Very sad news for the start of the new year: Another crossword legend, Maura Jacobson, recently passed away. I was on vacation when I first learned of the news on Facebook. Although I never met Maura, I remember signing a large get well card for her at my first American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 2012. She wasn't able to attend that year, and I was disappointed that I wouldn't be able to meet her. Later, I hoped to have a chance to talk to her about crosswords and perhaps interview her for this blog, but by then she was too ill. For more on Maura, see Will Shortz's moving tribute, "Remembering Maura Jacobson," and this obituary in The Times, or click here and here and scroll down. Rest in peace, Maura.
Crossword researcher and historian Todd Gross reported a major discovery yesterday: Pre-Shortzian constructor Christy Ridley, who published at least 54 daily puzzles under editor Eugene T. Maleska between 1981 and 1993, was male, not female. Christy was one of several pre-Shortzian constructors with ambiguous first names and about whom we had no additional information. Todd's finding is important both because Christy was originally erroneously coded as female in my files and because of the relatively large number of puzzles involved.
Two years ago at the 2014 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, I reported the results of statistical tests I had done on constructor gender in the pre-Shortz and Shortz eras. That report was a brief summary of my findings, which were detailed in a paper I wrote for a science research course. I ran many statistical tests, some of which involved limited portions of the complete data set. The smaller the data set, the more likely the results are to be skewed by individual data points. Although I have not rerun the tests with this change in one constructor's gender coding, certain tests within the Maleska era would likely turn out differently enough to significantly affect some results—most notably, the proportion of puzzles Maleska published by women would have been less than the proportion published by Will Weng, but probably still not as low as in the Farrar and Shortz eras. It is worth keeping in mind that my data set is incomplete and that the constructor names (and, consequently, genders) of many puzzles are still unknown.
In addition to the above photo, which Todd found on Ancestry.com, Todd discovered this obituary reprinted on Legacy.com:
Courtesy of The Daily News-Journal
Thanks so much again, Todd, for this very important discovery!
Early Female Constructor Helen Pettigrew
Todd also contacted me recently about his efforts to find out more about pre-Shortzian constructor Helen Pettigrew, who, according to my (incomplete) records, published one puzzle in The New York Times. Here's Todd's report:
Helen Pettigrew was the first constructor I decided to research. I saw the following puzzle,
published in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, July 15, 1928.
Image courtesy of the Los Angeles Times
The crossword is titled "Down in Arkansas," but there's nothing about Arkansas
in the puzzle. I asked [New York Times constructor] Joe Krozel about it (he'd mentioned an interest in
crossword history); he thought maybe the constructor was from Arkansas.
So I went on Ancestry.com to try to find her . . . and find her I did. And indeed,
she was born and raised, and lived nearly her entire life, in what is now
Charleston in Franklin County, about 25 miles east of Ft. Smith. Ancestry.com has a pretty thorough history for Helen: She was born in 1894 in
what is now Charleston but was unincorporated at the time. In the 1920
Census she's listed as a teacher. But in the 1930 Census she's listed
as a sketch writer for magazines. In the 1940 Census, she's listed with
no occupation . . . but living with her father (now 83) and her mother's
sister (91), so likely taking care of both of them. Alas, I don't have any examples of her work in magazines . . . but I found
some puzzles from the early 1950s published in newspapers. I'm including
two of them here, the first from November 1951; the second from April 1953.
Image courtesy of the Lethbridge Herald
Image courtesy of the
Independent Record
I also have a couple of her crosswords from the early '70s, which fits
with her one known puzzle in The New York Times published April 15, 1974. But I'm pretty
sure she was published in Simon & Schuster in at least the late '20s to
early '30s, and I have a New York Herald Tribune puzzle of hers from Sunday, March 25, 1928 (the Los Angeles Times puzzle was syndicated from the New York World). She also published several books of Bible-themed crosswords (and other puzzles)
in the 1960s and '70s. Google has links to various books; here is the cover
of one published in (I believe) 1963:
Over the years (I first saw "Down in Arkansas" in 2009), I uncovered a lot of
information about Ms. Pettigrew. But I couldn't answer the question I've
been pondering since I first saw that crossword: What inspired a woman living
in central Arkansas in the 1920s to try her hand at crossword construction,
sending puzzles to editors thousands of miles away in New York? Last month (April 2016), I decided to try going to Charleston for myself
to see what I could uncover there. I flew to Little Rock for Arkansas
Puzzle Day and made a weeklong trip of it, including visiting Charleston. Helen never married, and I believe there are no living Pettigrews
left there. But I did find the local library, which had a genealogy room. And in that room, I found a book that didn't answer that question . . . but it
did answer another question I'd had since I started: What did Helen look
like? The book, titled Franklin County (Images of America) was written by Lola
Shropshire and published in 2000. Among images of various people and places
in Franklin County, I found one of Helen Pettigrew, with a nice explanatory
paragraph below. It may not have answered all my questions, but it gave
me nice closure. I took several pictures of the page, to be sure I got
it right. But I needn't have bothered: The book is in Google Books, and
here is the picture of Helen with the accompanying paragraph:
Image courtesy of Arcadia Publishing
So perhaps I didn't need to make the trip. But before I left Charleston,
I took one picture that isn't in any book. Helen passed away in 1977, about
three years after the New York Times crossword was published. She passed away in Booneville
but is buried in the local cemetery in Charleston, near her father and other
family members. It isn't large, and in about 15 minutes I found her grave. And I propped a copy of her "Down in Arkansas" puzzle next to the headstone
and took this picture.
R.I.P., Helen Lyle Pettigrew (1894–1977). You may have died alone, but you are not
forgotten.
Thanks again, Todd, for all your amazing research and for the lovely picture of Helen's puzzle on her grave.
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!
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:
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:
I'm very excited to announce a new section of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project website: Pre-Shortzian Constructor Interviews! Over the next few years, I'm going to try to interview as many living pre-Shortzian constructors as possible to get a better sense of what pre-Shortzian construction and editing were like. I'll be posting the interviews on this new page. I'm even more delighted to report that the first interview is with Artie Bennett, the youngest crossword constructor ever published by The New York Times. Artie was just thirteen (and ten months, to be exact) when his record-breaking first daily puzzle appeared (and fifteen when his first Sunday crossword was published). Artie's reflections on crossword construction and the pre-Shortzian world are a fascinating read!
I first heard about Artie in an e-mail Will Shortz forwarded to me this past January. Artie had written to Will about the youngest-constructor records. Artie thought he might have been the youngest constructor ever published by the Times, but he didn't have a copy of his daily puzzle and didn't remember when exactly it was published. Will told Artie about my efforts to build a database of pre-Shortzian puzzles (the beginning of what was to become the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project) and suggested that Artie and I might be able to work together to find the date of Artie's debut puzzle.
With the help of some details Artie was able to remember about the puzzle and the approximate time it might have appeared, I began downloading PDFs of crosswords from those years, looking for particular entries as the puzzles downloaded and then sending the files in monthly batches to Artie so he could look through them in more detail. After searching through months of PDFs, Artie found what he was looking for—just five days after I'd received the initial forwarded e-mail from Will! His puzzle had been published on May 22, 1969, making him the youngest constructor ever to be published in The New York Times! Congratulations again, Artie—that was an amazing achievement!
Artie and I finally got to meet each other in person at this year's ACPT—below is a picture of us there:
Today's featured puzzle is Artie Bennett's record-breaker! As stated above, it was originally published on May 22, 1969, and was recently litzed by yours truly. The grid has lots of Scrabbly letters—I especially like the entries TWEEZER, NOSEGAY, and SAVED UP! My favorite entry in the puzzle, though, is definitely OSCULATE (clued as "Kiss."), because it is such a cool word. Artie even mentioned that he wasn't very into osculating at the time he submitted this puzzle to Will Weng! I also really like how 1-Across and 1-Down are homophones. Overall, this puzzle is a very nice Will Weng–era themeless and a stellar debut for such a young constructor! The answer grid can be seen below:
Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is STUM. According to the Ginsberg database, STUM has appeared in just two Shortzian puzzles. STUM originally appeared in Artie's puzzle (the puzzle of the day) and was clued as "Unfermented grape juice." Britannica's definition of stum is as follows: "STUM, in the wine trade, is a name for the unfermented juice of the grape, when it has been several times racked off and separated from the sediment. The casks are, for this purpose, well fumigated with brimstone, in order to prevent fermentation, through which the juice would become wine." Below is a picture of some unfermented grape juice:
