This article is about the journey of Michael Sharp, who is very popular around the globe because he has authored one of the nation’s most successful crossword puzzle blogs: Rex Parker.
Scroll down and read the article in full because we have covered in this article everything you need to know about rex parker:
- Who is Rex Parker, AKA Michael Sharp?
- The puzzle vocabulary
- What people have to say about rex parker
- Michael’s ‘amazing’ blog
- To conclude with
Who is Rex Parker AKA Michael Sharp?
Rex Parker is a mild-mannered English professor at Binghamton university. He is a well-known personality because of a blog that he authored. The blog is one of the nation’s most successful crossword puzzle blogs and is called rex parker.
Sharp was amazed by crossword puzzles the day he finished his first crossword in the New York Times daily. He absolutely loves the adrenaline rush one gets on completing each puzzle- the feeling is very merry to him.
Since that day, Michael Sharp began solving hundreds and thousands of puzzles in various newspapers and weekly magazines. Over the course of time, while solving infinite puzzles in the college’s cafeteria, Sharp cracked the code to solve these interesting puzzles. In no time, he became the ultimate king of solving crossword puzzles and gained nationwide fame and attention at the helm of ‘rex parker does the new York times crossword puzzle’.
Michael Sharp solves these puzzles each and every day. While people like me and you, on completing a puzzle, would just be satisfied and move on, or at most would post the moment on social media, Michael sharp tracks this whole thing way further. He links to all the musical selections, plays, comics, movies, or celebrities mentioned in the clues, researches well about them, and eventually makes videos and commentaries.
The Puzzle Vocabulary
It is pertinent to make the puzzle vocabulary clear for the readers’ convenience. In the puzzle world, a ‘solver’ is someone who solves puzzles daily. Michael Sharp is a ‘puzzle solver.’ On the other hand, a puzzle’ constructor is someone who does the puzzle. ‘Crosswordese’ are phrases, words, or clauses that we do not use in real life, but they form an essential part of the puzzle world.
Michael Sharp has given an example of crosswords. He said, and we quote: “ aikido is one of the most popular martial arts in crosswords’ ‘. The reason being “because that A-I beginning and that weirdly placed K. it has only god two consonants in it. It is good stuff.”
Readers usually chance upon Sharp’s name on the web while searching for answers to the day’s puzzle. Once they find their answers, they do not escape the webpage but instead, choose to stay and find out more about the puzzle king’s personality.
What people have to say about Rex Parker
A data analyst from Minneapolis, Seth Grossinger, talks and regularly catches up with rex parker readers. He enjoys discussing with them the clues and strategies for solving puzzles. In fact, he shares such a strong bond with some of them that they exchange cards and gifts on the occasion of Christmas.
Grossinger, too has a strong passion for puzzle-solving. In his early days, he used to solve the Saturday New York Times puzzle, which, many solvers and rex parker readers would agree, used to be much more difficult than the Sunday New York Times puzzle.
Grossinger recalls that five years ago, he solved his first puzzle. He was walking with his dog when the last missing piece struck his head. And that was an absolute eureka moment for him. However, he had nobody to share his ‘achievement’ with back then. But now, thanks to Michael Sharp, a whole community of solvers celebrate the big finish every now and then.
Michael’s ‘Amazing’ Blog
Michael Sharp’s blog is not only a platform for finding the answers to the day’s puzzle or bringing together a community of solvers. The blog also aims to bridge the gap between constructors and solvers and compare and contrast the strategies employed by the two communities in establishing the puzzle maniac.
Such kinds of blogs also give a fair idea to the puzzle constructors that what kind of puzzles their readers, or to be precise, ‘solvers’ love to solve and what more they expect out of the puzzles. Constructors, through these blogs, may get to know which part of the puzzle the solvers find the most challenging and what difficulty levels their solvers can possibly solve.
Michael Sharp earlier just used to solve the New York Times puzzles. But, after starting his blog, Michael even started constructing the quizzes. Well, his forte is still solving the puzzle and writing a blog. Constructing the puzzles is yet only a side thing for him. On his blogging platform, Michael Sharp identifies as ‘Rex Parker’.
To Conclude With
Michael Sharp does not normally take more than three to four minutes to solve the most challenging puzzles. When asked about what drives Parker’s passion for puzzling, he revealed that he noticed his grandmother working out puzzles in the daily newspaper during his childhood days. His grandmother’s love for puzzles ignited this passion in him for the first time.
In 2010, rex parker’s first constructed puzzle was published in a newspaper, and there was no stopping after that. His puzzles are usually published in the Los Angeles crossword, the wall street journal, and the new York times. Du4ing the American crossword puzzle tournament in 2011, rex parker ranked the tenth best in his division and 31st overall. He believes that speed is not the ultimate goal, and accuracy and correctness overtake speed in the puzzling world.