THE WEEK MAGAZINE PUZZLE TV

вЂњYou get the pleasure of solving each clue, so thereвЂ™s that вЂahaвЂ™ moment over and over В— itвЂ™s like having multiple orgasms,вЂќ she said.ДЇor others, the loss of a crossword is the loss of a ritual. But in her opinion, no constructors can match the вЂњbrillianceвЂќ of Ms. Miller can play to fill the void, she said, like the puzzle in HarperвЂ™s Magazine. ItвЂ™s like if some great athlete, Dennis Eckersley, were told by the manager he had to leave early and he couldnвЂ™t play for anyone else.вЂќ вЂњItвЂ™s like, why are they murdering us?вЂќ she asked. You donвЂ™t get that in a book.вЂќДunn Miller, a 64-year-old librarian from Oakland, Calif., who was attending the National Puzzlers League convention in Baltimore last week, spoke of losing The Puzzler in terms usually reserved for the breakup of a favorite band, like the Beatles. вЂњBut I think crossword and pencil puzzles in general are ideally suited for newspapers because they become a part of your daily routine. вЂњCrosswords are not going to die, because they are popular in book and magazine form, and theyвЂ™re very profitable in print,вЂќ said Will Shortz, the crossword editor for The New York Times. The human toll? Ruined Sundays, furious e-mail messages from loyal subscribers and fewer reasons for members of the Obama generation to pause an iPod and pick up a pencil.

THE WEEK MAGAZINE PUZZLE TV

(LetвЂ™s face it: the crosswords in TV Guide and People magazine seldom generate heat at Hamptons dinner parties.) But The Washington Post, The New York Times and countless local newspapers have also trimmed their puzzle space for financial reasons. The AtlanticвЂ™s Puzzler, which will take its final bow in September, and The New York SunвЂ™s crossword are among the most notable recent casualties, in part because of their Ivy League street cred. As magazines and newspapers cut pages to save money, crossword puzzles, acrostics, sudokus and other games are being left on the production-room floor. Szurek В— who calls himself вЂњa habitual userвЂќ В— the greatest puzzle of all these days can be finding one. вЂњThere is all this other trivia on the page that takes up much more space they could have gotten rid of.вЂќДЇor people like Ms. вЂњIt was my Saturday afternoon thing, and it didnвЂ™t take up much space,вЂќ she said. Then there is Genevie Urban, 79, of Bethesda, Md., who is still sore about The Washington PostвЂ™s decision last year to cut its Saturday acrostic.

вЂњShe will probably be among the many people who will personally e-mail the Cox-Rathvon folks,вЂќ he said, referring to the husband-and-wife team behind The Puzzler, Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon, who may as well be Brangelina to hard-core puzzle enthusiasts. Szurek said of his wife, Karen, a psychotherapist.

вЂњShe is going to be absolutely heartbroken,вЂќ Mr. And rumors of The PuzzlerвЂ™s demise had been floating around puzzle blogs all week. SzurekвЂ™s other favorite puzzle, the one in The New York Sun, gasped its last breath on the Internet last year (as did the rest of the newspaper). The Atlantic stopped making room for The Puzzler in its print pages two years ago and shifted it to the Web, where crosswords have historically languished. IT is hard to believe that Sam Szurek, 63, a copywriter from the Upper West Side who consumes two to three crossword puzzles each weekday and up to five with his wife on Sundays, didnвЂ™t know that The Atlantic Monthly was dropping its legendary brain-buster, The Puzzler.

The week magazine puzzle