Globe-and-Mail-logo-720x340.jpg

Globe public editor: Sorry, but this brain-teaser was impossible to solve

The Globe and Mail published an impossible crossword Saturday morning. Public editor Sylvia Stead responds. [[{“fid”:”3130″,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fields”:{“format”:”media_original”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:””,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:””},”type”:”media”,”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“style”:”height: 221px; width: 180px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left;”,”class”:”media-element file-media-original”}}]]By Sylvia Stead, public editor for the Globe and Mail It’s a real pleasure for many readers to sit down on a Saturday morning and challenge their brain with the…

The Globe and Mail published an impossible crossword Saturday morning. Public editor Sylvia Stead responds.

[[{“fid”:”3130″,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fields”:{“format”:”media_original”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:””,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:””},”type”:”media”,”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“style”:”height: 221px; width: 180px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left;”,”class”:”media-element file-media-original”}}]]By Sylvia Stead, public editor for the Globe and Mail

It’s a real pleasure for many readers to sit down on a Saturday morning and challenge their brain with the newspaper’s Cryptic Crossword by Fraser Simpson.

But it was not just difficult this Saturday. It was impossible.

That was because the company which puts together the puzzles page included an incorrect grid for the cryptic.

One e-mail was titled “puzzle emergency.” Another said: “Given all the technology available, one would hope that the whiz kids in the make-up/production department of the Globe could match the grid to the clues for today’s cryptic crossword.”

It was a rare, but frustrating mistake by this company and I am sorry that so many readers were stymied by what should have been a pleasant morning experience.

One very clever reader realized quickly that the grid didn’t match the clues, so she and her husband decided to figure out the correct grid themselves. Sarah Lolley’s correct grid is available and downloadable here:http://www.sarahlolley.com/whats-new/gridlocked Thank you Sarah. Very impressive!

To continue reading this column, please go to theglobeandmail.com where it was originally published.