The Uncertain Fate of Crosswords
- Posted by: Anne Trubek
- on July 9, 2009 at 9:00 am
With newspapers dying, crossword puzzles might not be far behind. Do we care?
I have been worrying about crossword puzzles. I accept the slow death of the printed newspaper as inevitable, and believe we will find news in new places and formats. But what about crossword puzzles? Are they print-based, and thus doomed? Should we fight to preserve them? Do they really make us smarter?
The crossword puzzle was born in a newspaper (the world’s first crossword was diagonal—you can see it here). It was invented by Arthur Wynne, a journalist, in 1913. By the 1920s, most American newspapers carried crossword puzzles.
Like Sudoku in the noughts, crossword puzzles were the rage in the 1920s. The New York Public Library reported that people were flocking to dictionaries and encyclopedias to look up clues. In 1924, Simon and Schuster published the first, and incredibly popular, crossword puzzle book. Then the predictable backlash began, with the New York Times, Time magazine, and others lamenting how much time people were wasting on this frivolous game. (The New York Times was one of the last American papers to print a daily crossword—they refused to include this “sinful waste in the utterly futile finding of words” until 1942.)
Today, most consider crossword puzzle dexterity a sign of intellectual prowess. “How far did you get in last week’s New York Times Sunday crossword?” is a question as loaded with cultured competitiveness as “How far did you get in Remembrance of Things Past?”. In 1978, Will Shortz founded the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (also featured in the 2006 documentary, Word Play.) Shortz and others popularized the idea that doing crossword puzzles stimulates the brain, and may offset Alzheimers. Doctors began prescribing crosswords to aging patients to help offset dementia.
But some are skeptical that filling letters into boxes makes you smarter. Dean Olsher, a lifelong crossword puzzler, thinks of them “as a habit—like smoking.” Olsher, author of From Square One: A Meditation, with Digressions, on Crosswords, quips that “On the one hand … we think that [crossword puzzles] are helpful when it comes to mental health….But then the flip side of that is that they may be just the opposite; maybe crosswords are not only not going to keep us from getting Alzheimer’s … but may in fact be its own form of mental illness.” Olsher finds no medical evidence that doing puzzles makes you smarter. (He, though, is clearly very smart, and funny, and his book is well-worth a read).
So we have a game that was always associated with newspapers, that is for some a mental workout and for others as unhealthy as a smoke break. Of course we can come up with digital ways to do crossword puzzles, and we have, but should we? Or are crossword puzzles like, say, pinball, a game that will be eclipsed by new ones with fancier bells and whistles, and makes more sense for the digital news delivery device soon to come?
DISCUSSION: 154 Comments
Give me a break. Crosswords have gained more popularity once they went on-line, in fact the New York Times’s crossword audience nearly doubled once it happened. Thanks to the Internet, I can solve any crossword from any country that appears onn any newspaper’s website I want to. This is the 21st century. Programs like Across Lite have breathed new life into how people solve crosswords. Frankly, because of this accessibility crosswords haven’t been this popular since the puzzle craze in the Twenties.I’m a professional puzzlemaker who’s work has appeared in every major market since 1996. I’ve recently launched my own blog where I post three absolutely free crosswords a week: http://brendanemmettquigley.com/ Other fantastic free on-line puzzle pages from professional puzzlemakers can be found here:(Matt Gaffney’s)http://crosswordcontest.blogspot.com/(Trip Payne’s)http://www.tripleplaypuzzles.com/
You can find an online crossword puzzle once a month here: http://tinyurl.com/ntl6tl. Sorry it is german.
This is a completely ridiculous argumment. Once the New York Times started posting puzzles on their website, their solving audience practically doubled. In fact, thanks to the Internet, crosswords have never been more popular. I can solve any newspaper’s crossword that I want without having to buy any of those newspapers: New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, Creator’s Syndicate, USA Today, The Guardian, The Times of London just to name a few.I’ve been a professional puzzlemaker since 1996 who’s work has appeared in every major market. Just going to throw it out there: I post three FREE puzzles a week on my blog: http://www.brendanemmettquigley.com/Other fantastic on-line sites with FREE quality puzzles are as follows:Matt Gaffney’scrosswordcontest.blogspot.com/Trip Payne’stripleplaypuzzles.com/
I am a crossword puzzle junkie, and as such I am aware that there are many other places besides the newspaper to find a good puzzle. I’m not sad to see the exit of the newspaper, it was a certain inevitability, but I am excited to see it’s evolution, and that of the crossword as well. As long as there are crossword addicts like myself, there will always be crossword puzzles.
OK, I’m going to argue w/ BEQ, who is my friend. Xwords are indeed popular now, but papers haven’t *really* died yet. You and I know that there are excellent puzzles aplenty available online, but getting people to go there and get them – to exert that little bit of effort – is a Huge, Huge obstacle at the moment. It may not remain so, but I wonder how people will “naturally” (that is, w/o trying) encounter puzzles when they aren’t in papers, and whether the tactile nature of pen(cil)-on-paper action isn’t a core part of the addiction for some (if not most). But you are right to point out the burgeoning on-line puzzle scene, which is heartening, and promising.
I think we’ll always have sources for crossword puzzles online but one can’t ignore the attrition. The Sunday Washington Post crossword is discontinued after 83+ years, the NY Sun crossword folds along with it’s newspaper unable to find an online revenue stream, the Chicago Tribune daily and Sunday puzzle is retired when its editor did so, and the Atlantic Monthly will soon end its cryptic after 32 years. That said there are up-and-coming puzzle sources but they tend to be weekly and the smaller 15×15, i.e. Jonesin’, Tausig puzzles, BEQ and Longo blog puzzles, Chronice of Higher Ed, etc. They are great puzzles but they do reach a smaller audience than a nationally syndicated crossword. As they say, the only constant in life is change.
I do crosswords online all the time, and I am defiantly not in the “typical” crossword demographic being just 21. thinking that crosswords are dying out is just silly especially if doctors are prescribing them!
Technological advances are changing, albeit very slowly, the nature of crosswords. Brendan Quigley http://www.brendanemmettquigley.com/ and I http://www.crosswordcontest.blogspot.com/ are putting up regular crosswords for free at our websites, completely bypassing the institutional support of a hosting newspaper. Is it working? We’re not making the big bucks, and our audiences are probably not one-ten thousandth of the New York Times crossword’s audience, but our readerships are growing steadily — plus we’re having fun and making the puzzles we want to make.
I’m a dedicated NYT crossword puzzle solver who is dreading the demise of the printed newspaper. That said, I do an additional 2 – 4 puzzles a day online (liked yours, Brendan). I hope I can always find puzzles, and new puzzles, in different locations. Nothing like a Pentel Twist-Erase 0.9 on a soft newspaper, though….
I frequent the puzzle section at our local bookstores looking for math puzzle books to share with my students, but they’re hard to find for all the crossword puzzle books and magazines crowding them off the shelves. I’m not seeing any shortage of puzzles, even for those of us who don’t live tied to our computers.
Doing crosswords will not necessarily make you any smarter, but it will probably add to your education.
i enjoy crosswords when io can solve them!! sun. paper mostly! let’s hope they keep our minds in tack as long as necessary!
I think the art of relevant commentary is in greater threat to extinction. Please find someone on the editorial staff that can filter this kind of speculative, junk journalism. Crosswords are here to stay. The advent of the online puzzle assures this.
I for one am an avid fan of the checkered puzzles that so many of us relax to and find entertaining. Being 34, I feel that i am quite the rogue when defining the “average” age crossword puzzle enthusist. It wont matter to me if the newspaper becomes obosolete due to the electronic age, because i find myself buying the crossword puzzles at local bookstands/bookstores. They are fun and entertaining to say the least, but are losing intrest to me since i have found other much more challenging puzzles via internet.Sure there isn’t a true replacement for crossword puzzles, but games such as Word racer at yahoo and MSN’s Scrabble Blast seem to be more modern and appealing. I still find myself cuddled up on the sofa in the company of a favorite pillow and a fresh crossword puzzle.
Love the crosswords. Have been doing them since I was 6 years old and now I’m 62. The NY Herald Tribune series is my favorite. If my local newspaper drops the crosswords then I’ll have to buy the crossword magazine. It’s just a welcome addition that I look forward to each morning when the paper is delivered. Keep them in print !!!
Brendan, here’s a challenge: ever thought of doing a crossword of popular text msg abbreviations and anagrams? Fun, different and might grab the young teen audience. Be quite a challenge though since all the “words” are, by definition, so short!
Brendan, I beg to differ with you sir. Are you a crossword puzzler who often looks up the clues via internet or hardback cover methods? Not I, i choose to skip an unsolveable clue and move on to others to figure out other clues. To me, looking up clues is cheating. Skipping to the back of a crossword pussle book for solutions or googling them, is just taking away from the real challenge of the puzzle itself. For me the crossword puzzles are just a challenging way to test your “useless knowledge” memory banks.
Those who think crosswords are stupid and a waste of time, stand up or shut up. It’s just like that wierdo religion “scientology”. It doesn’t affect you in any way if your not a part of it, so let others enjoy it and either be a part of it, or else get out of their way.
was just diagnosed to someday have dementia, so working the crossword puzzle in the paper will put that on hold for awhile. I tried the one on the computer but still like the PAPER one better. We have to keep it coming or we will lose not only the puzzle everyday but our brain cells to boot!
what a none sencial artical, excuse spelling little late, but it was none supportive and irrational plus crosswords are here to stay just as rubiks cube!!! think about it…
I cannot believe that crossword fans can make the numerous errors I just read in both spelling and grammer. My mind appears to be intact.
i will miss completing them in pen. it totally intimidates people. i do puzzles online , but the pen is mightier than the pencil! hehehe : = )
Good God. Even the one that points out the atrocious spelling and grammar of the first few posts misspells “grammar.” Mr. Genius Puzzlemaker, do you see a problem with describing yourself as “a professional puzzlemaker since 1996 who’s work has appeared in every major market?” Is there a difference with you between “who’s” and “whose?” Literacy is going to hell, and 20 years from now, nobody will know or care why we even bothered with it.
Shouldn’t that be grammar, not grammer?
I’ve been doing crosswords for decades. Internet ones are okay, but I prefer pen(cil) and paper. I enjoy doing them in ink at work because it bugs my colleagues. I rarely look up clues; I just fill in what I know and then go back to the others. I learn a lot from crosswords, some of it useful!