The final National Post Cryptic: by Cox and Rathvon Saturday October 15

[Richard B.]

Enjoy!
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Falcon, the curator of the National Post Cryptic Crossword Forum, where he has posted these weekly C&R cryptic crosswords, has posted the following:

I am sure we were all shocked and disappointed by the demise of cryptic crosswords in the National Post. I also did not appreciate the replacement puzzle being described in an article published on October 15 as not "the diabolical British-style [cryptic] puzzles that include references to Latin prefixes, obscure nymphs from Greek mythology and lines from Milton’s Paradise Lost. This is — many will be relieved to hear — not what is in store with the Universal daily and weekend puzzles."

This prompted me to write the following to Rob Roberts, the Editor in Chief:

Dear Mr. Roberts,

I have been a subscriber to the National Post since day one, having had my Financial Post subscription converted to a National Post subscription when the paper was launched. For many years I have been an avid fan of the cryptic crosswords carried by the National Post, both the weekday Daily Telegraph puzzle as well as the weekend Cox and Rathvon puzzle.

Your decision to discontinue these features is deeply disappointing. To add insult to injury, I found the gratuitous, disparaging remarks about cryptic crosswords made in the article published on October 15 introducing the replacement puzzle to be extremely insulting.

I have therefore cancelled my subscription.

to which he replied:

Hello, thanks for your note.

We understand your displeasure. Those features have been very popular among our readers for a very long time, and we’ve heard from a lot of people since this change was made.

There were a suite of puzzle and comics changes made for financial reasons across the Postmedia Network. Each paper exchanged their own collection of offerings for a unified collection from a single provider.

It saved us a lot of money. And as we transition our legacy media company to a leaner, digital-oriented company we need to find any savings we can, especially those that spare us other, more painful cuts. We hope you find new favourites among these new puzzles and features.

We continue to work very hard to create a newspaper you continue to find worth subscribing to. I hope you change your mind.

Rob

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Rob Roberts
Editor in Chief, National Post
365 Bloor Street East, Toronto
rroberts@postmedia.com

Emily and Henry: Not Adieu but Au Revoir

I have also been in touch with Emily and Henry who seem to have been equally blindsided by this move by the National Post. I am sure they will not mind if I share some of their remarks with readers:

We were touched by the comments attached to our last puzzle. Are Canadians inherently kinder than we Yanks are? It’s often seemed so to us. Again, we thank you and your readers for all the amiably thoughtful critiques over the years.

Now that we have some more time on our hands, we should be able to pick up the pace on launching our own website. You’ll be among the first to hear when it’s ready to go!

All the best,

Emily and Henry

[oldjudge]

I didn’t think it was possible but I found a C&R that I really didn’t like. Maybe that puzzle would be popular north of the border but I never heard of most of those schools which made me have to Google a lot of answers just to see if I was right. I guess that they are gearing the puzzle to a Canadian audience but for me it was 2D, eh.
I just noticed the information up above. That is horrible.I guess till Emily and Henry launch their own website the monthly Wall Street Journal hex will have to suffice. To those needing a cryptic fix I highly recommend Everyman’s Crossword in the Sunday Guardian.

[mokelfish]

I recommend Fraser Simpson's cryptic weekly puzzle in the Globe and Mail, it's excellent and also available via Pressreader