‘Fun Little Trick in the Sunday New York Times Crossword’

On February 8 2022, screenshots of a tweet about a “fun little trick” in the Sunday, February 6 2022 New York Times crossword appeared on Imgur and Facebook:

A February 7 2022 tweet by user @matttomic included an image of a solved crossword puzzle, and said:

Fun little trick in the Sunday New York Times crossword yesterday: the central theme clue was “The better of two sci-fi franchises”, and regardless of whether you put Star Wars or Star Trek, the crossing clues worked

As @matttomic described, the clue for 70 across was “The better of two-sci-fi franchises.” And the solved puzzle showed that both “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” fit into the solved puzzle.

Corresponding downs (71, 67, 47 and 55) appeared in the image, demonstrating how the “trick” functioned and fir. Clues and answers for the four downs were:

• 71: “It’s a —-!” [wrap/trap]
• 67. Body part that precedes “band” [wrist/waist]
• 47. Ones involved in a transaction [payers/payees]
• 55. Let out, in a way [leaked/leased]

Validating the content of the New York Times crossword was hampered by the fact that the publication is subscription-only. An accessible version published by the Seattle Times didn’t align with the clues in the circulating posts; for Sunday February 6 2022, 70 across was “Actor [Peter] Gallagher.”

However, several blogs and websites focused solely on New York Times crossword puzzles and their answers. One such blog post on February 6 2022 documented the two-way answer:

THEME: Sci-fi Showdown: theme pivots on an apparent single answer to a question: 70A: The better of two major sci-fi film franchises, but it’s a Schrödinger’s Puzzle where both “STAR WARS” and “STAR TREK” work with the crosses; also there is random symmetrical “SW” and “ST” content, sigh […]

One site solely supplied answers, and only provided one — “Star Trek.” Another crossword blogger wrote:

When I first figured out the trick to this puzzle – that it’s a STAR WARS / STAR TREK tribute Schrodinger puzzle – I laughed out loud, showed it to my husband, and said, “Oh nooooo!” I know so little about the two franchises (or which character goes with which one!) that two of his favorite games are (1) to give me a character and see if I know if they’re from STAR WARS or STAR TREK and (2) to ask me for the rough story of, say, STAR WARS, based just on what I’ve absorbed from cultural knowledge. He will never let me forget the time I told him about Hans Olo. In my defense, though, who names their kid Han instead of Hans?! Okay, time to dig into this puzzle’s theme-related fill, to the extent that I understand it!

Incidentally, the New York Times announced that it had purchased Wordle (the word puzzle taking over everyone’s social media feed in early 2022) on January 31 2022, adding that Wordle would “initially” remain free to non-subscribers. The New York Times crossword puzzle trick managed to get social media users discussing the paywalled crossword, possibly leveraging Wordle’s virality to entice novel subscribers.

A viral tweet described a “Fun little trick in the Sunday New York Times crossword” on February 6 2022, “regardless of whether you put Star Wars or Star Trek, the crossing clues worked.” The New York Times crossword was paywalled, but numerous crossword bloggers attested to its legitimacy and authenticity. Viral interest in the Times’ crossword coincided with its purchase of Wordle, and its own reporting that the popular game would “initially remain free.”