Wall street journal crossword editor how to#

When she discovered the Muggle community three years ago, she said she was surprised how tight-knit and supportive the group was. Saxer recently built a custom Gameboy emulator using a Raspberry Pi computer to help him relive the nostalgia of the original Pokemon games.įor years, Mary Calhoun lacked an outlet to talk to others about crosswords. Saxer isn’t keeping tabs on contest winners, he’s usually spending time with his two Border Collies, Oso and Ignatius. Once I get that mug, my world will be perfect.” Recently, he noticed some Muggles who have won two mugs, which only intensified his drive for the ultimate prize. The Dallas native, who created a spreadsheet to track the winners, can tell you not only the the winners of all 176 contests, but the state they’re from and the puzzle’s hidden answer. Jonathan Saxer has never won the elusive crossword mug, but he does know every Muggle who has. The couple met when she was training as a flight instructor and he was an airline pilot. Koehler and her husband take to the skies in her Piper airplane. When she isn’t obsessing over crosswords, Ms. I’ll post that I’m stuck and others will encourage you without spoiling the puzzle.” Koehler finds comfort with fellow Muggles online. While she likes to keep a low profile, Ms. Khoeler maintains a spreadsheet tracking the number of correct contest entries every week. As the unofficial Muggle recordkeeper, Ms. Whenever she’s stuck on a contest puzzle she likes to write down a list of theories, look for patterns and review past puzzles to pick the brain of the author. “The harder they are, the more satisfying it is to solve them,” she told the Journal. People share how they got it right or where they went wrong.”īarbara Koehler isn’t one to back down from a difficult crossword contest. “It’s a collaborative group and people are very encouraging to those who were stuck. “This isn’t a competitive group,” he said.

Stevens to welcome new Muggles to the community. Stevens lets the community know how many Muggles have uncovered the week’s contest answer and successfully made it “on shore,” and how many are still “lost at sea.” The announcement also allows Mr.

Good luck!Īs the de-facto crossword “cruise director,” Bob Stevens has managed the XWord Muggles blog for the past two years.

Wall street journal crossword editor how to#

You can also read a special article by Matt about contest crosswords and how to solve them here. We also asked one of the weekly contest creators, crossword maestro Matt Gaffney, to make a special puzzle filled with words from the world of Muggles (including many sprinkled in the profiles below).

They’ve even created a special language to talk about the progress they have made in completing the puzzle and how it compares to past contests.īelow, we’ve spotlighted some of the Journal’s best-known Muggles and a few new members to the group. They discuss puzzle strategies as well as their non-crossword lives from vacations to sports to family. Fans of the weekly contest, who refer to themselves as ‘Muggles,’ regularly chat with each other on an online discussion space they created.