> impression that many have that the NYT crossword is "elitist" If that's the case, I imagine it's partly due to it not being widely known that the difficulty

> impression that many have that the NYT crossword is "elitist" If that's the case, I imagine it's partly due to it not being widely known that the difficulty of the puzzles follows a set schedule[1]. People pick up a Saturday puzzle, very reasonably suppose that future puzzles will be similar, and write off the whole business. [1] Easiest on Monday, ramping up to hardest on Saturday, with Sunday somewhere in the middle, for anyone else unaware.