I love the crossword puzzle in The New York Times. And, being a news geek, I love it even more when the puzzle includes themes on current events.
The last three weeks have included two Sunday puzzles dedicated to the election of Barack Obama. The first was a little tough. The theme was states that voted for Obama. The states' postal abbreviations (not AP style abbreviations) were included in circles throughout the puzzle. Great idea. Then on Inauguration Day, the puzzle focused on Obama himself, including references to "The Audacity of Hope," the U.S. Senate and Vice President Joe Biden.
But Tuesday's puzzle also had what I consider to be a major editing mistake. I can't remember the exact clue, but it was something like "Obama's title beginning Jan. 20, 2009." The answer was "President of America." Last I heard, the name of our country was the United States of America. "America" refers to the continents of North and South America. Obama is not the president of North and South America. People who live in countries like Canada, Mexico, Peru, Honduras and Greenland take offense to this type of thing. (Yes, Virginia, Greenland is part of North America.) And I find don't like it, either, thank you very much.
If we're going to take back our place in the world, let's start with being more sensitive about things like this.
I realize that like headlines, crossword puzzle answers must fit, but that's why they're so demanding to compose. If the writer of the puzzle couldn't find a good answer that fit, he or she should have rephrased the question.
5 comments:
Wow! Will Shortz really dropped the ball there, eh? That's surprising.
I like this blog! Keep up the good writes.
I think you should be less cranky. Of all the countries in the world The US of A is the only one that actually has of America or America included in the official name of the country.
That's interesting. You should e-mail someone over there and see if that was intentional or a mistake. The editors at the Times are pretty good about copping to mistakes.
Larry: there is a place called America in the Netherlands, though.
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