“The Times was the last major metropolitan daily newspaper to start a crossword,” Shortz said. “Literally having to eat their words,” Axelrod said. And The New York Times ran an editorial saying that crosswords were a waste of time and predicting their swift demise,” Shortz said. “So the crossword puzzle become a national and then a worldwide craze in 1924 and ‘25. It’s the best there is out there,” said another fan.Īnd yet, historically speaking, the newspaper is a curious home for the gold standard of crosswords.
