Tips and Tricks From a Crossword Prodigy
A conversation with this year’s speed-solving champion, Paolo Pasco
Caleb Madison
Caleb Madison is the crossword-puzzles editor at The Atlantic and the author of The Good Word column.
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Illustration by Ben Kothe / The Atlantic Why AI Doesn’t Get Slang
And why that’s a good thing
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Our new print crossword puzzle puts a fresh narrative spin on a classic.
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The Oxford Word of the Year tells a concise story about how many of us are doing these days.
The Atlantic; Getty Meta Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does
You might be a hipster if you’re mistaking abstraction for transcendence.
Paul Spella / The Atlantic; Getty How ‘I’m Dead’ Became a Good Thing
Dying of laughter is an exaggeration, but something about it has rung true over the centuries.
Paul Spella / The Atlantic; Getty Trolling’s Surprising Origins in Fishing
A method once used by mythology experts has turned painfully aggressive.
Katie Martin / The Atlantic; Getty Why People Can’t Stop Adding lol to Texts
It makes virtual communication feel more human.
Getty Why We’re Calling Everything a ‘Hellscape’
The word captures our relationship to the daily chaos of recent years.
Prisma / Alamy Are You Using Gaslight Correctly?
One rule of thumb can help determine whether the word is being diluted.
Everett
