples to do as partners?

June 2, 2018 2:45 PM

As a follow up to this excellent answer to “Partnered relaxation rituals”: What are the best crossword puzzles at a middle-highbrow literate level (but not ultra-highbrow/ later-week-nyt-level) for couples to do together, in person, at the end of the day. Bonus request : interesting formats or ways to do these puzzles that make working as a couple fun.
posted by lalochezia to Human Relations (12 answers total)

I like the Guardian's Quick Crossword, which has factual clues rather than cryptic ones.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:55 PM on June 2, 2018 [3 favorites]

Crossly is an iOS app that's designed for multiplayer solving. Just add each other as friends in Game Center and you can play collaboratively.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:29 PM on June 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

We like the Sunday NYT for this- I’m sure there are collections of them. It’s larger than the weekday ones, but not frustrating like a Friday or Saturday.

I’m better at them than my husband overall, so he gets a five-minute head start, then we do it together with different colored pens for a (mild) competitive aspect. Bonus smug victory point for the person who figures out the theme first. We both sign it dramatically when we are done before we toss it in the recycling.
posted by charmedimsure at 3:32 PM on June 2, 2018 [12 favorites]

An ex and I used books of the Sunday LA Times ones for this. A good difficulty level for us and the spiral binding and paper were nice.
posted by metasarah at 3:35 PM on June 2, 2018

Do you like cryptic crosswords? I find regular and variety cryptic can be a lot of fun to do together, because there will often be a bunch of clues that I only see half of it and my spouse helps me get the other half (and vise-versa). And the variety ones mean we're also talking about and trying to figure out what the theme is or solve a final puzzle after the crossword is done. We've done a few in the Cryptic All-Stars series and they're awesome. They're U.S. cryptics, if that matters to you.
posted by Margalo Epps at 3:54 PM on June 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

My husband and I both have Nintendo DS handheld systems. Their NYT crossword game works perfectly for 2 people. (We generally just do Monday/Tuesday puzzles.)
posted by unlapsing at 8:26 PM on June 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

Beloved Partner and I do them together--usually the Sunday NYT. One of us is much better at it and doesn't see the grid, and the other reads the clues aloud. ("carriage", six letters, ends in "u").
This makes it a good challenge for both.
posted by librosegretti at 8:49 PM on June 2, 2018

My spouse and I solve the American Values Club Crossword (formerly the AV Club crossword, before the Onion dropped it) together. Not highbrow, but definitely clever and funny (some of them have a fun meta puzzle). They put out at least one a week, with occasional bonus puzzles. Each one gets a difficulty rating, so you can skip the (rare) high-difficulty puzzles. You can print the puzzles or play them with a variety of solving apps.
posted by ddbeck at 6:37 AM on June 3, 2018

We do this right before we fall asleep. I have the NY Times crossword puzzle app. A new puzzle is available everyday and they are usually mostly easy and only take around 5 minutes. I read the clues out loud. You can also pay for puzzle packs. They're more challenging puzzles. They are made of 10 locked puzzles but the first one is always unlocked. I'm using the free version of the app since there are so many free puzzles included.
posted by mokeydraws at 6:56 AM on June 3, 2018

My hometown paper growing up (the Victoria Times Colonist) prints UK-style cryptics (Not sure where they're originally sourced from, but in my experience they're several levels simpler than, say, The Gaurdian's cryptics, while still having enough brain teasers and chuckle-worthy clues to make them more rewarding than a standard puzzle, imho).
My parents did (and still do!) those puzzles zealously and religiously, to the point where they will physically clip out the cryptic puzzles on mornings where they're in a rush, and save them all for a marathon weekend of catch-up crosswording and lazy coffee drinking at the kitchen table together. They take turns solving, with Dad going first, then assiduously erasing all his answers, and Mom doing it next (and often pestering Dad for help with the trickiest ones). It's adorable.
Mr. Dorinda and I have (at my insistence!) adopted and modified their habit. We do the Times Colonist puzzle together on lazy weekend mornings, and we do it online on a tablet (via a Byzantine process of snipping and pasting the grid and the clues into a paint file, and writing in the answers with a digital pen), and it's delightful and relaxing and takes actual teamwork. Since we are not quite the cryptic solving machines that my parents are, we always make sure to do puzzles that are a few days old so that we can find the answers in the next day's paper when we're stuck! We try not to make it into too much of a race to see who gets the answers, and to work together to solve the trickier ones, but a little friendly competition is inevitably involved too. [n.b.: I am DEFINITELY the reigning champ, by a fairly large margin....just sayin']

Anywho, my recommendation would be for some gentler cryptics. This article has a brief rundown of some of the UK setters who tend towards the less intense end of the cryptic spectrum. It's several years old, so potentially not entirely up to date, but of the papers listed there, I know for sure at least The Guardian has their puzzles available to do online (or to print, if you want to avoid screens if you're doing puzzles at night)
posted by Dorinda at 10:15 AM on June 4, 2018

The late great Merle Reagle's website still publishes a Sunday crossword every week, drawn from the archives. If you're familiar with Merle's work, you'll know that his puzzles are filled with humor and terrible puns. RIP, gone way too soon.
posted by DandyRandy at 3:19 PM on June 4, 2018

To add to DandyRandy's terrific suggestion of Merl Reagle's puzzles: look for the links to previous weeks (last week, the week before, the week before that). You can typically find four puzzles at the site via those links.
posted by kristi at 10:37 AM on June 6, 2018