Every December since 2016, print subscribers have looked forward to receiving a special New York Times section called Puzzle Mania tucked neatly into their Sunday newspapers. Puzzle lovers who don’t subscribe to the print edition line up wherever The Times is sold, patiently waiting for it.
This year, Puzzle Mania will be in the Sunday, Dec. 17, paper. A limited number of copies will be available for sale in The New York Times Store on Monday. Those who are interested can purchase the section when the copies go on sale.
By all accounts, Puzzle Mania is a colorful and fun way to challenge your brain during the holidays. The centerpiece of the section is the Super Mega Crossword, a behemoth of a grid that takes some solvers days to finish. This year’s challenge was constructed by Joe DiPietro, who has made 140 puzzles for The Times.
Did I mention that there is a $1,000-prize contest? The Super Mega requires solvers to put certain clues and certain answers together in some way — sorry, my lips are sealed! — to get the final answer. Instructions for entering the contest are included in the section.
Whew. That’s a lot of work. But don’t panic. The Super Mega only has a mere 768 clues for solvers to ponder. (That’s five and a half Sunday crosswords!) How hard could it be?
Not that hard, surprisingly enough. The Super Mega is said to be at a midweek level in terms of difficulty. (The Times’s daily crosswords get harder as the week progresses.) It’s just time-intensive.
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