One of the Most Interesting Crossword Puzzles ever published by New York Times. Have a try.

Crosswords are fun over a coffee but when there is some trickery as well as a story attached to it then the situation becomes exhilarating for the buffs. Here is one for you to solve. This was published by New York Times on 5th of November 1996, the day before the next president of USA was to be announced and Bill Clinton locked horns with Bob Dole. Scroll to the bottom for answers and history.

Answers and History:

A few crosswords have achieved recognition beyond the community of crossword solvers. This puzzle by Jeremiah Farrell, published on the day of the U.S. presidential election, which has been featured in the movie Wordplay and the book The Crossword Obsession by Coral Amende, as well as discussed by Peter Jennings on ABC News, featured on CNN, and elsewhere.

The two leading candidates that year were Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. In Farrell’s puzzle one of the long clue/answer combinations read “Title for 39-Across tomorrow” = MISTER PRESIDENT. The remarkable feature of the puzzle is that 39-Across could be answered either CLINTON or BOB DOLE, and all the Down clues and answers that crossed it would work either way (e.g., “Black Halloween animal” could be either BAT or CAT depending on which answer you filled in at 39-Across; similarly “French 101 word” could equal LUI or OUI, etc.). Constructors have dubbed this type of puzzle a “Schrödinger puzzle” after the famous paradox of Schrödinger’s cat, which was both alive and dead at the same time.