If youre not good at crosswords and you enjoy seeing the same words over and over for months on end, this ones for you. If you want to do crossword puzzles for free, this may be your only option, other than celebrity crosswords and puzzles with about 20 words. So many of the clues are inaccurate, it kills me a little bit each time I enter an answer thats correct for the puzzle and incorrect for, uh, reality. The clue: shade. The answer: hue. Except that a hue is a pure color, and a shade is a color with black added. And a tint, by the way, is a color plus white -- its the opposite of a shade, not a synonym. A cobra is not a viper. They are specifically and distinctly not the same thing, and the notion that references to asps, which are vipers, in ancient texts are actually referring to Egyptian cobras is speculative. An asp is a viper, as is an adder, but an asp is no more an adder than a wolf is a fox. PETA is a "conservation org?" And then theres this gem: the clue, "A monotonous pitch," and the answer, no ... they wouldnt have ... Oh my god, they did. The answer is monotone. Are you serious? The answer is in the clue. And thats not a one time, freak occurrence.
An ion is not a subatomic particle! Seriously, this is a medium based on the meanings of words! How hard would it be to research your clues a little? Especially when youre going to use them over and over again.
The puzzles are also very small, and while the vast majority of words are ridiculously easy, theres the occasional, impossibly obscure reference thats totally out of place.
But since Im a cheapskate and I dont want to buy a NY Times subscription, I guess Ill keep doing these stupid things, and hoping for a puzzle that doesnt have the word ani in it.