The News of the World might have been called many things over its 168-year-history, but subtle was probably not one of them.
The final crossword in the last ever edition of the embattled tabloid newspaper (which closed for good due to the phone hacking scandal that has repulsed the U.K.) seems to have targeted someone specific. The individual? That would be a former editor and News International’s current chief executive. Need a clue? How about, “This Red Top Is Still Going” (7, 6).
It seems that Rebekah Brooks (and indeed the controversy in general) were both clues and answers in the crossword on Sunday. Some of the clues in the quickie puzzle included the likes of “Brook,” “stink” and “catastrophe.” And in the cryptic (another adjective one wouldn’t associate with NoW) version, one saw both “criminal enterprise” and “string of recordings,” in addition to the fairly blatant, “woman stares wildly at calamity.” The answer to that one? “Disaster.”
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Other answers were words such as “menace,” “deplored,” “stench” and “tart.” It had been alleged that the powers that be sent in their own people to read the paper cover to cover to ensure that soon to be unemployed staffers — many of whom have made clear they’ve had nothing to do with the phone hacking — didn’t insert anything inflammatory into any of the articles or op-ed’s.
But if that is the case, they clearly didn’t think to look on the puzzle page. And thus the last ever crossword will forever contain many a cross word. (via Huffington Post)