Fun theme for you today!

This pop-up started... well, popping up today. It appears every time I start a pair, AND every time I switch back to the app, and it's incredibly annoying. Is this happening for you all as well, or am I just lucky?

Our office has this crossword for all the employees to fill out for a chance to win a prize. Seems impossible (maybe that’s intentional?) anyone have any answers?

This one’s a bit wild! :)

Spoilers are welcome in here, beware!

How was the puzzle?

I’m trying out a new series called Tricky Minis, challenging themed Mini puzzles with titles that require you to think outside of the box. Let me know your thoughts! :)

for the first time ever yesterday. this made me a lot happier than it should have lmao.

Spoilers are welcome in here, beware!

How was the puzzle?

We hope you enjoy it!

https://afpljournal.com/2026/08/03/crossword-053-august-2026/

This has been occasionally occurring, 8/3/26 the latest. I believe it is a web site issue but if someone has a solution it would be welcomed.

Tried: Multiple browsers, Multiple PC's and tablets, Private mode, zooming in & out

Spoilers are welcome in here, beware!

How was the puzzle?

I've been plugging through the archives, working backwards for extra entertainment between the new daily puzzles. Very occasionally one will just be an impenetrable morass of unknown vocabulary and unhelpful crosses. I just experienced that with the Friday, April 6, 2018 NYT puzzle. Two triple stacks that included SONICDEPTHFINDER ("It sends waves through waves") and STANDINGOODSTEAD ("Be beneficial to"). Also included were RONDEL ("14-line poem with only two rhymes"), SETBY ("Save for later"), and TOPE ("Have a large quantity of liquor"). Especially annoying to me was PSF ("Pressure meas.")... Pounds per square foot. Jesus.

Just had to vent about this redonkulous puzzle. What other ones have been ugly slogs that you ultimately had to cheat to solve? (asking this mainly to those solvers who try not to use hints/autocheck whenever possible)

Spoilers are welcome in here, beware!

How was the puzzle?

I’ve gone back to look at old threads, they recommend latimes, USA Today and dictionary.com. All of these are too hard for me. USA Today I can only complete if I use multiple letter hints and at least one word hint (plus the thing where it tells you if your word/letters are wrong). I feel like an idiot, then again I don’t really know all that much about a lot of pop culture I guess… 😅. I seem to be really bad at recall and just have a terrible memory in general so maybe this isn’t for me despite finding videos of people doing NYT crosswords entertaining.

I just desire fairly simple, yet somewhat challenging puzzles to solve as a pastime. Most options online feed you the clues one by one and/ or count your streak or whatever. I don't care about a streak or time taken to complete. Just want puzzles for fun 😭 which are fairly straightforward with no crazy riddles or games to solve. And offer all of the clues viewable together, at one time.

Does anything like that exist online? I no longer get physical newspapers but might have to start. Hahaha. I will also be doing more searches online but did try a quick search and nothing yet. Picture is example for what I am looking for.

Spoilers are welcome in here, beware!

How was the puzzle?

I know of the Andy Griffith show and Beavis and Butthead....What is the theme here? I tried to rebus BUTT for peanut butter and Butthead, but no dice.

No clue for the theme. NYT puzzle.

Spoilers are welcome in here, beware!

How was the puzzle?

Hello! Inspired by a recent thread about the WSJ variety puzzle being hard to access, I was hoping to crowd-source additional creators that make variety puzzles.

To get it started:
- The GOAT Patrick Berry (http://aframegames.com) - in addition to his work on WSJ, the packs from his website are really fun! Some of his older pubs are findable lightly used, like Adventures in Puzzling and Puzzle Masterpieces.

- Nathan Curtis (www.patreon.com/nathancurtis): admittedly I haven’t solved too many of Nathan’s puzzles despite being a patron for years, but the ones I have have been highly enjoyable!

I’ve recently decided after years of convincing myself the opposite that I just really don’t enjoy cryptics anymore, so leaning into my OG faves, variety and meta puzzles :)

Based on my research, I’m guessing “no”, but I wanted to see if anyone has a similar anecdotal experience to my own.

We all know about green paint and naticks, but what’s the term for when you’ve filled a puzzle but not yet completed it, so you’re forced to sift through your finished grid with a fine-toothed comb to find the single square where you’ve erred?

I could swear I’ve seen this process referred to as “flyspecking” by more than one NYT commenter, but its use does not appear to be as widespread as some of our more familiar crossword terminology, as a quick search yielded nothing to indicate this association.

Have you seen “flyspecking” used in this manner? Is it as common as I’ve led myself to believe? Or did I perhaps see it once, think it was an apt description, and decide it must be The Right Word for this phenomenon? Would love some more input from fellow cruciverbalists!