Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Robyn Weintraub

@robynw414.bsky.social

Reviving this @xkcd.com gem to say congratulations to best picture winner #ANORA! You've made crossword puzzle constructors everywhere very happy!

March 3, 2025 at 2:22 PM

Robyn Weintraub

@robynw414.bsky.social

Today's @newyorker.com crossword was made by @natanlast.bsky.social and me, constructed for the 2024 New Yorker Festival master class “The Art of the Crossword.” The video of us and Puzzles & Games editor @lizzymaynes.bsky.social is now live! www.newyorker.com/culture/vide...

The Art of the Crossword

The crossword constructors Natan Last and Robyn Weintraub join The New Yorker’s Puzzles & Games editor, Liz Maynes-Aminzade, to share their insights into crafting the perfect puzzle.

www.newyorker.com

February 11, 2025 at 8:46 PM

Robyn Weintraub

@robynw414.bsky.social

The Westport Library crossword tournament. Will Shortz is playing word games with the crowd while we wait to find out which solvers will be in the finals. #crossword

February 1, 2025 at 8:11 PM

Reposted by Robyn Weintraub

Nate Cardin (he/him)

@naytnaytnayt.bsky.social

It breaks my heart to tell you that we lost our home to the Altadena fires. It’s completely gone. Thankfully, we’re safe with our dog across town, hosted by some dear friends. I never thought this would be me, but a friend made us this GFM, which I post here with incredible humility:

Donate to Help Nate and Ben Rebuild After Wildfires, organized by Tanisha Bellur

Please support my dear friends, Nate and Ben, who have lost their beloved hom… Tanisha Bellur needs your support for Help Nate and Ben Rebuild After Wildfires

gofund.me

January 9, 2025 at 4:25 PM

Reposted by Robyn Weintraub

Mark Cuban

@mcuban.bsky.social

x
X has ~18m daily USA users. @bsky.app, ~1.5m.

Is it worth 20 MINS a day to proactively recruit and bring your friends, neighbors,relatives, businesses, anyone who is or could be a user, to @bsky.app?

If Bluesky ends up with more users than the others, you destabilize musk, zuck, trump.

January 6, 2025 at 10:31 PM

Robyn Weintraub

@robynw414.bsky.social

Lots of people posting new personal best solving times on my NYT crossword today. If you've been hesitant to try solving a Friday because you think they're too hard, today is a good day to give it a try!

December 6, 2024 at 6:01 PM

Reposted by Robyn Weintraub

The New York Times

@nytimes.com

Puzzle Mania, our special print puzzle section, appeared in your Sunday paper — and you can also find it in the Times store: nyti.ms/3Vk79xs

This is how our puzzle makers create the giant crossword that is the centerpiece of our 12-page special section: nyti.ms/3Zzqm0X

A photo of the giant crossword in the newspaper for Dec. 1, 2024. Headline: How Quickly Can You Solve the Super Mega Crossword?

December 2, 2024 at 6:34 PM

Robyn Weintraub

@robynw414.bsky.social

🎵🎶 ... it's the most wonderful time of the year ...🎵🎶

Deb Amlen @debamlen.bsky.social · Nov 18

Psst: Pre-order for Puzzle Mania 2024 is online

store.nytimes.com/products/puz...

Puzzle Mania – Dec. 2024

Welcome to the 10th edition of Puzzle Mania, the annual section of The New York Times that should carry the motto “All the Clues Fit to Print.”

store.nytimes.com

November 18, 2024 at 9:24 PM

Reposted by Robyn Weintraub

AVCX Classic

@avcx.bsky.social

A crossword sky starter pack!

I’m very sure this is incomplete, so please just say the word if I forgot you and you’ll be added straightaway.

go.bsky.app/4XAq8FH

November 12, 2024 at 9:15 PM

Reposted by Robyn Weintraub

B-Side

@benmsmith.com

reminder puzzle friends: the strike is over and you can resume solving your morning wordle/connections/sudoku/etc. and using the Cooking app if so desired.

NYT Tech Guild @nytguildtech.bsky.social · Nov 11

A WARNING TO THE TIMES: Tuesday, we will be returning to work, after a successful Election Week ULP Strike. We clearly demonstrated how valuable our work is to @nytimes.com. And now we’ll move our fight inside.

#GuildBuilds #SolidarityStreak #BreakMyStreak #UnionStrong #UnionMadeNYC #Strike

For Immediate Release: Nov. 11, 2024. Contact: Jen Sheehan, jen@nyguild.org, 610-573-0740. New York Times Tech Guild: ‘We showed our strength and our value to The Times.’ Workers who power all NYT technology — including mobile push alerts, app & website maintenance and the popular games — end Election Week ULP strike. ‘Now we'll bring our fight inside as we return to work.’ New York — The Times Tech Guild — the union that makes the coverage at The New York Times accessible to the world — has wrapped up an Election Week ULP Strike, having shown Times management the impact of their solidarity and unity. Tech Guild members will return to work Tuesday and march into the office together in the morning as a symbol of what's to come for The Times. “Our Election Week ULP Strike was a warning to The Times,” said Kathy Zhang, Tech Guild unit chair and a senior analytics manager at The New York Times. “We clearly demonstrated how valuable our work is to The New York Times, especially on election night, and showed that we have the full support of subscribers and allies across the country going forward.” Tech Guild members are advising supporters they can resume playing New York Times games as well as use the Cooking app. Instead of bargaining with the Tech Guild, Times’ executives stubbornly put a critically important Election Day at risk. The New York Times earned a notorious distinction on Election Day, as it was the site of the first NewsGuild-CWA strike coinciding with a presidential election in 60 years. A quick look at some of the impact the Tech Guild had on Election Night coverage through their ULP Strike: No state-level or non-presidential needles were live on election night. iOS news was not displaying ads intermittently, a significant loss of revenue for the company. The apps and website were slow to load. Publishing issues produced intermittent and visible error messages for readers on articles and updates.

Times subscribers received hundreds of thousands of emails with broken links. “The systems and digital products that worked over the election did so thanks to the hundreds of unit members who worked for months preparing everything to run smoothly,” Zhang said. “What broke down during this strike broke because our members weren't at work.” Subscribers across the country showed Tech Guild solidarity by boycotting the Cooking app as well as NYT games such as Wordle and Connections. Tech Guild members even created their own games site, akin to a strike publication, that earned more than a half million page views and more than 320,000 active users. “Times management — in particular CEO Meredith Kopit Levien and Chief Technology Officer Jason Sobel — made the conscious decision to put Times journalism at risk on election night rather than come to the bargaining table and work with us to get this contract completed,” said Anthony Napoli, NewsGuild of NY treasurer. “Our members will continue the fight until a fair contract is secured. We will accept nothing less.” About the NewsGuild of New York: The NewsGuild of New York, Local 31003 of the Communications Workers of America, is a labor union representing nearly 6,000 media professionals and other employees at New York area news organizations, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Thomson Reuters, The Nation, TIME, PEOPLE, Wirecutter, and The Daily Beast. The NewsGuild of New York advocates for journalists to have a voice in the newsroom, for press freedom, for inclusive and diverse workplaces, and for just cause, no exceptions, for all media professionals.

November 12, 2024 at 12:57 PM

Reposted by Robyn Weintraub

Deb Amlen

@debamlen.bsky.social

As far as I know, the Tech Guild strike is over, although they still don’t have a contract.

So, Wordle? Spelling Bee? Connections? The Crossword?

Have at it.

November 11, 2024 at 11:22 PM

Robyn Weintraub

@robynw414.bsky.social

This summer I constructed a NYT crossword puzzle in real time for the podcast "BBC in the Studio". It was an amazing experience and I'm so grateful to have a recording of my process (even if it wasn't pretty at times). The resulting puzzle is now live!

www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/c...