No Crossword No Peace

 

Douglas Quenqua of the New York Times investigates puzzles gone missing and their up-in-arms solvers.  An excerpt:

…the loss of a crossword is the loss of a ritual. Kitty Florey, 66, a writer and editor from Hamden, Conn., said that her morning routine — a cup of tea, a single slice of toast and crosswords with her cats — was still suffering from the loss of the New York Sun crossword, and she wonders what the future will bring.

“It’s an interlude I have come to take for granted, and if it were wrenched away, I’m not sure what I would do with that hour between sleeping and showering,” she wrote in an e-mail message. “Probably stare into space wondering why I bothered to get out of bed.”

Some newspapers have resisted the temptation. The Chicago Tribune, for example, ended its Sunday magazine but preserved its puzzles, fearing the wrath of the puzzle people.

Despite the specter of unusually well-worded cancellation threats, editors who are forced to eliminate content say that puzzles make obvious targets…

The rest of the article here:   http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/fashion/12puzzle.html