XWord Muggles Forum

The author of the quote is someone familiar to participants in these forums. The quote itself may also be relevant bit of advice for some of us.

Unfortunately it's behind a paywall. But I didn't know that Cox and Rathvon created those acrostics. That's almost worth a subscription. Almost. I don't need that many more temptations Are they available digitally or do you have to print and solve? (Acrostics are the one puzzle type I absolutely WON'T solve on paper.)

KayW wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 12:14 pm Unfortunately it's behind a paywall.

It is? I *DO* have a subscription and it'd be *great* if I had access to it. But I thought NYT made the (nasty) decision to take the acrostic down entirely and have it no access to it online, subscription of not. I'd be ecstatic if it were behind a paywall.

I've recently been going through my old books of acrostics. At first it felt unbearably tedious to go back to cross fill the squares, but I got back to the swim. The decoding guessing is actually more fulfilling and tactile that way if one has the patience. It helps to have an unpleasant environment you really want to zone out of.

Oops. Maybe I should make sure I know what I'm talking about before I start babbling in a public forum...

@Bird Lives is there a link to this puzzle?

I saw some accessible answers to older acrostics here and the few of those I clicked on seem to be by Cox and Rathvon. I assUme-d those were available because they were old enough to be in syndication.

I also found what looks like a June 4 NYT acrostic here. But since I can't actually view it, I don't know if it's the one Jay recommended, or if it's a Cox and Rathvon. In fact, I see now the heading says "by Jim Home".

Apologies for confusing things!

KayW wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 4:48 pm Oops. Maybe I should make sure I know what I'm talking about before I start babbling in a public forum...

@Bird Lives is there a link to this puzzle?

It's not available online. A few weeks ago, the NYT stopped offering an online version of acrostics. I think the justification was that the software had to be set up each time, and that was too complicated. Or something like that. It doesn't sound right. After all, WSJ always makes their acrostics available online. Anyway, I had to go back to doing it in pen and paper.

But if you like Cox and Rathvon (and who doesn't), don't miss the WSJ variety puzzle this week.

The NYT acrostics (and archives) are available for online solving at Jeff Chen’s website xwordinfo.com. A subscription is required ($10 or $20 annually). Not available for mobile devices, computer only. Acrostics are published in the print edition of the NYT, but they don’t offer a printable PDF.

The rationale offered by the Times for their recent decisions makes little sense. I believe they are planning to increase revenue by charging for puzzles and games that are now free or unavailable.

And today I learned that the two local grocery chains that formerly carried The Times have stopped receiving out-of-town papers as of June 30 unless/until they can find a new supplier. I have the newspaper's app, but I still enjoy the hard copy on Sundays ... and this is a hard nut to swallow!