If you are having trouble de-coding one of the clues from yesterday’s New York Times crossword, it is with good reason. The clue and the answer do not match up.
As avid crossworders, we were pleasantly suprised to see mediation make it to the Sunday puzzle. But we feel some clarification is in order: The clue for 36 Across was “Variety of arbitrating techniques?” and the answer was “mixed mediation.”
A common misconception, even the venerable NYT does not distinguish between mediation and arbitration. So, for the record: mediation is a voluntary process whereby parties negotiate in the presence of a neutral facilitator but the parties retain full decision-making authority. Arbitration, on the other hand, is a dispute resolution process whereby the parties agree to be bound by the decision of the third-party arbitrator and the process is often compulsory rather than voluntary.
Happy Puzzling!