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Dirty_Old_Town t1_j0hiqpl wrote

From time to time, I hear a song on one radio station and then a minute or two later hear it on another station. This may happen for a few songs in a row, and I'm convinced it's just the DJs messing with each other. Well, one time I was travelling for work and I was doing a couple different crosswords every day - I noticed that for that whole week, several words appeared in common between the two crosswords. Do you think it was coincidence or do crossword editors mess around from time to time like radio DJs?

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wsj OP t1_j0hkimu wrote

I've noticed that too, but it is just coincidence. I don't collaborate with other editors to plant common words. (Though maybe there's a super-meta contest idea in that...)

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Hungsolong t1_j0on00f wrote

My local newspaper prints last weeks NYT and LAT crosswords every Sunday. We always do both and there is almost always one obscure word in common or sometimes reversed ( the clue in one is the answer is to the clue on the other). I really don’t believe that it is coincidence.

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shutthecussup t1_j0l1lpc wrote

I’m glad somebody asked this. I was doing a few different crosswords a day at one point as well and every day there are words from the other crosswords in each others’ puzzles. It feels like they’re copying their homework!

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Dirty_Old_Town t1_j0l8i33 wrote

I'm not sure it's an accident. One of the papers was the Detroit Free Press and I think the other one was the USA Today but it's been several years and I can't remember.

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shutthecussup t1_j0l9bq4 wrote

Mine was only a few months ago. I would do USA Today, Dictionary.com, and Washington Post.

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