All the Balton and Stewart NYT acrostics, along with hundreds more, are available at xwordinfo.com.
Variety puzzles and the NYT
The New York Times Sunday Magazine publishes a large crossword every week, along with what they call Variety puzzles, meaning word puzzles that are not in traditional crossword format. Acrostics are published every second week, interspersed with other types like Cryptic, Diagramless, Puns & Anagrams.
For decades, Variety puzzles were available on nytimes.com if you had an NYT Games Subscription but for some reason, all evidence that Variety puzzles ever existed has been removed from that site.
XWord Info to the rescue
XWord Info is not part of The New York Times but through an arrangement with them, it has information about all Times crosswords going back to the first one in 1942 and up to today’s latest. It also has most Variety puzzles going back over 25 years. Most can be downloaded as PDFs and printed. Some are PDF-only, meaning they’re in a format not suitable for digital solving but many, including all Acrostics, can also be solved online. You need a separate XWord Info account to access these.
NOTE: Solving acrostics or other Variety puzzles online does not work on phones. Try it on your Mac or PC. You need a keyboard and a mouse. Tablets work fine if you have an attached keyboard with a trackpad.
What? I need to pay XWord Info too?
Sorry, yes. XWord Info is an expensive site to operate, and the Variety puzzles all must be digitized by hand. Basic membership costs $20/year. If you want full access to everything on the site, or if you’d just like to help support the work XWord Info does, please purchase an “Angel” account for $50/year.
Useful XWord Info Variety links
There are links to the most recent Variety puzzles near the top of the home page but if you want to dig into the past, try these links:
- Acrostics to print out or solve online
- Cryptic, Diagramless, Puns & Anagrams…
- PDF-only Variety puzzles
- Solve links for all variety puzzles
Crosswords on XWord Info
XWord Info is also the essential resource for crossword constructors and enthusiasts. Click the grids here to reveal the answers or jump through to the full explanation of these recent puzzles: