Weekends are the best!

Weekends are heaven for serious crossword solvers. All the newspapers and syndicates come out with their best and biggest puzzles on the weekends. And, for the most part, they are not outrageously difficult.

I usually start with the Wall Street Journal puzzle that appears in the Friday paper. It’s edited by Mike Shenk, one of the best in the business. Then I move to the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times puzzles (edited by Fred Piscop and Rich Norris, respectively). I also make sure to find and solve Merl Reagle’s puzzle in the Philadelphia Inquirer. It’s syndicated and appears in many different papers, but the Philadelphia Inquirer is easiest to get online in AcrossLite format. (Note that access to the Los Angeles Times puzzle in AcrossLite format requires that you be registered on the Cruciverb website.)

All of these puzzles (and more) are easily accessible using Will Johnston’s Puzzle Pointers or the Cruciverb website. And all of them are in AcrossLite format, so once you’ve downloaded and installed AcrossLite, you can solve the puzzles on your computer or print them out and use the “old fashioned” approach with pencil/pen and paper. (See the link to Litsoft’s website where you can download AcrossLite.)

I didn’t mean to slight Will Shortz and the New York Times puzzles. I don’t miss a day of those — weekend or not. It’s just that those are only available by paid subscription, so they’re “different” in that regard. (And the Friday/Saturday puzzles are the most challenging of the week!) Subscription cost is $5.95 a month, or $34.95 for the year. Real crossword fanatics find that a very reasonable price for so many high-quality puzzles. Plus you get access to hundreds of great puzzles from prior years in the archive.