The bad news: Newspapers around the country are slowly  phasing out their crosswords.

The good news: Amidst all this, Peter Gordon may have found a way to bring his truly brilliant crosswords back from the print grave. 

Peter Gordon, formerly the crossword editor for The New York Sun, has been trying to revive its crossword on his site, Suncrosswords.com. To make the site financially viable, Mr. Gordon said he needs to find 1,776 people — a consciously patriotic goal — willing to pay 20 cents a puzzle. So far he has about 500. ("No Puzzle in the Paper? I'm Blank!" NY Times, 8/10/09)

Among aficionados, his crossword has been sorely missed and I'm crossing my fingers that the recent spate of publicity will go down well and get Gordon across the finish line.