It's been another busy week! Todd Gross started us off this time with 10 puzzles (in which he found 22 mistakes) late Sunday afternoon. Tuesday morning Denny Baker sent in 30, which were followed a few hours later by 31 from Mark Diehl and then, that night, 20 more from Mark. Early Wednesday morning Todd sent in 11 puzzles with 22 mistakes and then 3 more with 4 mistakes a bit later on. Late that night Mark sent 31 puzzles, then 29 more Thursday morning. Great job, everyone—thanks so much again! I'm hoping to have the 1958 puzzles ready for Jim Horne at XWord Info by early next week.
Doug Peterson Three-peat Blast! Winner
Congratulations to another three-peat Blast! challenge winner, Doug Peterson! On Wednesday Doug sent in the correct answer, HAWAIIAN STATEHOOD, to the August 30, 1953, puzzle clue "This bill has passed the halfway mark." What a contrast with the bills in Congress nowadays!
This week's challenge is now up in the sidebar—good luck, everyone!
Awesome Crossword T-shirts
Despite returning to a ton of work (not to mention college decisions!), I'm still basking in the aftermath of the ACPT, where, among other things, I received two awesome crossword T-shirts (see photos below)! The first features the very cool XWord Info logo, and the second is from the 2006 ACPT (closer to the pre-Shortz era and, as you can see on the shirt, definitely the original Stamford era!)! Thanks so much again, Jeff, Jim, and Lynn!
Raymond Simon's Tribute to Bernice Gordon in GAMES
Some time ago Raymond Simon, an editor at GAMES World of Puzzles, contacted me about possibly getting a photograph of legendary constructor Bernice Gordon for a piece he was writing about her crossword life. His article is in the May 2015 issue, and with the magazine's permission, I've reproduced it below:
Thanks again, Ray, for this touching tribute to Bernice.
What with the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT), it's been a very busy two weeks, but we've still managed to make great progress on the proofreading front! Starting off with the first week, on Saturday afternoon Mark Diehl sent in 31 puzzles and then 12 more, which were followed by 23 from Denny Baker that evening. Sunday night Mark sent another 30 puzzles and then 25 more Monday night. Tuesday morning Denny Baker sent 11, then Mark sent another 31 that afternoon. Early Wednesday morning Mark sent 28 more and then another 31 that afternoon. Thursday evening Denny sent in 24 puzzles—the last for that week. This past week Mark sent 23 Sunday night. On Monday Denny sent in 24 more, then 18 more Thursday morning and then another 6. Friday morning he sent another 25 puzzles, which were followed by 10 from Todd Gross (who found 17 mistakes) later that afternoon. Thanks so much again, everyone—terrific job once again!
Doug Peterson First to Solve Blast! Challenge
The Blast! challenge was up for two weeks this time but was solved with lightning speed by litzer Doug Peterson, who sent in the first correct answer on Sunday, March 22, with only two letters having been revealed—congratulations, Doug! The clue from this April 3, 1955, puzzle was "Modern enigmas.," and the answer was FLYING SAUCERS. I suppose flying saucers are still modern enigmas, especially with the advent of Photoshop, but seeing such a clue from 1955 was a real thrill from a historical perspective! This week's Blast! challenge is up now in the sidebar—good luck, everyone!
ACPT Wrap-Up
As usual I had a blast reconnecting with old crossword friends and meeting new ones at this year's ACPT! Legendary litzer/proofreader Denny Baker came to the tournament for the first time since 2006, so I had the pleasure of meeting him in person! The last ACPT Denny attended was in Stamford, so he felt right at home with the tournament's move back this year from Brooklyn. Interestingly, even though this was my first Stamford ACPT, I felt right at home, too! Even better, as I was informed sometime after Puzzle 5, the coffee shop at the hotel happened to sell Afrin—had I noticed this, I would have had eight perfectly clean solves. Unfortunately, I'd never heard of Afrin, so I ended up guessing AFRIT instead. At next year's ACPT, I'll be sure to take full advantage of my surroundings! For now, here's a picture of me and Denny:
And here's another one of litzer Tom Pepper and me—the New England cold was nothing compared to what Tom and other Minnesotans routinely experience!
Another highlight this year was meeting constructor Ed Stein, who had one New York Times puzzle published during the Maleska era but couldn't remember exactly when. Ed did, however, remember some of the theme entries. In just a few seconds, I was able to pull up Ed's puzzle on XWord Info and show it to him in person! It turned out that his puzzle was published July 28, 1980; even better, it was one of the puzzles for which the constructor's first name hadn't yet been identified, which means that XWord Info will be one small step closer to perfect completion! The puzzle itself has a rather subtle theme that I missed at first glance: Each theme entry, such as ANNIE OAKLEY (clued as "Pass"), is eponymous—that is, it's a word or phrase that derives from someone's name. Very cool! Unfortunately, Ed stopped submitting to the Times for many years after his first publication, having received one of Maleska's infamous rejection letters in response to his second submission. Ed's next Times puzzle appeared in 1994, and he has since gone on to have a handful more, most in collaboration with renowned constructor Paula Gamache.
A third project-related highlight of my experience was catching up with the ever-prolific Arthur Schulman, who now constructs more variety crosswords than standard ones. Some of his more recent works have included a vowelless-esque puzzle, in which only the first half of the alphabet is entered into the grid, and a puzzle in which every entry is a consonancy. Arthur claims such puzzles are easier to construct, though I suspect that he may just be so experienced that all crosswords and crossword variants come easily to him as a constructor! Here's a picture of Arthur and me:
Finally, I gave a speech about the project again as part of the Friday evening events, this time about the computer program I wrote to try to identify the most likely constructors of crosswords without bylines using computational stylometry—the statistical analysis of variations in linguistic style or images using computers. The program used seven factors, including block count, word count, and average clue length; although definitively determining the constructor of every puzzle without a byline won't ever be possible, through the use of computational stylometry guesses can be made—in some cases, quite accurate guesses!
Unusual Entries
After all the excitement of the ACPT, I decided to decompress by looking through my file of unusual entries from pre-Shortzian puzzles. This file has grown exponentially now that the proofreading process is as streamlined as my preliminary scans of each puzzle! The following salmagundi of seven entries came from June 1956 puzzles alone, all but one of which were litzed by Mark Diehl:
ACONTIA clued as "Javelins of Ancient Greece."
CANTRIP clued as "Trick or prank: Scot."
CAPORAL clued as "Coarse tobacco."
EUPHUES clued as "High-flown romance by John Lyly, 1753."
HENEQUEN clued as "Yucatan rope fiber."
KALONGS clued as "Flying foxes."
ORONOKO clued as "Variety of tobacco."
My favorite of these entries is KALONGS, which, appropriately enough, appeared in Arthur Schulman's puzzle from June 27; here's a picture of one of these beasts:
Great news: I just sent the proofread 1959 puzzles to Jim Horne at XWord Info, which means we've now finished 35 years of proofreading! There are only 17 left, and starting in late 1950, all the remaining years will be Sunday puzzles only, so those should go even more quickly!
We made terrific progress again this week, starting off on Saturday morning with 30 puzzles from Mark Diehl. Sunday night Dave Phillips sent 31 puzzles with 76 mistakes, which were followed by 31 more from Mark five minutes later. Monday evening Mark sent another 28, and then Tuesday morning Todd sent 10 with 9 mistakes. That night Mark sent 31 more, which were followed by another 30 from Denny Baker. Wednesday afternoon Todd sent 10 more with 172 mistakes (yes, 172—probably the all-time high!)! Just over an hour later Mark sent another 31, then later on 30 more. Thursday afternoon Mark sent another 14 and then later that night 19 more. Finally, late Friday afternoon he sent another 11. Awesome job, everyone—thanks so much again!
I'll be attending the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) next week, so the next blog post will be in two weeks—hope to see many of you in Stamford!
Barbara Hindenach Three-peat Blast! Winner
Congratulations again to Barbara Hindenach, who on Wednesday sent in the first correct answer to last week's Blast! challenge, making her a three-peat winner! The clue, which was from the May 28, 1955, puzzle, was "One of the new wonders of the world." The entry: ELECTRONIC BRAIN. I think this referred to robots back then, but nowadays there might be some technological brain implant that would make this clue and entry just as current!
The next Blast! challenge is in the sidebar, and I'll announce the first correct solver (if there is one!) in two weeks!
American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in the Pre-Shortz Era
New York Times March 6, 1978, story on first ACPT.
This year marks a major change in the ACPT, which for the first time since 2007 will be held in its original venue in Stamford, Connecticut! As the above photo shows, the very first ACPT took place in 1978 and had 161 "enthusiasts." The $20 entry fee included "luncheon, plus a cut-rate room," Will Shortz was 25, contestants ranged in age from 15 (Michael Miller) to 69 (Ruth Emini), and the winner was Nancy Schuster!
In honor of the ACPT's return to Stamford, I've posted two articles from the pre-Shortz era about the tournament and its competitors on Scribd. Both were written by the amazing Helene Hovanec, and the first—"The Nation's Top Solvers: Carol Barboni, Jon Delfin, Doug Hoylman, and Ellen Ripstein"—originally appeared in the May/June 1991 issue of CROSSW RD Magazine, which you can see here. The second—"Competitive Aficionados: Miriam Raphael and Ed Bethea"—was published in CROSSW RD Magazine's March/April 1993 issue and can be seen here. "Life on the Circuit," Helene's account of what happens at the ACPT and why it's so much fun appears in this issue as well, and you can read it below too:
Copyright 1993, 2015, Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Stan Chess and CROSSW-RD Magazine.
Nancy A. Corbett Born in Stamford
Finally, a few days ago I heard from litzer, proofreader, and historian Todd Gross, who had found an obituary of constructor Nancy A. Corbett. Todd pointed out that not only had Nancy published two puzzles in the Times, one in the pre-Shortz era and the other some six weeks later after Will Shortz became editor, but she was also born in Stamford, Connecticut! Thanks so much again, Todd—onward, Stamford!
This year's ACPT was awesome, as usual! I arrived very late Thursday night and ran into XWord Info's Jeff Chen and litzer Doug Peterson in the lobby. The next morning, I braved the subway with my parents and went to Chelsea Market in Manhattan, where we had scads of sapid comestibles! I was hoping to see Alton Brown of Cutthroat Kitchen (one of my favorite shows!), since the Food Network is in the same building, but that didn't happen (though I did see a TV crew filming in one of the shops). We got back to the hotel in the early afternoon, and Stan Newman and I had an authentic New York pizza nearby. Later that afternoon I got to meet and shake hands with crossword legend Henry Hook!
Crossword greats Merl Reagle (l.) and Stan Newman (r.)
I was also delighted to see an article by Jonathan Kalman about the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project appear on the very first day of the ACPT! To read his piece, "Teenage Crossword Puzzle Maven Goes Digital," click here. Friday evening, puzzlemaster Will Shortz got the tournament events under way with a very fun Carnival of Puzzles in which attendees solved their choice of any four of ten puzzles created by noted puzzlemakers! I realized too late that there was a strategy in choosing which puzzles to solve (though at least—thanks to my parents' warning!—I managed to avoid humiliating myself on Stan Newman's Digital Trivia Quiz!). I discovered that solving a diagramless for the first time under timed conditions was not one of my better ideas, though I was able to finish Fred Piscop's Split Decisions puzzle and Roy Leban's USA Word Search. Soon everything became a whirlwind of activity! In the post-games reception, I met and reuned with many new and old friends, both in the lobby and in long conversations in the sixth-floor puzzle suite. Over the three-day weekend, I was able to talk with many litzers, including Howard Barkin, Tracy Bennett, Peter Broda, Joe Cabrera, Lynn Feigenbaum, Andrew Feist, Vic Fleming, Mangesh Ghogre, Angela Halsted, Nancy Kavanaugh, Jeffrey Krasnick, Andrew Laurence, Tom Pepper, Doug Peterson, and Brad Wilber (apologies if I've left anyone out).
Jim Jenista in another awesome costume
Saturday began with the puzzle market—an entire hallway filled with tables of puzzle books and merchandise—at which I picked up plenty of freebies. I was also thrilled that one of my puzzles appeared in the Times that day—out here in California, I've never actually seen anyone solving one of my puzzles in public, so seeing and talking to hundreds of my solvers was amazing!
Later that morning, Will kicked off the actual tournament. I had a blast solving such a twisty, creative octad of crosswords over the weekend! Merl Reagle and Brendan Emmett Quigley gave me a real run for my moola, but I was still able to (mostly) finish everything. And comparing notes with other solvers after finishing each puzzle was great fun. At lunch I shared a delicious plate of chicken skrewers [sic] with Tom Pepper. Later on, I was amazed that I could actually identify a couple of the celebrities in a game of Peter Gordon's Celebrity: Get a Clue app! Saturday night, Will's "'Clever' Clues" game was very entertaining, especially since I finally had a use for the many hours I've spent poring through various clue databases. Then I gave a talk on the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project and a brief summary of the results from my statistical analysis of gender in the authorship of New York Times crosswords over the years—a project I did for my Science Research course this year. Nancy Shack and Don Christensen were both kind enough to record the talk (thanks so much again, Nancy and Don, for this and all the other videos and photos!)—Nancy's video appears below:
I've received a lot of positive feedback about this research, and I'm hoping to continue it in the future. Clearly the relatively small proportion of puzzles published by female constructors over more than 70 years is an issue of great importance, especially as the crossword community moves forward. When I returned from the ACPT, I presented my findings at a regional Intel science fair and was also delighted to discover a new feature on XWord Info that I think many people will be interested in: Stats about women constructors! This is a fascinating compilation of data that I'm planning to look into more closely after school gets out.
The final talk on Saturday was Matt Ginsberg's phenomenal presentation about Dr. Fill and its performance on this year's puzzles! I look forward to hearing "moa" about the evolution of Dr. Fill next year. Here's Don Christensen's video of the talk:
Back to the wrap-up: By late Saturday night, I think many litzers had forgotten about the get-together in the lobby. In fact, I was so busy with other things that I forgot about it myself until someone reminded me. But a few litzers stopped by for two ilks of Oreos, and I had fun joining in on a game of Ghost! Sunday morning was Puzzle 7, after which I had a delightful New York brunch with Jeb Balise and the Daily Celebrity Crossword crew at Junior's. Unfortunately, I didn't end up seeing the always entertaining "Crossworders Got Talent" show live, but luckily, a video of it was available online—here it is:
I was surprised and honored to win second place in the D division this year, and I'm looking forward to moving up to C in 2015! Congratulations to all the other winners and participants, especially Dan Feyer, Tyler Hinman, and litzer Howard Barkin, who were the top three scorers!
And thanks again to Will Shortz, Helene Hovanec, and all the judges and constructors who make the ACPT such an enjoyable experience every year! I'm already counting the days until Stamford!
Puzzlemaster Will Shortz
On to the project! It's been a busy couple of weeks, despite the ACPT. Two weeks ago Friday, Tracy Bennett sent in 31 proofread puzzles in the evening. Saturday morning, Lynn Feigenbaum sent 4 puzzles. That afternoon, Denny Baker sent in 7 more, putting us over 15,400 on the litzing thermometer! And that night, Todd Gross sent 11 more proofread puzzles. Monday morning, Nancy Kavanaugh sent another mega-batch of 42 puzzles, which were followed that afternoon by 4 from Barry Haldiman and 4 more from Denny. Tuesday morning, Lynn sent another 4 puzzles. Wednesday afternoon, Joe Cabrera sent 7 more puzzles, which were followed by 4 from Denny on Thursday afternoon. Friday morning Peter Broda sent 6 puzzles, then this week early Monday morning Mark Diehl sent 19. Tuesday morning Barry Haldiman sent 8 more, putting us at 15,500 on the litzing thermometer and his own total at more than 1,400—congratulations, Barry! That afternoon, new litzer Susan O'Brien sent in her first puzzle—welcome aboard, Susan! Wednesday afternoon, Denny sent in 4 more puzzles, which were followed by another 3 from Susan Thursday morning and 9 more from Mark late that night. Early this morning, Todd Gross (who recently celebrated his 50th birthday—happy birthday, Todd!) sent in 10 proofread puzzles. And this week Howard Barkin sent in 14 puzzles too! Awesome job, everyone—thanks so much again! I know it's slower going with the Sunday puzzles now (especially the 23x ones!), but we'll get there—as I write this, we're already at 15,531!
We're now also sending out puzzles from 1948—a year that was of particular importance to those of us interested in letters and words! According to Wikipedia, architect Alfred Mosher Butts had invented two word games—first Lexiko, then a variation on it called Criss-Crosswords. In 1948, James Brunot bought the rights to manufacture the game and made a few alterations to it, including changing the name to Scrabble. Here's a picture of a Scrabble board:
Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle, whose constructor is unknown, was originally published August 8, 1964; edited by Margaret Farrar; and litzed by Mark Diehl. This puzzle's theme—greetings and farewells—initially struck me as being rather simple and a bit dull. However, when I looked at the puzzle more closely, I discovered that the theme is actually quite elegant: The theme entries are symmetrical and interlocking; each synonym of hello and goodbye is contained in movie, book, or song titles; all the theme entries containing greetings read down, while all the theme entries containing farewells read across; and no synonym of hello or goodbye is repeated. Also, with the slight exception of A FAREWELL TO ARMS, all the greetings and farewells are at the beginnings of their entries. It's very rare to encounter a pre-Shortzian puzzle whose theme is consistent on so many levels, so from a thematic standpoint, this puzzle is way ahead of its time, even though ADIEU TO THE PIANO feels slightly less in the language than the other three theme entries. I also like how the constructor was able to incorporate a smattering of lively eight- and nine-letter entries by lowering the word count to 72—SALT MINES, APIARISTS (cleverly clued as "Men in the honey game."), HIMALAYAN, DIME STORE (also cleverly clued clued as "Place to buy pans, pens, pins, etc."), and DAPPLED are particularly strong! On the other hand, the puzzle contains quite a few uncommon pieces of crosswordese, partials, and iffy abbreviations, including TECO ("Mexican native."), ENARE ("Finnish lake."), DADE CO ("Site of Miami, Fla."), ALEMS ("Turkish flags."), MOD SP ("Present-day orthography: Abbr."), A DIRE ("C'est ___ [that is to say]."), SOLUS ("Alone on the stage."), and PIMAN ("Of an Arizonan people."). The entry that intrigued me the most in the nonthematic fill was SPALPEENS ("Irish rascals."), which has yet to appear in any other puzzle in the Ginsberg clue database. According to Merriam-Webster, we get the word spalpeen from the Irish spailpin, both of which originally referred to a poor migratory Irish farm worker. One Web site speculates that spalpeens had such a low status in Irish society that they became synonymous for rascals or mischief-makers in general. What an interesting word! Anyway, aside from the APIARISTS and DIME STORE gems, the bulk of this puzzle's clues are standard for their time period. I was particularly amused to see HESSE clued as "Part of West Germany.," which is no longer accurate. In all, this is an interesting pre-Shortzian puzzle whose theme is a cut above! The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below.
I always find pre-Shortzian clues containing the word "modern" particularly amusing, as the entries in question often end up being incredibly obsolete and/or long established by today's standards. Here are ten such "modern" clues from puzzles published during the mid-to-late Farrar era:
April 21, 1968 (constructed by William A. Lewis, Jr., litzed by Mark Diehl)
Clue: Modern convenience.
Answer: HOT WATER
September 12, 1967 (constructed by Cora Goodman, litzed by Mark Diehl)
Clue: Modern building material.
Answer: GLASS
April 1, 1967 (constructed by Cora Goodman, litzed by Alex Vratsanos)
Clue: Modern dress style.
Answer: TENT
January 25, 1967 (constructed by Louise Earnest, litzed by Mike Buckley)
Clue: Rebel, modern-style.
Answer: BEATNIK
January 24, 1967 (constructed by Michael Dubin, litzed by Mike Buckley)
Clue: Feature of modern industry.
Answer: AUTOMATION
December 12, 1966 (litzed by Mark Diehl)
Clue: Modern aid for buyers.
Answer: CREDIT CARD
December 5, 1966 (litzed by Mark Diehl)
Clue: Modern defense equipment.
Answer: RADAR
November 29, 1966 (litzed by Mark Diehl)
Clue: Modern machine.
Answer: COMPUTER
November 8, 1966 (litzed by Mark Diehl)
Clue: Modern sound effect.
Answer: DIAL TONE
July 12, 1966 (litzed by Mike Buckley)
Clue: Modern warning device.
Answer: RADAR (again!)
The DIAL TONE clue tickled me the most, as the telephone itself is losing ground to the almighty cellphone with its much catchier assortment of RINGTONES. Here's a picture of an early telephone model. The three silver protuberances accurately depict my facial expression upon discovering that people actually used phones like this at one point!
NOTE: There will be no blog post next week on Friday, March 7, because I will be at the ACPT. The blog will resume the following week.
Only one more week till the ACPT, which is going to be awesome! I'll be bringing Oreos again for an informal litzer get-together; since the weather caused many people to arrive too late last year, this time we'll meet on Saturday night, right after the games and entertainment, in the hotel lobby area near the top of the escalators. Anyone who's interested in finding out more about becoming a litzer or proofreader is also welcome to attend and chow down!
Today I'm delighted to announce our March Litzer of the Month, Lynn Feigenbaum! Lynn, a former journalist and newspaper editor, is an avid solver, crossword enthusiast, and one-time constructor who bought Crossword Compiler just so she could help out with the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project! And in only three months, Lynn has litzed a phenomenal 233 puzzles! To read more about her, click here.
Lynn also mentions her one crossword construction, many years ago, which was titled "Fit to Print" and contained many newspaper puns—here's a photo:
Will Weng's February 4, 1976, rejection of that crossword appears below:
Some 15 years later, Lynn sent an improved version of the puzzle to Weng; his December 27, 1991, response appears below:
When she submitted her puzzle to Eugene T. Maleska, she received the undated reply below:
The enclosure Maleska mentioned consisted of an ad for his books, complete with an order form on the back. Maleska had circled the title of A Pleasure in Words and "WITH A SPECIAL CHAPTER ON HOW TO CONSTRUCT CROSSWORD PUZZLES," noting that the book gave all rules and was available at most libraries. Here's a picture of the enclosure:
As mentioned in a previous post, Lynn was also reportedly the first journalist to interview Will Shortz after he became crossword editor of the Times. Here's the link again to that December 1993 article in Editor & Publisher, "Bill Clinton Of The Crossword Puzzle World." Thanks so much again, Lynn, for all these great pieces of crossword history!
Lynn's crossword activities will be featured in an article appearing this Sunday in The Virginian-Pilot! To see an early version of the print article, download the Evening Pilot for iPad free app. You'll be able to scroll through and read the entire article, which is not only entertaining but also very timely, what with the ACPT only seven days away! (If you don't have an iPad, I'm planning to provide a link to the print version after it's published. [UPDATE: The print version is now available—click here to read it.])
On to the puzzles—we had a great start to the week, with Mark Diehl sending in 28 puzzles late Friday night and putting us over 15,300 on the litzing thermometer! Saturday afternoon Todd Gross sent 10 proofread puzzles, and 10 more Sunday morning. Early Monday morning, Lynn sent in 7 puzzles, which were followed by 7 more from Barry Haldiman. Late Tuesday afternoon, an anonymous litzer sent in 7 puzzles, then that evening, Todd sent 10 more proofread puzzles, which were followed a short while later by a mega-batch of 42 litzed puzzles from Mark Diehl, putting his total at more than 4,300—congratulations, Mark!—and us into the 1940s! Wednesday afternoon, Barry sent 4 more puzzles, then late that night, Todd sent 10 more proofread puzzles. And this week Howard Barkin sent in 14 puzzles, putting his personal total at more than 900 litzed puzzles—congratulations, Howard! Thanks so much again, everyone—at 15,391 litzed puzzles, we'll be over 15,400 in no time!
We're now also in the final decade of puzzles, the 1940s—specifically, 1949! This was the year that "bouncing putty" or "Nutty Putty"—the substance that would later be known as Silly Putty—was first marketed as a toy. It was sold in a toy catalog for $2, which is about half the price of what Silly Putty sells for today. Here's a picture of an early package of Silly Putty:
Image courtesy of symonsez.wordpress.com
Instead of featuring a puzzle this week, I've decided to write about something else: what makes a puzzle last. Over the past few years, I've seen more than thirty years of pre-Shortzian puzzles, solved and analyzed countless Shortz-era crosswords, read scads of puzzle reviews and comments on crossword blogs, constructed hundreds of crosswords for a variety of markets, and edited more than sixty crosswords for The Orange County Register's associated newspapers. In this process, I have given a lot of thought to the deceptively simple question of what makes a good crossword puzzle and have come to a number of conclusions.
Let's start with the pre-Shortzian puzzles, which were for the most part in a time capsule before the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project began. The attitudes of crossword solvers changed tremendously when new waver Will Shortz began editing the New York Times crosswords. Solvers' opinions about what constituted a quality puzzle changed further when the first crossword blogs came onto the scene and when indie puzzles began to grow in popularity. Throughout this time period, the pre-Shortzian puzzles were largely inaccessible. I, along with thousands of other newer faces in the crossword business, was led to believe that pre-Shortzian New York Times puzzles were universally awful, even though I had never actually seen or solved a Maleska-, Weng-, or Farrar-edited crossword. Likewise, I noticed that many newer cruciverbalists (particularly crossword bloggers and commenters) had started to consider the term "Maleskan" synonymous with "bad." At the beginning of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project, I naturally assumed that all the puzzles I'd encounter would be boring, old-fashioned, and somewhat sloppy by today's standards, yet this was not the case. Before long, I had a massive Word document listing the dates of interesting pre-Shortzian puzzles that I wanted to highlight on this blog. So what makes a puzzle stand out thirty years after its publication?
For me, the answer is creativity and innovation. I've seen hundreds of pre-Shortzian puzzles that are relatively clean, even by today's standards, but that have straightforward themes; similarly, I've encountered hundreds of 72- and 74-word themelesses from the '60s, '70s, and '80s that are fine but not particularly sparkly. When I sense that a pre-Shortzian puzzle falls into one of these categories, I quickly scan through it for interesting clues and move on. But when I encounter a theme I've never seen before, a trick that was brand new at the time, or a particularly impressive theme entry interlock, I slow down and admire the puzzle and the constructor for trying something a little different. If the fill has an entry or two I don't like, then so be it. The puzzle is still highly memorable and successful, in my opinion, for holding interest more than thirty years later.
It's much trickier to define what makes a good crossword in the 21st century. In my opinion, though, the most important elements of a high-quality modern-day puzzle are still creativity and innovation. When I construct themed puzzles, I take pride in breaking the rules and adding twists to run-of-the-mill themes; when I construct themelesses, I appreciate using ultra-fresh entries and/or unusual grid patterns. This approach to puzzle construction often leads to a few compromises in the nonthematic fill and invariably leads to mixed reviews on crossword blogs, but I wouldn't want to build crosswords any other way. That said, the nonthematic fill is also extremely important. I particularly dislike partials and entries that solvers would have no way of knowing outside of crosswords, and an excess of such entries can make a puzzle feel sloppy, especially when the theme is rather simple. However, there is nothing more disappointing to me as a constructor, solver, and editor than seeing a puzzle with an unoriginal theme—there is little, if any, art in such a puzzle.
I'm not saying there is no place for puzzles like this—clearly there is, and this brings up the issue of intent. If the intent is to produce a puzzle that solvers will be able to finish without too much trouble and without introducing any new language or information, then that is one perfectly defensible goal. If, however, the intent is to produce a puzzle that is challenging and original and that some solvers may be unable to finish without Googling and learning something new, then that is another, very different yet equally defensible goal.
Ultimately, as the quality of crossword puzzles continues to increase, the ones that are the most twisty and forward-thinking will live on, while puzzles that sacrifice complex gimmicks and innovation in the name of nonthematic fill will fade into the background—and from our collective memory.
Ready, set, . . . litz! Well, not quite, but starting Sunday, September 1, the third litzing contest—dubbed Litzstarter—will begin! I'm thrilled to announce that for this very special litzing contest, which will run through October 31, we have several great sponsors offering awesome prizes! (You can navigate to the sponsors' home pages by clicking on their cool logos in the right-hand column.)
This contest's prize structure is loosely modeled after Kickstarter campaigns in that it features a variety of tiers, each of which offers a different reward for "backers" (aka litzers). Like Kickstarter, we have a precisely defined goal: to reach 13,000 on the litzing thermometer in two months. That's approximately 2,000 more puzzles—a bit more than we litzed during the last two-month-long litzing contest, but definitely still achievable! Unlike Kickstarter, however, Litzstarter's rewards won't be contingent upon our attaining the goal. So even if we fall short, backer-litzers (or "blitzers"!) will still receive rewards.
Moreover, to encourage "between-tier" litzing, anyone who litzes 14 or more puzzles will receive one virtual raffle ticket for each puzzle litzed and be eligible for the Grand Prize drawing at the end of the contest. This means that whether you litz 14 puzzles or 1,400, you have a chance of winning this prize. But the more puzzles you litz, the greater your odds of winning!
Finally, if you qualify for a reward at one tier but would prefer the reward for a lower tier, you can level down and request that reward instead. Rewards aren't cumulative, though, so each tier doesn't include the rewards of previous tiers.
And now for the rewards, listed in order by number of litzed puzzles:
14 or more: Eligible for the Grand Prize drawing 25 or more:Puzzazz e-book of your choice 50 or more:XWord Info 1-year subscription/renewal 100 or more:American Values Club Crossword (AVCX) 1-year subscription/renewal 200 or more:Crossword Nation 1-year subscription/renewal 300 or more:Fireball Crosswords 1-year subscription/renewal 400 or more: Write a guest blog post for Rex Parker on a day of your choice 500 or more: Grab bag (well, box!) full of puzzly surprises, both old and new Grand Prize: Free admission to the 2014 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT; hotel and transportation fees not included)
Thanks so much to all the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project's generous sponsors! If you haven't done so already, check out all the great Puzzazz e-books (which founder and CEO Roy Leban has made sure are jam-packed with terrific puzzles) and Rex Parker's [aka New York Times constructor Michael Sharp's] inimitable crossword blog! And if you'd like to fill your life with all things crossword, be sure to subscribe to XWord Info, the massive database of New York Times crosswords created by former Wordplay blogger Jim Horne and now administered by New York Times constructor Jeff Chen—it's chock-full of invaluable statistical data, analytical tools, and useful commentary.
If you're looking for other great crossword subscriptions, don't miss the American Values Club Crossword (AVCX; cutting-edge weekly puzzles by master constructor Ben Tausig and AVCX leading-constructor crew members Francis Heaney, Tyler Hinman, Aimee Lucido, Caleb Madison, Brendan Emmett Quigley, Byron Walden, and Zoe Wheeler), Crossword Nation (beautiful weekly puzzles by legendary New York Times constructor Elizabeth Gorski), and Fireball Crosswords (45 sizzling-hard puzzles by renowned constructor Peter Gordon, former crossword editor of The New York Sun, and other top constructors)!
Finally, even if you don't win the Grand Prize drawing, do everything you can to attend the ACPT, New York Times crossword editor and puzzlemaster Will Shortz's totally awesome three-day crossword extravaganza of formidable puzzles, wonderful people, and a lifetime's worth of memories!
A few last words about the contest: Litzstarter is open to everyone, including contest sponsors, though if you haven't litzed before, please contact me for detailed instructions. You must use construction software or know how to litz in text files. Contest totals will be updated as frequently as possible; to see them, click on the Contest Totals tab above. Packets typically contain 7 puzzles, but some may have fewer; you may ask for more than one packet at a time (up to a maximum of 10), but please do not ask for more packets than you'll realistically be able to complete either by the end of the contest or shortly thereafter. As you finish the packets, send them in and let me know if you'd like another (or several others). Near the end of the contest, if you are only partway through a packet, simply send in the puzzles you've already litzed—they will count toward your total. Remember, you must litz at least 14 puzzles to be eligible for the Grand Prize drawing for a free ACPT admission! The Grand Prize drawing winner will be announced on November 1, 2013.
On to the project update: Great news—we've passed another major milestone: 11,000 litzed puzzles! Litzers seem to be flexing their muscles before the contest begins! On Friday night, Jeffrey Krasnick sent in 7 puzzles. Saturday morning, 10 more proofread puzzles came in from Todd Gross. Saturday night, Mike Buckley sent in 7 more litzed puzzles, which were followed by 14 more puzzles from Mark Diehl on Monday morning. Tuesday afternoon, Denny Baker sent in 7 more puzzles. Thursday evening, Howard Barkin sent in 14 puzzles, which were followed a few hours later by 14 more from Mark, putting us over 11,000 on the litzing thermometer! And then this morning, Todd sent in another 10 proofread puzzles. Thanks so much, everybody—great job! Now it's time to gear up for Litzstarter!
Today's featured puzzle was constructed by McElroy (whose first name is probably Hugh). This bizarre Maleska-edited crossword was originally published on August 2, 1977, and was litzed by Joe Cabrera. Like the featured puzzle from two weeks ago, this puzzle is another unusual tribute to the alphabet. The puzzle's three amusing theme entries are AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (clued as "Electric-typewriter overtouch"), BBBBBBBBBBBBBBB ("Ms. Stonefinger strikes again"), and CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC ("Heavens! Why isn't she a riveter?"). In addition, the constructor included ABCS ("Basics") at 1-Across, which isn't clued as a theme entry but serves as a reveal of sorts. I wonder if the constructor intended for DEFI to be a part of the theme, since it has the next three consecutive letters after ABC. Either way, I love the theme's eccentricity, and the theme clues are hilarious! I'm a little surprised that Maleska published this theme, though, since it feels much more in the style of Weng. Perhaps this was one of the leftover puzzles that Weng had already accepted before passing the baton. In any case, the fill is also extraordinarily clean considering how many consecutive Bs and Cs the constructor had to work with. I especially like the entries APLOMB, BALZAC, CHARITABLE (clued as "Eleemosynary," a former entry of the week), and the old-fashioned BABY FROCKS! In fact, the whole middle section of the puzzle with all the Bs feels particularly elegant; also, I like that the grid includes two long nonthematic down entries, a trend that didn't become a regular feature of thematic puzzles until much later on. The only two entries that really give me pause are the not-so-great abbreviation RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) and DEFI (assuming it doesn't function as part of the theme and is simply the French for "challenge"). Canadian litzers Jeffrey Krasnick and Martin Ashwood-Smith may disagree with me on the former, though. In all, this is a stupendous pre-Shortzian puzzle! The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:
Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry, USQUEBAUGH, originally appeared in the October 10, 1967, puzzle, which was constructed by William Lutwiniak, litzed by Mark Diehl, and edited by Margaret Farrar. According to the Ginsberg clue database, this unusual word has yet to appear in a Shortz-era puzzle. The original clue for USQUEBAUGH was "Whisky, Gaelic style."; Webster simply defines usquebaugh as "Whiskey," though it does include the Irish & Scottish dialect tag. Webster goes on to mention that usquebaugh comes from the Irish uisce beatha (water of life) and was first introduced into our language in 1581. We also get the word whiskey itself from this Irish phrase and from its Gaelic cognate uisge beatha. When I'm 21, it would be fun to walk into a bar and order some usquebaugh just to see the confused look on the bartender's face! For now, here's a picture of some homemade usquebaugh:
The Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project has received some more great publicity in the past couple of weeks! Will Shortz's 2013 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament page linked to this blog, and litzer Jeffrey Krasnick mentioned the project in a comment on Amy Reynaldo's Diary of a Crossword Fiend. Then Rex Parker (who, together with Matt Gaffney, will be discussing pre-Shortzian puzzles on this site in the near future) wrote about the project in his blog. Thanks so much, everybody!
Even though the second litzing contest has long since ended, we've continued to make excellent progress! Denny Baker sent in several batches of puzzles that almost brought us to 8,500, and then on Tuesday, Jeffrey Krasnick put us over this major milestone! We're currently sending out packets from March 1971, which is mind-blowing!
Before I get to the puzzle of the day, here are ten more funny typos our proofreaders have caught, which I've listed below in a new format:
Entry: DOWSE
Right: Use a divining rod
Wrong: Use a diving rod
Entry: ARAL
Right: Caspian's eastern neighbor
Wrong: Caspian's easter neighbor
Entry: NUTMEGS
Right: Some spices
Wrong: Some species
Entry: SHOE
Right: Kind of shine
Wrong: Kind of shrine
Entry: ROSE
Right: Stein's flower
Wrong: Stein's follower
Entry: NERD
Right: A real drip
Wrong: A real dip
Entry: NEU
Right: Modern, in Mannheim
Wrong: Modem, in Mannheim
Entry: HERS
Right: Towel word
Wrong: Towel world
Entry: LEA
Right: Yarn measure
Wrong: Yam measure
Copyright field (my personal favorite)
Right: Will Weng
Wrong: Willy Weng
Today's featured puzzle was constructed by Elaine D. Schorr. I've seen lots of great Will Weng–edited crosswords by this constructor, many of which are lovely minithemes crammed into wide-open themeless grids. Originally published on January 1, 1974, and recently litzed by Mark Diehl, this outside-the-box crossword features four simple math problems that lead to the digits 1, 9, 7, and 4, to kick off the year 1974! It's very rare to see math in crossword puzzles, period (outside of the dreaded Roman numeral clues), let alone in pre-Shortzian puzzles. This may in fact be the earliest puzzle to use math in a crossword! The constructor not only included the four (albeit a bit forced) 15-letter math problems but also managed to make the fill quite clean. I especially like the entries NO-HOW, SEES RED, and EDGES UP. The puzzle does have its share of crosswordese (EVOE, RUGA, ORRA, TANO, etc.). Nevertheless, this is a very creative and clever pre-Shortzian puzzle! The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:
Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry, HAMMERFEST, originally appeared in the April 8, 1972, crossword (constructor unknown), which was recently litzed by Todd McClary. According to the Ginsberg database, HAMMERFEST has never been reused in a Shortz-era puzzle. The original clue for HAMMERFEST was "Europe's northernmost city." Merriam-Webster gives a much more detailed description of the town:
Northernmost town in Europe (pop., 2007: 9,391), on the island of Kvaløya, northwestern Norway. It was chartered in 1789, but most of it was destroyed by fire in 1891. Norway's first municipal hydroelectric station was built with its reconstruction. Germans occupied the town (1940–44); on their withdrawal, they blew up the installations and evacuated the population. The town has since been rebuilt. Despite its latitude, its harbour is ice-free year-round because of the warming North Atlantic Current. The sun shines continuously between May 17 and July 29, and there is no sunlight from November 21 to January 21. Tourism and fish-oil processing are important economically.
Even though Hammerfest isn't the most well-known Norwegian town, it sounds awesome and looks beautiful! Below is a panoramic picture of Hammerfest:
This will be another shorter and earlier post than usual, because I'm busy catching up with all the work I missed while at the ACPT—and tomorrow I'm leaving for the California Junior Classical League State Convention in Irvine. My posting should get back to its regular schedule next week, though; in the meantime, the new Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project Twitter page will have any news that comes up between now and then!
First, the ACPT . . . it was awesome! I had so much fun meeting, reuniting with, and talking to everybody! The litzer get-together on Friday afternoon was more sparsely attended than I'd expected, since quite a few people had their flights delayed by the bad weather in New York. Still, several litzers were able to stop by, and we made it through at least some of the Oreos (though I brought back an unopened package on the plane!). I met up with other litzers later; all told, there were 15 litzers (including me) at the ACPT—Howard Barkin, Peter Broda, Joe Cabrera, Andrew Feist, Vic Fleming, Mangesh Ghogre, Angela Halsted, Jeffrey Harris, Jeffrey Krasnick (wearing his Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project T-shirt!), Andrew Laurence, Parker Lewis, Tom Pepper, Doug Peterson, and Brad Wilber! (If I've left anyone out, please let me know—it was all a whirlwind!) I'll be sure to schedule any future litzer parties for sometime later that weekend so everyone will have arrived. Here are a few litzer photos:
Me wearing the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project T-shirt
Me and Brad Wilber eating Oreos in the lounge!
Vic Fleming at the Oreo table
Howard Barkin in the tournament room
Jeffrey Krasnick in his Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project T-shirt
On Friday night, I gave a short talk about the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project—you can see a video of it below (or here on YouTube)—just click on the arrow to play it. (Warning: The video is a bit shaky at first, but it gets better quickly.)
In the video, I mention a flyer with a Will Weng–edited puzzle. Unfortunately, because of a mix-up, that wasn't available, but if you'd like to try your hand at the amazing Dorothea E. Shipp 23 x 23 puzzle "Every Which Way" that was on the back of the flyer, I've posted it on Scribd, and you can download it here. I'll post the solution next week.
You can see more ACPT photos and videos (as well as lots of interesting results!) by scrolling down on the official tournament Web site here.
In other news, I'm delighted to report that Twenty Under Thirty is now available! Twenty Under Thirty is a collection of crosswords edited by Ben Tausig and written by twenty constructors under the age of thirty, including three litzers—Peter Broda, me, and Alex Vratsanos! A PDF of the book is $5 and will be e-mailed to you; to order a copy, click here.
Finally, even with all the events of this past week, the litzing continued! On Sunday, Mark Diehl sent in 13 puzzles and put us over 8,400 on the litzing thermometer—at this rate, I think there's a chance we'll be finished with all the litzing (though not all the proofreading!) within the next year or so! Thanks again, everybody!
In honor of Joe Krozel's amazing 18-blocker that will appear in tomorrow's New York Times, today's featured puzzle has the lowest block count I've seen so far in a pre-Shortzian puzzle: 23. XWord Info lists just 7 puzzles that contain 23 blocks, all of which were published in the Shortz era when computer software was available.
This lovely Maleska-edited puzzle, which was constructed by Adelyn Lewis and litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick, was originally published on January 13, 1979. The fill is almost junk-free, and the constructor even managed to throw in a repeated prefix theme consisting of four intersecting 15-letter entries—wow! The fill's highlights include ARSONIST, DEEP-SET, and BAD TIMES (cleverly clued as "Depressions and recessions"). The partial DE SACS and the French TAVERNE aren't my favorites, but they're a small price to pay for an otherwise brilliant, ahead-of-its-time puzzle! The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:
I can imagine that many solvers took offense at the entry WETBACK, which appeared in the May 27, 1986, puzzle by Burns (first name unknown) that was recently litzed by Bob Jones. Maleska's clue for WETBACK was simply "Illegal border crosser." However, I also encountered the entry WETBACK (at 1-Across) in the May 7, 1951, puzzle by Jack Luzzatto, which was recently litzed by yours truly. I couldn't believe that Margaret Farrar published the clue "Mexican smuggled over the Rio Grande"! The breakfast test must have had a very different meaning back in 1951.
On a more positive note, I saw a very clever clue for ANT in the March 24, 1951, puzzle by Harold T. Bers, which I also litzed: "Small red socialist." This clue was not only very current but also exceedingly clever for its time. Bravo, Mr. Bers! Below is a picture of a red ant:
I'm happy to announce that the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project is now on Twitter! To see the project's page, click on the icon in the righthand column. For those of you on Twitter, this could be a good way to let others interested in the pre-Shortzian puzzles know about any observations you have or noteworthy entries or clues you come across.
This week's post is earlier and shorter than usual since I'm going to be at the ACPT over the weekend! I'm looking forward to meeting (or reuniting) with litzers and fans of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project. While there, I'll be making a brief speech about the project, and flyers with one of the most brilliant pre-Shortzian puzzles I've seen so far will be distributed!
Today's featured puzzle, whose constructor is unknown, was originally published on March 15, 1973, and was recently litzed by Howard Barkin. At first I assumed this puzzle was themeless—I've noticed that an increasing number of daily puzzles are themeless as we litz further back in the Weng era. Once I looked more closely, however, I realized that the puzzle had a subtle, elegant theme. Three other anagrams of 1-Across, 5-Across, and 1-Down are placed symmetrically around the grid. It's amazing how the anagrams of 1-Across and 1-Down, which are all common words, intersect perfectly in every corner! Also, the nonthematic fill is impressive, considering how many theme entries the constructor crammed into the grid. I especially like the entries AIRSTRIP, POWERFUL, and LETDOWNS. I've never heard of a SWEETSOP (clued as "Sugar apple"), but it looks pretty cool in the grid! In sum, this is a solid pre-Shortzian puzzle with a simple, clever theme. I've started to look much more carefully for themes so I don't miss any other gems like this puzzle! The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:
Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is ELEEMOSYNARY. ELEEMOSYNARY was originally used in the January 11, 1972, puzzle (constructor unknown), which was recently litzed by Howard Barkin. Not surprisingly, the Ginsberg clue database shows that ELEEMOSYNARY has never been reused in a Shortz-era puzzle. The original clue for ELEEMOSYNARY was "Charitable"; Webster defines eleemosynary as "of, related to, or supported by charity." This bizarre word came from the late Latin eleemosyna (from which the word alms is derived) and was first introduced into our language in 1616. Below is a picture of the cover of Michael Sharp's and Patrick Blindauer's eleemosynary The American Red Crossword Book, which is dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Sandy and contains an introduction by Will Shortz.
Happy New Year—there's lots of great news to report since 2012! First, I'm thrilled to present an in-depth interview with Mel Taub, the pre-Shortzian and Shortz-era constructor who served as interim crossword editor of The New York Times for more than 2½ months after Maleska's death before Will Shortz took over. Mel's thoughts and experiences are fascinating—to read the interview, click on the link above or here.
In other news, the second litzing contest is now under way and will run through the end of February. New litzers are welcome, and anyone who litzes at least one week's worth of puzzles will be eligible for a drawing to win a year's subscription (or renewal) to XWord Info! There are other prizes as well, including e-books from Puzzazz—to read more about the contest, click here or on the Contest Totals tab above.
I'm hoping that by the end of February, we'll have reached the halfway point—8,113 puzzles! We started at 6,198 puzzles and, just four days later, have litzed 138 puzzles, bringing the total as I write this to 6,336!
I'm also happy to announce that we're now litzing puzzles from the Will Weng era—we'll have eight more years of those before reaching the first pre-Shortzian editor, Margaret Farrar!
A couple of weeks ago I was thrilled to receive an e-mail from Maureen Hathaway, a daily New York Times crossword solver who was the second-place Division E winner at the 2007 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Maureen offered to send me some of her old pre-Shortzian puzzle books, suggesting that if I already had copies of these books, I could sell them and use the money to help support the project. The books arrived on December 31; it turned out that I did indeed already have six of them, which Stan Newman had generously given me last year. Since the duplicates are in excellent condition, though, I'm planning to sell them and use the proceeds to buy other pre-Shortzian puzzle books that could help identify the still-missing authors of many puzzles. The seventh book Maureen sent was new to me and is very cool: It's called The New York Times Crossword Puzzles of the 1950's and is actually a pad of paper! There's one puzzle on each sheet, with the solution on the back of the sheet, and the pad also includes a removable copy of the very first New York Times crossword! Thanks so much again, Maureen!
Our first Litzer of the Month for 2013 is Robert Warren Jones, a prolific litzer who litzed more than 200 puzzles in just two months! Though he's been busy with other things lately, he plans to get back into litzing again soon. To read more about Bob, click here or on the Litzer of the Month tab above.
I'm happy to report, too, that the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project has received some more publicity lately, this time on Jim Horne's XWord Info blog. Liz Gorski has also linked to the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project website from her Crossword Nation blog. Thanks so much, Jim and Liz!
I've received a couple of inquiries lately from people wanting to contribute financially to the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project. Donations are always welcome and will be used to help offset the project's expenses and further its goals. I've created a new Contribute page, which provides information on how to donate to the project. You can reach it by clicking on the Contribute tab above or on the PayPal button in the righthand column, which links to the Contribute page instead of to PayPal directly.
Today's featured puzzle, "Tom Swifties Redivivus," was constructed by Mel Taub. "Tom Swifties Redivivus" was originally published on December 11, 1988, and was recently litzed by Mark Diehl. It features a mind-blowing 16 symmetrically interlocking theme entries (and 2 additional asymmetrical bonus theme entries) in a 21x grid that are clued Tom Swifties–style. For example, BUT IS IT ART is clued as "'____,' Tom said abstractly" and FIND AN APARTMENT is clued as "'___,' Tom said flatly." When I was a Cub Scout briefly back in elementary school, I received Boys' Life (the Boy Scouts magazine) and remember that the only part that interested me was the page devoted to jokes and Tom Swifties. Since then, I've come across several Tom Swifties puzzles in the Shortz era but never one with this many theme entries interlocking so elegantly! In his interview, Mel is quite modest about this crossword construction feat, stating that he merely sorted out the theme entries and came up with a suitable diagram. Amazing! And Mel sure did fill his suitable diagram very nicely—I especially like the colloquial LATISH; other nice entries in the nonthematic fill include FLIRTY, IN THE ACT, BULKY, and IMPINGED. I'm surprised that neither BULKY nor FLIRTY has been reused in the Shortz era—even though their letter patterns are tricky, you'd think they would have appeared at least once. All in all, this is an exceptional Maleska-edited Sunday puzzle and a paradigm of interlocking theme entries. The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below; the complete puzzle can be seen on XWord Info.
Today's featured pre-Shortzian clue appeared in the February 26, 1978, puzzle by Kenneth Haxton, titled "Fire and Ice," which was litzed recently by Mark Diehl. The 1-Across clue read "Rid of ice." The answer? DEICE! This has to be one of the worst clues I've seen so far in a pre-Shortzian puzzle—most of the answer itself is repeated in the clue! The puzzle (which is quite well constructed) has good cluing everywhere else—it's a mystery to me why Maleska chose one of the worst clues possible to open such a fine Sunday puzzle. I did notice, however, that Maleska didn't reuse that clue (at least in the puzzles we've litzed so far) for DEICE—in more recent puzzles, he generally stuck to "Apply antifreeze" or "Free from frost," both of which are clever, alliterative clues. I'm guessing he got a lot of mail about the "Rid of ice" clue! Below is a picture of a plane being deiced:
