You’re sitting there on a Sunday morning with your coffee, staring at the Washington Post grid, and you realize something is fundamentally "off." Maybe a word is bending around a corner. Maybe the black squares aren't symmetrical. Or maybe, if you’re really lucky, there’s a secret message hidden in the shapes of the blocks themselves. Welcome to the world of an Evan Birnholz crossword puzzle, where the rules of the road are more like gentle suggestions.
Honestly, a lot of solvers go into a Birnholz puzzle expecting a standard Sunday slog—the kind of thing you can mindlessly fill while the news blares in the background. That’s the first mistake. Birnholz isn't just filling white space with trivia. He’s an architect. Since taking over the reins from the legendary Merl Reagle in late 2015, he has spent over a decade turning the Sunday crossword into a weekly piece of performance art.
If you think you've "solved" the puzzle just because the grid is full, you’ve probably missed the real point.
The Myth of the "Standard" Sunday
Most people assume that every major newspaper crossword follows the same rigid set of rules: 180-degree rotational symmetry, no "unchalked" squares, and themes that stay inside their lanes. Evan Birnholz basically treats that rulebook like a suggestion list.
Take his "Letters of Introduction" puzzle from March 2025. He flat-out abandoned symmetry. He limited black squares to create a bizarre grid shape that looked more like a Rorschach test than a crossword. Why? Because the "shtick" demanded it. He often includes "meta" elements—extra layers of logic you have to figure out after the grid is complete to find a final keyword or phrase.
If you’re struggling with an Evan Birnholz crossword puzzle, it’s likely because you’re looking for a straight answer when the puzzle is asking you to think in three dimensions.
👉 See also: Album Hopes and Fears: Why We Obsess Over Music That Doesn't Exist Yet
Why the music connection matters
Birnholz was a music guy long before he was a professional cruciverbalist. He played piano for 15 years and spent his college days arranging music for a cappella groups. He’s even been a member of the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia.
When you solve his work, you can sort of feel that "arrangement" mindset. He views the constraints of a grid—the word lengths, the black square placements—as the crossword equivalent of a time signature or a key signature. It’s not just about what words fit; it’s about the rhythm of the solve.
Breaking Down the Birnholz Style
If you’ve spent any time on Reddit’s r/crossword or the "Diary of a Crossword Fiend" blog, you’ll see the same names pop up: NYT, LA Times, and Birnholz. But Birnholz is the one most likely to make you want to throw your pen across the room in a "how did I not see that?" fit of rage.
His themes are rarely just "puns about fish." They are complex systems.
- The Meta Layer: He frequently runs "meta" puzzles where the theme answers are just the first step. You might have to take the first letter of every 10-letter word to spell out a famous director’s name.
- Visual Trickery: In his "Space Oddity" puzzle, circled letters literally spelled out "CONSPIRACY THEORY" in the shape of a flying saucer.
- Wordplay Over Trivia: While he uses plenty of proper nouns (looking at you, Inigo Montoya and Cersei Lannister), his best clues are "re-clues." For example, cluing "AGE" as "Get on with your life?" It’s clever, it’s punchy, and it doesn't require a PhD in 18th-century literature.
One of his more recent 2026 puzzles, "On/Off Switch," showcased this beautifully. He added "OFF" to the start of phrases on the left side and removed "ON" from the end of phrases on the right. "Offend in a tie" (from "end in a tie") is just peak Birnholz. It’s silly, it’s tight, and it rewards the solver for paying attention to the mechanics, not just the vocabulary.
✨ Don't miss: The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads: Why This Live Album Still Beats the Studio Records
Is He "Harder" Than the NYT Sunday?
It's a common debate. Sorta.
The New York Times Sunday puzzle is famous for its size and prestige, but many veteran solvers find the Birnholz puzzles in the Washington Post to be more consistently "lively." There’s less "crosswordese"—those weird filler words like ALEE or ETUI that only exist in puzzles.
Birnholz leans into modern culture without feeling like he’s "trying too hard." You’ll find references to The Simpsons, Call of Duty (COD), and even niche internet terms like meatspace (the real world, for those not in the know).
The Problem With Modern Formats
If there’s one thing most people get wrong about enjoying these puzzles today, it’s the tech. In mid-2025, the Washington Post changed their online games format, and honestly, it was a bit of a mess.
Dedicated solvers who preferred printing the puzzle were suddenly hit with three-page monstrosities. The direct "Print" button vanished for a while. Even Birnholz himself reportedly wasn't a fan of the change. If you’re trying to solve his work on a tablet or a phone and finding it clunky, you're not alone. Most purists still swear by the PDF version or the "Down for Across" tool to get that classic feel.
🔗 Read more: Wrong Address: Why This Nigerian Drama Is Still Sparking Conversations
Tips for Tackling a Birnholz Sunday
If you're hitting a wall, stop trying to solve the clues in order. That’s for Mondays.
- Look for the "Revealer": Birnholz almost always places a "revealer" clue near the bottom right or center. This is the Rosetta Stone for the theme. In his "Bywords" puzzle, the phrase TAKE BY STORM explained why certain words were literally sitting next to each other in the grid.
- Trust the Parentheses: If you see (on) or (off) or (???) in a clue, that is not a typo. It’s a mechanical instruction.
- Check for "Meta" Instructions: If the title is something like "I'm Thinking of a Number," start looking for digits or quantities hidden in the answers. He celebrated his 10-year anniversary at the Post with a meta puzzle that required solvers to link wedding anniversary gifts (like BLUE TOPAZ for year 4) to specific numbers.
- Embrace the Asymmetry: If the grid looks lopsided, don't panic. It means he’s prioritizing a visual element or a massive theme answer that wouldn't fit in a traditional mirrored layout.
The Actionable Path to Mastering the Post
You don't need to be a genius to finish an Evan Birnholz crossword puzzle, but you do need to be a bit of a detective. Start by looking at his archive on the Washington Post site or via the "Daily Crossword Links" aggregator.
Instead of jumping into a fresh Sunday, go back to a "Themeless" version (he occasionally does these, like "Themeless No. 27"). They are great for building your "fill" vocabulary. Once you're comfortable with his cluing voice—how he uses question marks to signal a pun or how he hides definitions in plain sight—the big "meta" Sundays will start to feel less like a chore and more like a game.
Check the "Diary of a Crossword Fiend" reviews for past solutions. Seeing how he bridges the gap from a clue to a "wacky" answer like CAMPAIGN BUTT will train your brain to stop thinking literally.
Next Steps:
Go to the Washington Post Games section and pull up the most recent Sunday archive. Before you type a single letter, read every single "starred" clue and the title. Try to find the connection between the title and the longest entries in the grid. If the title is "Body Modification," look for words that contain hidden anatomy parts. Finding the pattern first makes the actual vocabulary solve 50% faster.