Wilco frontman and noted crossword aficionado Jeff ______ (6 letters; like a popular suiting fabric) has written the New York Times’ monthly bonus crossword for May. The grid’s theme is “My Life Was Saved by Rock ’N’ Roll,” with answers that reference songs by both Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, as well as several other CBGB icons. Tweedy even snuck in a callback to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot with a clue about the NATO alphabet (a Times crossword staple). If you have a New York Times Games subscription, you can play Tweedy’s puzzle here.
“I’m a pretty massive crossword puzzle nut, and I have been for a very very long time,” Tweedy wrote in a post on his Substack newsletter, Starship Casual. “As an addict, you have to remind yourself that you’re still an addict, even when you’re aren’t doing things that are terrible for you. Crossword puzzles are a pretty benign outlet for an addictive tendency, in my opinion.”
Tweedy also appeared in a brief video interview with Times puzzle editor Christina Iverson, where he talked about the similarities between songwriting and solving a crossword: “I think that putting a song together and finding the right word to express what you want to say succinctly, or with clarity—that can feel like putting a puzzle together sometimes. But the difference, obviously, is that there’s no right answer for a song, really, and there definitely is one for a crossword puzzle.”
This week, the Times tapped Carole King, Diane Warren, and the Magnetic Fields’ Merritt—all of whom appear on their new list of “The 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters”—to each write a five-by-five mini crossword. You can play those for free here, here, and here. Tweedy didn’t make it on the list, but did vote for himself on his ballot—and deservedly so!
