THURSDAY PUZZLE — When you first open your newspaper or your app to the crossword puzzle, do you examine it, or do you dive right in? Do you cast suspicious glances at the grid or pore over the list of clues, or do you start scribbling right away? The first thing you might have noticed about John Westwig’s third New York Times grid was that there were four unchecked squares. Before you noted the unchecked squares, perhaps you noticed the large X shaped pattern of the black squares. An unchecked square, much less four of them, plus the X should be enough to alert you to the fact that something is up.

Source: New York Times December 13, 2018 03:01 UTC