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The New York Times crossword is a daily puzzle syndicated to over 300 newspapers and available online, featuring a standard 15x15 grid on weekdays and a larger 21x21 Sunday version. Launched on February 15, 1942, the paper initially dismissed crosswords as "a primitive form of mental exercise," but adopted it after the bombing of Pearl Harbor to give readers a distraction during wartime blackouts. The puzzle's first editor, Margaret Farrar, established its core rules—including rotational symmetry, a minimum word length of three letters, and forbidding unchecked squares—and it has been edited by Will Shortz since 1993, with interim editors Mel Taub (1993) and Joel Fagliano (2024) filling in during gaps. Difficulty increases throughout the week, with Monday being the easiest and Saturday the hardest, while the Sunday puzzle is typically rated as a Wednesday or Thursday difficulty. Considered the most prestigious American crossword, it boasts famous fans like Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, and Leonard Bernstein, and has been collected in hundreds of books. Interestingly, the identity of the author of the first daily puzzle (published in 1950) remains unknown to this day.