Stan Newman's Daily Crossword Tips March 05 – 11, 2023
Solving crosswords every day is a fun and healthy habit that will build and strengthen your problem-solving skills. Whether you're new to crosswords, or a seasoned solver, everyone can use a helpful hint now and then. Come back every week to see the digest of daily tips that will help you achieve the satisfaction of solving a crossword a day.
Sunday, March 05, 2023
INCIDENTAL INVENTIONS: And discoveries, by Fred Piscop
Difficulty level: Medium
Some of the trickier clues: 120 Across, 132 Across, 76 Down, 85 Down
Today's Tip: 125 Across was stumbled upon by General Electric chemists searching for a synthetic rubber.
Play more Sunday crosswords from editor Stan Newman’s archives.
Monday, March 06, 2023
THEY’RE HANDLED by Sally R. Stein
Difficulty level: Easy
Easy clues suggested for you to begin with: 24 Across, 64 Across, 1 Down, 6 Down
Today's Tip: Four familiar things with handles.
Play more crosswords at this same level from editor Stan Newman’s archives.
Tuesday, March 07, 2023
FARM PHRASES by Billie Truitt
Difficulty level: Easy
Easy clues suggested for you to begin with: 19 Across, 62 Across, 4 Down, 57 Down
Today's Tip: With farm animals, to be specific.
Play more crosswords at this same level from editor Stan Newman’s archives.
Wednesday, March 08, 2023
DIGITAL GAMING by Kevin Christian
Difficulty level: Easy-Medium
Easy clues suggested for you to begin with: 18 Across, 29 Across, 12 Down, 53 Down
Today's Tip: Despite the title, it’s a low-tech game we’re talking about.
Play more crosswords at this same level from editor Stan Newman’s archives.
Thursday, March 09, 2023
“BIG” IDEA by Fred Piscop
Difficulty level: Medium-Hard
Easiest clues suggested for you to begin with:
Tricky clues to watch out for: 6 Across, 22 Across, 9 Down, 23 Down
Today's Tip: 36 Across explains what’s going on.
Play more crosswords at this same level from editor Stan Newman’s archives.
Friday, March 10, 2023
WHAT’S NEW? by S.N.
Difficulty level: Hard
Easiest clues suggested for you to begin with: 15 Across, 52 Across, 36 Down, 56 Down
Tricky clues to watch out for: 14 Across, 39 Across, 62 Across, 5 Down
Today's Tip: Eight NEW things in the same category.
Play more crosswords at this same level from editor Stan Newman’s archives.
Saturday, March 11, 2023
SATURDAY STUMPER by Matthew Sewell
Difficulty level: Very Hard
Most straightforward clues: 23 Across, 8 Down, 9 Down, 47 Down
Trickiest clues to watch out for: 1 Across, 40 Across, 4 Down, 57 Down
Today's Tip: The themeless Saturday Stumpers are deliberately designed to be the most challenging daily crosswords available anywhere, and are widely acknowledged by champion-level puzzle fans to be just that. The most important tip to always keep in mind: expect trickery everywhere, and consider the multiple meanings (and/or parts of speech) that any clue word might have. If you have trouble getting started, you’ll find it highly enlightening to use the app’s “Reveal puzzle” feature, then compare each clue with its corresponding answer. This is how many have developed the skills to fully solve Saturdays.
Play more crosswords at this same level from editor Stan Newman’s archives.
How did it go?
Did you find this week’s digest of daily tips helpful? Did you find a clue that really stumped you? Join your fellow crossword fans in the comments. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page to the comments to engage with other puzzle solvers just like you.
About this week’s puzzle authors:
Stan Newman
Since 1988, Stan Newman has been the Crossword Editor for the Long Island, New York newspaper Newsday, where he is widely acknowledged as America’s preeminent expert in customizing crosswords by level of difficulty. During his career, he has also been Founding Editor for the popular “Crosswords with Friends” app, Managing Director of Puzzles and Games for Random House, and has authored or edited over 200 books - including crossword puzzle books, word game books, and crossword reference books.
Stan has written many thousands of his own crosswords over the years, including the first crosswords ever to appear in the Wall Street Journal, People and Newsweek magazines.
As a puzzle solver, he has held since 1996 the world's record for the fastest completion of a New York Times crossword: 2 minutes, 14 seconds.
Fred Piscop
Fred Piscop of Bellmore, New York, has been constructing crosswords since the late 1980s. His first Newsday crossword appeared in 1992, and 2016 saw the publication of Fred's 1000th Newsday crossword.
Fred is the former editor of the Washington Post Sunday crossword and the USA Today crossword. He is also the creator of the popular Split Decisions® puzzle, which appears in the New York Times, GAMES World of Puzzles, and on Fred's website, www.split-decisions.us.
When Fred is not busy creating puzzles, he enjoys solving the Guardian cryptic crossword, playing keyboards at jam sessions, biking, running, playing senior softball, and sampling excellent microbrews.
Sally R. Stein is a pseudonym for your humble crossword editor, which I use for the easiest Monday and Tuesday puzzles of the week. “Sally R. Stein” being an anagram of “it’s really S.N.”
Billie Truitt
Billie Truitt has been constructing puzzles for Stan since 2008, specializing in the easier Tuesday puzzles, expanding into Fridays and Sundays in recent years. She lives with her husband and son in Windsor, Connecticut.
Kevin Christian
Kevin Christian lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Helen and two dogs, Finn and Otis. Their children Tim and Kate are both away at college.
He has been making crossword puzzles since 2010. His puzzles have appeared in Newsday, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, AMS Universal, and various other publications.
Kevin works for a tech company in Silicon Valley. In his spare time he likes to ride his bike, walk his dogs, make and solve crossword puzzles, go to concerts, watch horror movies, and listen to heavy metal. One of his favorite horror movies is the Swedish film “Let the Right One In” from 2008. One of his favorite metal bands is King’s X.
His father was in the Air Force so he moved around a lot while he was growing up. He lived in California, Hawaii, South Carolina, the Philippines, Ohio, Texas, New York, and Alabama. He graduated from Armijo High School in Fairfield, California, and from college at the University of California, Davis.
Matthew Sewell
Matthew Sewell is a professor of literature and film at Minnesota State University. His first puzzle for Newsday appeared in 2015. He especially enjoys making puzzles with challenging-but-gettable entries and fresh, unexpected clues. For those interested in learning how to make publishable crosswords, he recommends Patrick Berry's Crossword Constructor Handbook (available online at aframegames.com) as well as the kind people at the Facebook group Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory.