Brandon Barr
Atlanta
@Nancy you’re the one who implied that contemporary figures shouldn’t be in crosswords, which flies in the face of the editorial mandate that Will Shortz instilled at the NYT and that Joel and his team are following. Crosswords are for everyone and should have the language of our times. You can complain about a natick of crossing names, but don’t dismiss a popular athlete, a popular movie star, and a poet people should discover as somehow unacceptable for crosswords just because they aren’t in your common parlance.
Couldn’t have been a better time to debut Haka, a few weeks after a Haka spurred thousands to protest in NZ. If you haven’t seen that incredible Haka on the floor of the NZ parliament, it’s very worth a google.
@Hasrd not sure where you looked it up. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scad" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scad</a>
@Scott IRAS have been in NYT puzzles 136 times in the plural and 425 in the singular, so it’s one of those short fills you should just memorize as crosswordese, and wouldn’t have pinged editors as a Natick.
@Remy she explains why it isn’t in it in the creator notes.
@Helen Wright ARCO had been in puzzles twice this week. Worth memorizing, like ESSO.
@Charles Which proper nouns didn’t have fair crosses? It is called a crossword, after all.
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