We're not trying to be backhanded here -- crosswords are an important part of a daily newspaper. Well, OK, fine, we're being backhanded, but crosswords are still an important part of a daily newspaper. And the only reason to pick up the pointless Chronicle PM -- the same damn Chron you read in the morning, just with more articles from the wires -- used to be its inclusion of the famed Times crossword, a witty tonic to the pair of serviceable but joyless grids that run in the morning edition. But with Chron PM dropping the Times puzzle last fall, the only local daily that runs the best crossword in America is ... you guessed it. At a quarter, the Examiner's a full 75 cents cheaper than buying the weekday Times, and you don't even have to fuss with, you know, actual articles to read. To be fair, the Chron still runs a six-day-old Sunday Times crossword in its Saturday edition. But if you're a local who cares about good journalism, you're getting the Sunday Times anyway, right?