New York Times, Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Pro tip: if you're working on a crossword at your local coffee shop, mumbling like a madman AIRWAY OFF DAY ILL SAY ILL PAY ILL STAY AU LAIT, BAH THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING LONGER! will draw stares.

A shame that my wife, Jill ANY DAY, didn't write this one.

Things happen in threes. First, it was the AVXC, then the WSJ, now the Universal crossword. I wrote this puzzle in late 2017, and Will accepted it in mid-2018. I realize that the Venn diagram overlap of Universal and NYT solvers is likely small, maybe minuscule. That didn't make it any less painful when I opened up Mary Ellen's puzzle and got that sinking feeling.

Sigh.

I'd love to see Will improve the lag time between acceptance and publication. Over a year is tough to swallow. It's easy to see why some top constructors have shifted to other venues, notably the WSJ, American Values Crossword, and the New Yorker. It's a tremendous loss to the NYT crossword that Liz Gorski has gone off on her own, with a fantastic subscription service.

It's a tough ask, though. Reducing that queue time would require a systems overhaul and a much more nimble operation. It would mean going from a paper-based system that Will prefers (he likes to mark up snail mail submissions) to an electronic one, where he could better organize and keep track of how long any particular accepted puzzle has been sitting in limbo.

And for what? To massage the fragile egos of constructors? Yeah, but he's already built an incredibly successful operation, with hundreds of thousands of digital subscribers, getting 125 submissions a week for seven precious slots. What works for him is doing just fine. So why mess with success?

(Although a retooling of Sunday puzzle querying is badly needed, since of those 125 submissions, only a tiny fraction are Sundays.)

Sometimes it's best to eat one's frustration and focus on the good. It's illy say — er, silly — to not concentrate on one's appreciation and thankfulness. Even after 100+ publications, I still get a lot of joy from giving a few people out there 10 minutes of (hopefully enjoyable) diversion in their day.