One goal of XWord Info is to support crossword blogs and podcasts by highlighting them on the home page. The Crossword Blog section lists some top ones with links to recent posts. Flashy yellow “New” stickers appear next to recent entries. You’ll find quick links to Rex, Amy, Wordplay, Fill Me In, and more.
The latest addition to that list is the Crosstalk podcast which publishes excellent interviews with constructors whose names you will probably recognize.
My Full posts from several blogs link includes several more sources that don’t fit on the home page, including L.A. Times Crossword Corner, Horace and Frances discuss the NYT Crossword, and NYXCrossword. It’s a good place to see the latest chatter about recent puzzles all in one place, with direct links to the original articles. Some blogs permit only summaries, but many provide full text and images.
What about Crossword Fiend?
I’ve been getting mail asking why Diary of a Crossword Fiend disappeared from the home page. It seems that Amy’s blog has decided to block requests from XWord Info, but only some of the time. Amy isn’t making that call, but her provider or the Cloudflare CDN she’s behind seems to think IP address from Azure (where XWord Info is hosted) are suspicious.
I thought I had it fixed and the issue was dead but as we learned from Princess Bride, there’s a big difference between dead and mostly dead. So now it works but only sometimes.
I’ve spent a ton of time trying to fix this on my side to no avail. For now, I’ll leave it as sometimes working, which means results may or may not be current. People loved seeing, for example, the yellow tag when a new Matt Gaffney Weekly Crossword Contest posts. Now, it might or might appear promptly. Check your local Fiend URL for the most accurate information.