SUNDAY SHAME / WHY DO WE ENDURE THIS SACRILEGE?

STOLEN-VALOR-IN-CHIEF     NYTIMES image

Why? Do we do nothing?

How much more must we endure? Where is the shame?

SUNDAY REVIEW / HARDEST CROSSWORD PUZZLE DAYS

Here’s the traditional degree of difficulty for New York Times CROSSWORD PUZZLES by day of the week. This pattern has held for decades and is still the general rule: 

Monday – Easiest Straightforward clues, familiar vocabulary, minimal trickery. Designed so anyone can finish. 

Tuesday – Easy to Moderate A slight bump in difficulty; more wordplay begins to appear. 

Wednesday – Moderate Often the “theme trick” day — rebuses, wordplay twists, visual or conceptual themes. A transition from easy to challenging. 

Thursday – Hard The real knottiness begins. Known for complex themes and unusual mechanics (rebuses, grid tricks, pun-heavy clues). Many solvers consider Thursday the toughest themed puzzle of the week. 

Friday – Harder, but themeless The start of the themeless puzzles. Difficulty comes from: • longer, crossing-laden fill • trickier cluing • fewer “gimmes” 

Saturday – Hardest The most difficult puzzle of the week. Wide-open grids, no theme, extremely cryptic or oblique cluing. A stamina test. 

Sunday – Medium–Hard but long Despite its intimidating size, Sunday is usually equivalent in difficulty to a Thursday — tricky but not brutal. The challenge comes more from length than clue complexity.