Well, they DID warn me that if I voted for Romney, nothing would ever be the same again…
All I wanted yesterday was a brief respite from politics. Normally I favor Sudoku, but on the occasions that I drift over to the daily crossword puzzle, I simply wish to have a semi-reasonable shot at figuring it out.
Now before anyone calls me a whiner, I’m not crying ‘foul’ on the weird, esoteric clues which require you to possess a Mensa-level intellect, nor am I upset when the subject refers to famous Fijian physicists, the mating rituals of Shetland Ponies, or some such nonsense. Just ’cause I don’t happen to know the answer doesn’t mean it’s not a fair question.
The salient point in all that being: “…THE answer…“, as in: ONE. A single, correct answer is all I expect from any puzzle. It’s when there’s an entire mutating HORDE of EQUALLY CORRECT answers that I get a bit testy.
See for yourself: in the Times’ June 19, 2013 crossword puzzle, the clue for #65 Down reads as follows:
a three-letter word for “organization in a 2013 scandal…”
Now seriously, does that seem to be even remotely fair to you? Let’s just consider some of the possibilities:
C’mon, New York Times: throw me a bone here!
Couldn’t you saddle me with a question that merely has only 3 or 4 Equally Correct Possibilities? You know, like: “Since it was passed in 2010, name the year that Obamacare polled negatively among the American people?”
That way, I’m not facing Powerball-ish odds… not until Obamacare has been around for a few more years, of course.
So, I guess it’s back to doing Sudoku, …or at least until Obama manages to somehow ruin THAT for me, too.
Two Heads are Better Than One 
LOL! In fairness, it is the NY Times, they’re probably aware of only one scandal. At least, the clue did not say “alleged scandal”
Small favors.
😉
I’m confident they’ll correct that oversight in future puzzles…
That is absolutely hilarious!
I don’t even have to go looking for examples anymore, Teach.
They find ME!
Gotta agree with Bret…..at least to some degree. (In the NYT mind, the answer was G..O..P)
PS: I got fifty bucks that says Obama COULD ruin Sudoku for you….if he wanted. After all, it’s probably just cleverly disguised “code” among you Conservatives.
And no doubt ‘racist’, to boot.
However, to answer your bet: yeah, I’m sure he could, Pgh. And if he decides to, that’d be an acceptable trade-off to me.
After all, if Obama wants to focus on suspected, latent Klan-like tendencies of us Sudoku solvers, at least at that very moment he’s not trying to eviscerate the Constitution.
…Well, not as broadly, at least.
I wouldn’t be happy about it, naturally. But never let it be said that I’m not willing to “take one for the team”, if need be…
In that case you have to put on your hat and think like the Times or media would think, since they’d be shocked of an IRS scandal. While they might say the DOJ thing, that’s a scandal? SO what, I resent calling it that.” Anyway you got the point, and they ruined even the remote chance of intellectual entertainment.
Now the correct question would have been, even for Mensa members, “name a part of government that is NOT embroiled hip deep in some type scandal?” And the correct answer for all the marbles would be…..get ready…”I don’t know!!!” (Yes the exclamation marks count as letters.)
Or another is “name the place anyone could kill Americans and the President would even make excuses for them.” That might be too tough for their liberal readers.