Third Anniversary, All Puzzles Proofread, Missing Puzzles Update, ideacity News, Davidson Young Scholars Summit, and Mark Diehl Seven-Time Blast! Winner

Third Anniversary—All Puzzles Proofread

I'm delighted to announce that today is the third anniversary of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project, and all the proofread puzzles are now in!  Three years ago I started this blog and opened up the litzing, which I'd begun during my freshman year, to volunteers.  I had a great head start, thanks to the digitizing Barry Haldiman, Denny Baker, and others had already done of their favorite puzzles back in the day, and was able to systematize and massively expand the effort so that, one puzzle at a time, each of the available 16,225 puzzles would be tracked, litzed, and proofread.  And with the help of Jim Horne, creator of the incomparable XWord Info, these puzzles have gradually appeared online, year by year as we worked our way backwards through time, for everyone to enjoy.  Thanks so much again to everyone who's helped with this journey into crossword history!  Without each and every one of you, there's no way we would have come so far so quickly.  Though I still have to look through the remaining years of proofread puzzles before sending them off to XWord Info and do quite a bit of "cleanup" work with constructor names and previously posted puzzles, this is another huge milestone in the project!

Project Update

The final two batches of proofread puzzles came in over the past two weeks—the first on Thursday the 18th from Todd Gross, who sent 13 puzzles in which he'd found 89 mistakes.  (Todd also has a puzzle in today's New York Times, by the way, which he co-constructed with Andrea Carla Michaels and with which he's hit for the cycle—meaning he's now had a puzzle published on every day of the week!  Congratulations, Todd!)  And then on Friday the 26th Patsy Stewart sent in 12 more puzzles, marking the end of the proofreading—at least until the missing puzzles are found!  Thanks so much again, Todd and Patsy!

Missing Puzzles Update

Following up on my recent post about librarian Alan DerKazarian's missing puzzles research, I received two more e-mails from him with additional news.  In the first, he reported that he'd contacted the American Library in Paris and National Library of France about the 1953 New York Times strike papers and received this reply from the former:

Thank you for writing. We do have microfilm of the New York Times from those dates, but the run is quite unusual and prefaced with the following notice on the reel:

Notice: A strike affecting the major New York newspapers made it impossible to publish any editions of the New York Times during the first eight days of December, 1953. 

THE NEW YORK TIMES Book Review dated December 6, which was prepared and printed before the strike, was distributed with the Sunday, December 13th issue. 

At the beginning of this reel, you will find ten two-page papers dated November 29 through December 8. These were prepared day by day during the strike, but published after the strike and distributed as a special section of the Sunday, December 13, edition.

Since the microfilm reader at the American Library in Paris was unable to print and copy, the person who wrote back offered to photograph whatever Alan might want on the reel; Alan asked her if she could look through the two-page papers and send photos of any crosswords.  She found two and sent photos, but unfortunately, they were puzzles we already had.  Below are photos of the newspaper's notices:

Photos courtesy of the American Library in Paris.

Alan had not yet heard back from the National Library of France, and apparently the British libraries, although technically public, require an annual fee in order to use them or ask questions.  He did end up hearing from the National Library of France, though, and in a second e-mail wrote to me that the situation there was the same as at the American Library in Paris.

National Library of France response.

Courtesy of the National Library of France.

So, unfortunately, this is likely a dead end, at least with these nine days of missing puzzles.

I'm planning to be update the complete list of missing puzzles before I head off for Stanford (where, as a student, I may actually be able to access the British libraries), and when I do, I'll post it on this site.  Although we've struck out so far with this select group of missing puzzles, there are many others, some of which are missing not because of strikes but because of ProQuest's errors.  So I'm still hopeful that eventually some, if not all, of the puzzles will be found.  I'll also be putting out another call for those missing old crossword books—again, as soon as I've had a chance to update the list—which I think may be our best bet for locating the missing puzzles, even if we're never able to match up the dates definitively.  In the meantime, thanks so much again, Alan, for these valiant efforts!

Mark Diehl Seven-Time Blast! Winner!

Once more, the amazing Mark Diehl was the first to send in the correct answer to the Blast! challenge—making him a seven-time winner!  Congratulations, Mark!  Shortly after the second letter was revealed—at 8:43 a.m. on Sunday, June 14, to be exact!—Mark sent in the solution to this February 9, 1952, clue:  "Sales of this reached new high in 1951."  The answer:  POPCORN.  I'm not sure why popcorn sales exploded that year, but according to Wikipedia, "[d]uring World War II, sugar rations diminished candy production, and Americans compensated by eating three times as much popcorn as they had before."  So maybe they ramped up that habit even more after the war was over—or maybe the increase came with more people snacking while they watched TV in the 1950s!  Here's an ad from 1952 that links the two activities:

Image courtesy of pinterest.com.

Now that I'll be posting on a more occasional basis, I've decided to retire the Blast! feature, so the official champion is Mark Diehl—congratulations again, Mark!

ideacity News

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently gave an ideacity talk in Toronto about crosswords, and part of it was about the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project.  People really seemed to enjoy the speech—I probably had a couple of hundred people come up to me over the course of my amazing three days there asking me more about crosswords and the project, which was very gratifying!  While there I was also interviewed by a reporter from a Russian publication, and another reporter plans to interview me when I'm in Vancouver at the upcoming National Puzzlers' League convention, so I'm hoping to spread the word even further.  (Maybe I should just move to Canada!)  In any case, to see a video of the talk, click here.

Davidson Young Scholars Summit

Just a few days after returning from Toronto, I headed up to Reno, where I'd been invited to be a panelist at the Davidson Young Scholars Summit.  Since the Davidson award I received in 2013 was for the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project, that's what I was asked to discuss, and I spent quite a bit of time describing the initial stages of the project, how things had developed, challenges I'd encountered, the project's current status, and what the puzzles might show us in the future.  Having a chance to talk to so many interested students and parents was really gratifying, and I think they appreciated hearing about something as fun as crosswords!

Talking about the project.

40 Years of Puzzles Up, Alan DerKazarian's Missing Puzzles Research, Spreading the Word at ideacity, Upcoming Changes, and Mark Diehl Six-Time Blast! Winner

Project Update

This week we hit another milestone when I sent the proofread 1954 puzzles to XWord Info—there are now 40 years of puzzles up for everyone to enjoy!  Thanks again to Jim Horne for hosting them and making sure they're displayed as well as they can be!

The proofread puzzles have been coming in at a more relaxed pace over the past two weeks, in part because there's not much proofreading left!  The evening of Saturday, May 30, Denny Baker sent in 13 puzzles, after which I e-mailed him the very last batch for proofreading—all the way back to February 15, 1942!  Sunday morning he sent in those 11 puzzles, and then Monday afternoon Dave Phillips sent 6 more.  Tuesday afternoon, May 2, Mark Diehl sent in 13 puzzles from a ship on his way to Tallinn, and then about an hour later another 9.  There are only a few more puzzles out there, and I'm hoping to have those back within the next two weeks.  After that, there won't be any more litzing or proofreading until we're able to track down some of those missing puzzles!  Great job, everyone—thanks so much again!

Alan DerKazarian's Missing Puzzles Research

A couple of months ago I received an e-mail from Alan DerKazarian, a librarian at the Cambridge [Massachusetts] Public Library.  Since there's a New England edition of The New York Times, Alan wondered whether the Boston Public Library might have microfilms of the missing puzzles and volunteered to check.  Unfortunately, he wasn't able to find anything there; he did discover, though, that in 1948 the Times introduced an international edition, which was produced in New York and airmailed to Paris for publication a day later.  "Starting in 1960," Alan reported, "it was set by teletype for same-day publication."  Apparently in 1967 the Times discontinued its international edition and joined with the owners of the defunct Herald Tribune and The Washington Post to publish The International Herald Tribune in Paris.

Image courtesy of andrewcusack.com.

"So the international edition of the Times was never produced in Europe," he concluded, "meaning the paper strikes likely affected production of these issues as well."  Alan recommended contacting either the New York Public Library or the Times (which, I told him, someone else had already tried).  Alan had originally suggested I try traveling to Europe—a suggestion I liked a lot, by the way!  But since it will be a while before I'm able to do that, if any readers in Great Britain or France would like to look into this some more, I'd be most grateful!

Despite Alan's discouraging findings, I still do have hope that we'll locate at least some of the puzzles.  Margaret Farrar wrote the following in her introduction to Crosswords from the Daily Times–Series 9:

The crosswords that appear daily on the book page of The New York Times have been published concurrently in Paris and in Los Angeles since the inauguration of the International and the Western editions, in 1960 and 1962, respectively.  When newspaper publication in New York was suspended, in December 1962, the crosswords kept on going, flying east and west, until the twain met again in New York on April 1, 1963.

Those 100 puzzles appeared in this book and have already been litzed, but there are still many more missing puzzles from other strikes and because of ProQuest mistakes.  Hopefully we'll eventually find them; in the meantime, thanks so much again, Alan, for your great research!

Mark Diehl Six-Time Blast! Winner

On Monday, June 1 at 2:28 p.m.—just three days after I posted the May 29 Blast! challenge, with only three letters revealed, and while traveling between Copenhagen and Tallinn—Mark Diehl sent in the correct answer and became the first six-time winner!  Congratulations again, Mark!   The clue from the March 20, 1952, puzzle was "Reluctant new taxpayer."  The answer:  BOOKMAKER.  I'll bet there were plenty of objections to that change!

Image courtesy of sportsbookreview.com.

The new Blast! challenge is up in the sidebar, and it's a doozy—good luck!

Spreading the Word at ideacity

On Monday I'm heading off to Toronto, where I'll be giving an ideacity talk about crosswords.  Part of my speech will focus on The Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project—I'm looking forward to spreading the word about our amazing progress in such a (relatively!) short period of time!

Upcoming Changes

Right after I get back from Canada, I'll be leaving to be part of a panel discussion in Nevada, so the next blog post will appear after I return, on Monday, June 29, instead of Friday the 26th.  And then I'll be heading up to Vancouver for the National Puzzlers' League convention—and a couple of weeks later, to Northern California.  With all this traveling, my schedule will be pretty busy and irregular, so instead of posting each week on Friday, I'll be writing as time permits when there's news or a feature to present.  Now that the proofreading is almost done, there won't be weekly updates to report, but I'll still be posting when the puzzles go off to XWord Info and when (not if!) there's new information about the missing puzzles.

Featured Puzzle

Today's featured puzzle was constructed by Roberta Morse; published September 6, 1954; edited by Margaret Farrar; litzed by yours truly; and proofread by Mark Diehl.  The puzzle has been uploaded to XWord Info, so you can solve it before reading the write-up.  This crossword's theme is centered around a nifty little number rebus.  I especially like that the 1, 2, 3, and 4 squares appear in order in the grid, even though they're not placed symmetrically.  I also appreciate that 1-Down is literally 1 DOWN—and, by extension, that the 1 is in square one.  I find it slightly off-putting that the FIVE in FIVE STAR ADMIRAL is spelled out, but I appreciate the effort to make the central 15-letter entry thematic.  I personally would have preferred a reveal entry in that position, but given that this is likely the first published rebus crossword, I'm more awestruck by the innovation than annoyed by the minor inconsistency!  By bringing the word count up to 80, the constructor was able to keep the fill smooth and incorporate a handful of lively entries into the nonthematic fill.  My favorites are BARRACUDA, OVERTHROW, TEETOTALER, THUNDERS, BARNYARD, and ENDEARMENT—that's a lot of zip for a themed puzzle, let alone a rebus!  Conversely, the constructor was stuck with the awkward partial LAK A (as in "Mighty Lak a Rose"), CIRO (clued as "Well-known Paris restaurateur."), JURA ("Franco-Swiss mountain range."), and SAROS ("Gulf of the Aegean Sea.").  I also wasn't thrilled to see TEN STONE in the grid, since it contains a number that's not part of the sequence.  This is a remarkably small number of liabilities given all the assets, though!  So even with its drawbacks, this puzzle is definitely one of my favorites from 1954.  I am, however, a bit surprised that Margaret Farrar chose to run it on a Monday—usually she saved puzzles that were extra-tricky for Saturdays.  Then again, the fill was pretty clean, and I remember reading somewhere that Margaret's philosophy about difficulty was that higher word counts led to easier solves.  This raises an interesting point:  Was Margaret right?  My first instinct would be to disagree, since any puzzle can be made easier or more challenging via the clues.  Also, many ambitious stunt puzzles (such as bidirectional rebuses) require grids with higher word counts to pull off.  That said, puzzles with higher word counts also tend to have more shorter entries, and there are only so many 3-, 4-, and 5-letter entries that show up in crosswords.  Often, these common short entries are difficult to disguise, even if their clues are tough.  Take ENERO in my New York Times crossword that was published today.  The clue was "Part of summer in Latinoamerica," which is definitely not as straightforward as "January, to Juan," but I would still instantly fill in ENERO since . . . what else could it be?  Perhaps the difference between average and expert solvers is that experts have a predetermined list of common entries subconsciously at the fronts of their brains—when they see a new clue, they automatically run through this list and frequently land on the correct answer instantaneously.  In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed looking through this Roberta Morse crossword.  The solution grid (with highlighted theme entries) appears below; the puzzle can also be accessed and analyzed on XWord Info here.

1955 Puzzles Done, Denny Baker on C. E. Noel, Todd Gross on Charles Erlenkotter, and Howard Barkin Three-peat Blast! Winner

Project Update

Great news:  The proofread 1955 puzzles are now done and, thanks to Jim Horne, should be up on XWord Info soon!  And I just sent off the second-to-last batch of proofreading yesterday—only one more packet remains!  As for puzzles, this week Denny Baker started us off Saturday morning with 13, then another 13 Sunday night.  Monday afternoon Mark Diehl sent 13, then 13 more that night.  Late Wednesday afternoon, while waiting for a flight at JFK, Mark sent 13 more (reminding me of the days when he'd litz on the go—see the August 10, 2012, post!).  Then early Thursday morning Todd Gross sent 13 more puzzles, in which he found 37 mistakes.  Thanks so much again, everyone—we're almost there!

I'll be graduating from high school next Thursday and then staying up all night for Grad Nite at some secret location in Southern California, so the next blog post will be in two weeks—right before I leave for ideacity in Toronto!

Howard Barkin Three-peat Blast! Winner

Congratulations to Howard Barkin, who not only was the first to solve last week's very tricky Blast! challenge but is also a three-peat winner!  Howard sent in the correct answer (and managed to break Mark Diehl's amazing winning streak!) on Sunday after just two letters had been revealed.  The clue, from the March 14, 1952, puzzle, was "Status of the children of the old woman who lived in a shoe."  The answer:  UNDERFOOT (as in the illustration below!).

Image courtesy of thegraphicsfairy.com

As usual, there's a new Blast! challenge up in the sidebar—the name of the first person to solve it correctly will be announced in two weeks!

Denny Baker on C. E. Noel

Following up on last week's post about C. E. Noel—which may have been a pseudonym for Charles Erlenkotter—I received an e-mail from Denny Baker, who said he'd guessed that the "C. E." stood for Christmas Eve (since the puzzle appeared on December 24).  This is a very interesting possibility too, especially since quite a bit of time had elapsed between the publication of this puzzle and Charles Erlenkotter's preceding puzzles in the Times.

Todd Gross on Charles Erlenkotter

In addition, some time ago litzer, proofreader, and historian Todd Gross wrote to me about some research he'd been conducting on Charles Erlenkotter.  Here's what he dug up:

I finally bagged the big one.  The one who started it all at the NY Times: Charles Erlenkotter.

I'd tried in the past, and didn't find much even though I had a "secret" advantage: I had an address for him.  In Montreal.

Courtesy of The New York Herald Tribune, October
26, 1929.

That's from the 26 Oct 1929 New York Herald-Tribune (the latest puzzle I have by him from the H-T).  I tried Ancestry.com, but didn't find much of anything.  But I tried again recently, and this time I tried Google.  And I found out a bit more about him:

I found a couple of articles in the Montreal Gazette that mentioned he was the manager of the Montreal office of the Hamburg-American Line.  I'm enclosing one from 1933.

Courtesy of The Montreal Gazette,
September 12, 1933.

The Hamburg-American Line is actually pretty interesting in its own right.  The company managed to survive two world wars (much of their fleet was taken as war reparations in both wars) to merge into Hapag-Lloyd in 1970 (they're the Hapag part).

But back to Charles: I'd assumed he was Canadian given the address and the lack of info on Ancestry (my membership only covers U.S. records, I can see the existence of foreign records but I can't look at them).  But this time Ancestry.com was more helpful.  I'll get to that in a bit.  First I should probably mention an interesting blurb I found in a NY paper Daily Argus in 1937.  It says that Louise Erlenkotter of White Plains had passed away and left $3,500 to her son "Charles Erlenkotter of Montreal, Can."  So that ties Charles to upstate NY, which connected him to records I got from Ancestry.com.

Courtesy of The Daily Argus, January 25, 1937.

As the Ancestry bio shows, Charles Erlenkotter was born in Hoboken, NJ on 9 Jun 1881 and passed away 26 Sep 1948 in White Plains, NY.  I don't know when he returned to the US, and alas I haven't found an obituary...or any other document that verifies that date, but Ancestry seems rather sure about it.

Courtesy of Ancestry.com.

Fascinating finds, Todd—thanks so much again for all your great research!

Denny Baker's C. E. Noel Discovery, Margaret Farrar in CROSSW RD Magazine, More on Robert Guilbert, Mark Diehl Five-Time Blast! Winner, and Pondering Two-Letter Entries

Project Update

This week was jump-started last Friday afternoon by Todd Gross, who sent in 9 puzzles with 58 mistakes.  Then less than an hour later Denny Baker sent in 14 more.  On Sunday afternoon Mark Diehl sent 13, which were followed by another 14 from Denny that night.  And Wednesday night Denny sent 13 more.  Great job, everyone, and thanks again!  I'm now sending out puzzles from 1943—the end is definitely in sight, and by early next week I should have the 1955 puzzles ready to send to XWord Info!

Denny Baker's C. E. Noel Discovery

As Denny was proofreading this past week, he made a great discovery:  The December 24, 1944, puzzle was by C. E. Noel, which he pointed out was an obvious pseudonym.  I hadn't noticed that before, and when Denny wondered who it could have been, my guess was Charles Erlenkotter.  Charles published five puzzles in the Times in 1942, including the first one ever on February 15, 1942; three in 1943; and one—if this was indeed his—in 1944.  According to my records, this puzzle was his last for the Times, and Ancestry.com lists a Charles Erlenkotter who passed away in 1948 in White Plains, New York.  Thanks so much again, Denny, for noticing this pseudonym!

Mark Diehl Five-Time Blast! Winner

Litzer, proofreader, and now Blast! solver extraordinaire Mark Diehl is on a winning streak!  On Monday at 10:30 a.m., after three letters had been revealed, he was the first to solve last week's super-hard Blast! challenge and is now the first five-time Blast! winner—congratulations again, Mark!  The clue, which was from the June 16, 1952, puzzle, was "Legal status for oleo in New York, July 1, 1952."  The answer:  PRECOLORED.  Sounds appetizing . . . not!

Image courtesy of beachpackagingdesign.com.

This week's Blast! challenge is up in the sidebar, as usual—good luck!

Margaret Farrar in CROSS WORD Magazine

Photo copyright 1992, 2015, Megalo Media, Inc. Re-
printed by permission of Stan Chess and CROSSW-RD
Magazine.

I've been continuing to make my way through the old issues of CROSSW RD Magazine, and this week I've posted Helene Hovanec's wonderful portrait of Margaret Farrar on Scribd.  "A Crossword Hall-of-Famer:  Margaret Farrar" was originally published in the November/December 1992 issue of CROSSW RD Magazine; to read it, click here.  The article was introduced by Helene's short piece "Robert Guilbert's Crossword Academy," which you can read here.  Guilbert spent the final years of his life trying to establish a crossword academy; I wrote about him and his American Crossword Puzzle Academy and Hall of Fame in posts on November 21, 2014; December 5, 2014; and December 19, 2014.  Although Guilbert's vision was never realized, Helene pointed out that "the raison d'etre behind his Academy—honoring the people who have contributed most to the profession—will continue in another format—through CROSSW RD magazine's establishment of a Crossword Hall of Fame."  Margaret Farrar was the first inductee.

Featured Puzzle:  Pondering Two-Letter Entries 

Today's featured puzzle, whose constructor is unknown, was published Friday, May 2, 1952; edited by Margaret Farrar; litzed by Barry Haldiman; and proofread by Mark Diehl.  According to my records, this is the penultimate New York Times puzzle whose grid included two-letter entries for nonthematic purposes; the last, which was published August 1 of that year, is also an interesting construction and will likely be featured in a future blog post.  In any case, I find this 72-word themeless fascinating, even though it technically violates a basic rule of crossword construction.  By breaking the rules, the constructor was able to create double-stacks of twelve- and fourteen-letter entries, a feat that is much more difficult under modern grid restrictions.  The twelve- and fourteen-letter entries are all very nice, my favorite being the timely/anticommunist FREE NATIONS.  Both the two-letter entries the constructor used, OF and NT, seem stronger to me than numerous other short entries in the puzzle, such as TORP (clued as "Small farm, in Sweden.") and NEI ("Moslem flute: Var.").  I find it slightly annoying that OF crosses NORTH OF IRELAND, but I've seen many more major duplicates, even in modern-day constructions.  I wonder, are two-letter entries really that bad?  They've been banned in crosswords for many years, but how many more impressive constructions could be produced if they were allowed again?  Could, for example, the lowest block count (17) be pushed even lower?  And would the inclusion of two-letter entries reduce the number of stale three- and four-letter entries that solvers always complain about, such as EKE and ALAI?  The natural argument against two-letter entries is that there are a limited number of them, which would make for an overly predictable solving experience.  Then again, there are 676 possible two-letter combinations, and would an occasional two-letter word be that detrimental to the solving experience?  I doubt these questions will ever be answered, especially since there's no Theoretical Crosswords major at any college (darn!).  But returning to the puzzle, I also appreciated the mid-length and longish fill in its grid, especially BOTTICELLI, RACCOONS, and HOUDINI.  BARBUSSE ("Henri ___, author of 'Under Fire,' 1916."), SAKHALIN ("Large island off coast of Siberia."), KRUTCH ("Joseph Wood ___, author of 'The Desert Year.'"), and NOROTON ("Town on L. I. sound above Stamford, Conn.") were all new to me, though the Stamford reference in the last of these clues made me smile!  Perhaps NOROTON would be a better place for a Scrabble tournament, given that its name consists of seven friendly letters (although NOROTON itself would be an illegal play).  In all, this is a fascinating and thought-provoking pre-Shortzian puzzle, despite its major shortcoming, and I'm looking forward to looking through more puzzles that make me ponder crossword conventions!  As usual, the solution to this week's featured puzzle can be seen below:

1956 Puzzles Up, Todd Gross on Jean J. Davison, and Mark Diehl First Four-Time Blast! Winner

Project Update

We've been making great progress on the proofreading, and the 1956 puzzles are now up on XWord Info, thanks to Jim Horne!  This week's puzzles started coming in on Friday night, when Denny Baker sent 15, which were followed by 13 from Mark Diehl.  Late Saturday night Mark sent another 13, then Sunday morning Denny sent 8, followed a few hours later by 1 more.  That evening Mark sent 13, which were followed a short while later by 9 from Denny and another 13 from Mark.  Monday afternoon Mark sent 13 more, and Tuesday afternoon Denny sent 12 and then another 8 Wednesday afternoon.  That night Mark sent 16 more, then another 15 Thursday morning, which were followed by 12 from new proofreader Patsy Stewart (who found 83 mistakes).  Thanks so much again, everyone!  The next puzzles that go out for proofreading will be from 1944, so we have less than three years left!

Mark Diehl First Four-Time Blast! Winner

I'm delighted to announce that Mark Diehl is the first four-time Blast! from the Past winner—congratulations, Mark!  Sunday morning at 9:34 a.m., after just two letters had been revealed, he sent in the correct answer to the May 18, 1952, clue "It threatens to crack."  The answer:  SOLID SOUTH.  Mark noted that the South "did 'crack' a bit during Eisenhower's election to the presidency."

1952 House Election Map. Image courtesy of uselec-
tionatlas.org. 

This week's Blast! challenge is now up in the sidebar—good luck, everyone!

Todd Gross on Jean J. Davison

Photo credit:  John A. Davison

Some time ago litzer, proofreader, and historian Todd Gross sent me an e-mail about pre-Shortzian constructor Jean J. Davison.  According to my records, Jean published at least 62 puzzles in The New York Times from 1972 to 1993.  Todd wrote:

This time, I looked up Jean J Davison.  With a good bit of effort, and some piecing together, I can definitely say I found her.  However, it's not as simple as that.  Here's the problem: there are three people named Jean Davison in roughly the same part of the world whose biographies overlap.  Two, in fact, have lived in Burlington, VT, which really confused me for a while.  There are other Jean Davisons who also confused me at times.

The one I'm sure about developed TV Crosswords for what is now Universal U-Click and has authored a few books, including one about Lee Harvey Oswald.  I am enclosing a detailed bio of her, which mentions the crossword puzzles.

Though I'm not 100% sure, I have good reason to believe she is still alive, and living in Burlington, VT.

Here's the biography Todd found:

Fascinating research, Todd—thanks so much again!  It's amazing that two of the three Jean Davisons with overlapping biographies lived in Burlington, Vermont!  Looking for a photo of Jean, I did a little more research; as Todd mentions, she did indeed write a book on Lee Harvey Oswald, and I discovered that she has an author page on Amazon.com.  Her book, Oswald's Game, was published in 1983 by W. W. Norton and included an introduction by Norman Mailer.  A search of her name on the Web site JFKfacts.org didn't produce any photos of her but did show that Jean was still active on the site earlier this year.  And, following up on a link to a review of her book, I finally found a photo of her, which I've posted above. 

Image courtesy of oswalds-game.
blogspot.com.

1957 Puzzles Up, Blast! Winners List, Jim Horne's Baseball Cards, Eric Albert in CROSSW RD Magazine, and Mark Diehl Three-peat Blast! Winner

Project Update

Great news—the 1957 puzzles are now up on XWord Info, and I'm making my way through the ones from 1956, which have all been proofread!  Thanks again to Jim Horne for hosting them!

It's been another busy week, starting off on Saturday afternoon with 31 proofread puzzles from Mark Diehl!  Sunday evening Denny Baker sent 13 more, and then Monday morning Todd Gross sent in 9 (in which he found 45 mistakes).  Late Tuesday afternoon Denny sent 11 more, which were followed by 31 from Mark that night and another 30 from Mark later on.  Wednesday afternoon Mark sent 31 more, then another 20 at the end of the afternoon and 14 more Thursday morning.  And then Friday afternoon Todd Gross finished off the week with another 13 puzzles (which contained 95 mistakes)!  Great job, everyone—thanks so much!  We're now zipping through the 1940s, when there were no daily puzzles, so at this rate we should be done with all the proofreading in the not-too-distant future!

Mark Diehl Three-peat Blast! Winner

Congratulations to Mark Diehl, who, on Monday at 9:46 a.m., after three letters had been revealed, was the first to send in the correct answer to last week's Blast! challenge.  Mark is also another three-peat winner—congrats, congrats, congrats, Mark!  The clue, from the September 7, 1952, puzzle, was "It's all the rage in drugstores."  The answer:  CHLOROPHYLL.  I wasn't around back then, so it's hard for me to imagine throngs of shoppers lining up to buy chlorophyll!  And Mark noted, "I don't remember it being 'the rage' as a deodorizer, but apparently it was—though it was scientifically debunked in the form being sold."

Image courtesy of vintageadbrowser.com

Blast! Winners Now on Contest Totals Page

There's a new Blast! feature now on the Contest Totals page, where you'll find a list of all the Blast! challenge winners so far, in alphabetical order by last name and with the dates their wins were announced, by number of Blast! challenges won.  Keeping track of everyone's wins was becoming increasingly "challenge-ing," so this should help!  Maybe this week's Blast! (see the sidebar) will even give us our first four-time winner!

Jim Horne's Baseball Cards Feature

Jim Horne has a terrific baseball card feature up on XWord Info!  This is a fun and easy way to keep track of pre-Shortzian constructors' "stats."  For example, as Jim pointed out, there are now 72 puzzles by Helen Fasulo up on the site.  Since Helen Fasulo never published a Sunday crossword in the Times, her name would have been lost to history if we hadn't gone through the process of matching the bylines from the Farrar daily puzzle collections to my spreadsheet.  Now if only we could find her photo!

Eric Albert in CROSSW RD Magazine

As some of you may remember, back in November 2013 I posted a link to Eric Albert's fascinating 1992 article "Crosswords by Computer—or 1,000 Nine-Letter Words a Day for Fun and Profit."  As I was looking through more old issues of CROSSW RD Magazine this week, I was delighted to discover a profile of this crossword software pioneer by Helene Hovanec.  The article, "A Man, a Plan, a Computer," appeared in the September/October 1992 issue and is now on Scribd.  Here's a particularly interesting quote:

. . . there's a reason I sell everything I do and there's a reason I got so popular so quickly.  Unlike the majority of others I construct to make money.  I didn't grow up thinking someday I wanted to be a crossword constructor.  Most people in this business really enjoy sitting down and making crossword puzzles.  The reason I got into this was to make a living; so I spend all my energies on two things—trying to make the editors happy and trying to make the solvers happy.  I almost never construct a puzzle to make me happy.

Photo copyright 1992, 2015, Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted by
permission of Stan Chess and CROSSW-RD Magazine.

Featured Puzzle

I thought I'd hit the pre-Shortzian crossword jackpot when I discovered last week's featured 68-worder, though much to my surprise, I discovered an exceptional 66-worder just a few days later!  This crossword, whose constructor is also unknown, was published May 24, 1952; edited by Margaret Farrar; litzed by Denny Baker; and proofread by Mark Diehl.  The puzzle had so much strong fill that I never would have guessed the word count was so low!  My favorite entries are CAPTIVE AUDIENCE, RHODESIAN, MOONLIGHT, BARREL OF MONKEYS, GAS TANK, RIN TIN TIN, and PIPELINE.  I was also pleased to learn a few new longer terms, such as ARCHCHIEF (clued as "Supreme tribal ruler."), OREGON OAK ("Valuable hard wood grown on the Pacific Coast."), and STORM KING ("Peak on the Hudson near West Point.").  Most of these strong and/or interesting entries are concentrated in the center section of the puzzle, which I'm amazed required so little glue to hold together!  That said, the gluey entries that were needed strike me as especially unfortunate.  PECAS ("Freckles: Spanish") is a tough foreign word; REBET ("Wager again.") isn't in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary; and AGEN ("Again: Dial."), BAGA ("Rutabaga, for short."), and SLAN ("Sine loco, anno, nomine [without place, year, or name]: Abbr.") are so iffy that they pretty much have to be clued such that they become giveaways.  Overall, though, the good stuff definitely outweighed the bad, and I really appreciate how the constructor pushed the envelope in terms of grid design during a period of New York Times crossword history in which some grids still contained two-letter words!  I realize that tough-to-fill grids almost always lead to numerous compromises in the fill.  Thus, in my opinion, the quality of the smaller/easier-to-fill sections says the most about a constructor's skill.  Check out how smooth the middle right and middle left sections of this puzzle are—not a single unfamiliar word, name, or abbreviation!  That's how I know the constructor must have been truly desperate to resort to an entry like SLAN—that is, he or she almost certainly looked for many alternatives before settling on such a major obscurity.  If I had to make a guess as to who constructed this puzzle, I'd go with Jack Luzzatto, one of the all-time greats who frequently experimented with wide-open grids!  Regardless, this is a very nice pre-Shortzian puzzle, and I hope to see more like it as I finish off reviewing the last couple of years of daily crosswords.  For now, here's the solution grid:

Todd Gross on Natalie Hankemeyer, Blast! Challenge Changes, and Featured Puzzle

Project Update

Despite my trip, it's been an amazingly busy two weeks on the proofreading front!  The afternoon of Saturday the 18th, Denny Baker kicked things off with 31 proofread puzzles.  He sent 11 more Monday morning and another 17 that afternoon.  Monday night Mark Diehl sent in 31 puzzles, which were followed by 31 more late that night and another 30 Tuesday night.  Wednesday morning Denny sent 30 more, and that night Mark sent another 31.  Then Thursday afternoon Mark sent 31 more, which were followed by 30 from Denny Friday morning and another 30 from Mark a few hours later.  Saturday morning Mark sent 31 more, then another 30 that afternoon, then 30 more that night.  Sunday morning Mark sent in 24 more, which were followed by 31 from Denny a few hours later, then another 21 from Mark and 25 from Dave Phillips that night.  Early Monday morning Todd Gross sent 8, then late that afternoon Mark sent 30 more.  Tuesday afternoon Mark sent another 31, which were followed by 30 from Denny that evening.  Late Wednesday morning Mark sent 30 more, then another 31 that evening.  Thursday morning Mark sent 30 more, which were followed by 5 from Todd that afternoon, 31 more from Mark, and another 7 from Mark.  Finally, Friday morning Denny sent 10 more, which were followed four minutes later by another 28 from Mark.  Whew—this is amazing!  Great job and thanks so much again, everyone—we're making terrific progress!

I actually have all the proofread puzzles from 1952 through 1957 at this point and am just doing final checks on them all—a process that takes quite a while, since it involves quickly reading through each entry, resolving litzer and proofreader comments and queries, and checking all the dates.  I'm hoping to finish off 1957 within the next few days—unfortunately, travel, school, and exams have kept me way too busy lately!  But the good news is that summer is almost here, and I'm now sending out puzzles from 1950—the year the daily puzzles began!  Monday, September 11, 1950, was the first, so from February 15, 1942, through September 10, 1950—just eight years—we'll only be dealing with Sunday puzzles!  The end is near!

Blast! Challenge Solution—and Changes

The most recent Blast! challenge remained unsolved!  The clue, from a 1953 puzzle, was "What moviemakers are scurrying to achieve."  The answer:  THREE DIMENSIONS.  I'm guessing those moviemakers would be amazed by things like today's Avengers:  Age of Ultron, which I can't wait to see in IMAX 3D, even at $19.49 per ticket!

I've noticed that a few Blast! challenges have gone unsolved even when—and perhaps because—the revealed letters make the answer pretty obvious.  So starting with this week's Blast!, I'm going to stop automatically revealing a new letter every day.  The number of revealed letters will vary each week depending on the length and complexity of the answer.  I'll announce beneath the Blast! when no more letters will be forthcoming.  Good luck with this week's challenge, which you'll find in the sidebar as usual!

Todd Gross on Natalie Hankemeyer

Some time ago litzer, proofreader, and historian Todd Gross contacted me about Natalie Hankemeyer, a New York Times constructor who published at least seven puzzles in the pre-Shortzian era.  Here's what he wrote:

I'm not 100% sure I found the constructor, but the circumstantial evidence is pretty solid, and quite interesting.  The person I found was born in 1898 in Oklahoma somewhere and passed away in 1980 near Boston.  But in between, she worked largely as a reporter, editor, and secretary, in some rather interesting roles.  She was an editor for Response, a publication of the United Methodist church that still exists, also an executive secretary for the American Friends of Spanish Democracy (AFSD) in the 30's and at a variety of positions in China (!) after WW II, including with United China Relief as a director of press publicity and with the World Church Religious News Service.  She also submitted . . . [this] . . . as a correspondent with China Tribune.  I haven't found an obituary for her, but it looks like someone could have written a very interesting one.

Indeed—I searched too but couldn't find one.  Thanks so much again for this great research, Todd!

Featured Puzzle

Today's featured puzzle, whose constructor is unknown, was published September 12, 1952; edited by Margaret Farrar; and litzed by Nancy Kavanaugh.  When I first laid eyes on this themeless's grid, my jaw dropped—in fact, I immediately pulled up my Puzzles to Feature Word document and typed HOME-RUN THEMELESS next to this puzzle's date!  I'd observed a number of impressive themelesses with interlocking triple-stacked nines published at the tail end of 1952, but never one with just 68 words.  A closer look revealed that, unlike the other interlocking triple-nine-stack puzzles I'd seen, this one had smooth and even lively nine-letter entries, not to mention clean surrounding fill.  And check out those wide-open middle sections, which even contain a couple of ten-letter-entries!  Unfortunately, the constructor is unknown, though I have a feeling the culprit was Thomas Meekin.  Meekin constructed all the other interlocking triple-nine-stack puzzles I've seen thus far, along with a number of other silky smooth 74-word themelesses.  In any case, my favorite entries are SEEPAGE, WOMANKIND, IMPUDENCE, PENITENCE, AVALANCHE, MANCHESTER, and RETICENCE.  That's a lot of zip for a 68-word stunt puzzle!  On the minus side, there are three somewhat contrived -ER/-OR entries (LEVITATOR, INTONER, and PRETENDER), and SLATELESS (clued as "Lacking a list of candidates."), ENCOOP ("Cage, as fowl."), and UNSHARP aren't really in the language.  But I'm just picking nits at this point—this puzzle is truly a masterpiece, especially considering that it was built without computer software!  The clues are mostly definition-based, though one did stand out to me:  "Farouk's $16,800,000 collection." for STAMPS.

Farouk at around age 16. Image courtesy
of heart--2--heart.blogspot.com.

Who was this Farouk figure, and how did he have so much money to devote to philately?  Apparently Farouk became king of Egypt in 1936, when he was just 16 years old.  I could build crosswords at age 16, but I can't imagine ruling a country at such a young age!  If I did have such an opportunity, I'd probably spend the money on crossword paraphernalia rather than on stamps, but that's beside the point.  Farouk was deposed in 1952 during the Egyptian Revolution, and many of his royal possessions were confiscated, including collections of coins, cars, and even pornography!  That's a fun bit of history, though it didn't impress me quite as much as this week's featured puzzle, which can be seen below:

1958 Puzzles Up, Frances Hansen in CROSSW RD Magazine, and Mark Diehl First to Solve Blast! Challenge

Project Update

Another year is done:  The 1958 puzzles, which you can see here, are now up on XWord Info—thanks again to Jim Horne for hosting them!  And we're well on our way with more—Friday night Mark Diehl sent in 31 proofread puzzles, then another 22 Saturday night, and 18 more later on!  Sunday morning he sent in 13 puzzles, which were followed by 21 more late that afternoon.  Early Monday morning Todd Gross sent 10 puzzles with 50 mistakes (and a grand total of 403, if you count all the missing periods!).  Then Tuesday morning Mark sent another 14 puzzles, with 19 more appearing that night.  Wednesday morning Todd sent in 10, which were followed by 15 from Denny Baker and then 31 more from Mark and another 7 from him just after noon—a banner morning for proofreading if there ever was one!  Thursday morning Todd sent 11 more, then that afternoon Mark sent another 28, which were followed by 28 more that evening from Denny.  And Friday morning Mark sent another 31 puzzles.  Thanks so much again, everyone—we've made tremendous progress this week!

I'll be attending an admitted students event at Stanford (not Stamford!) for several days next week, so the next blog post will be in two weeks, when I hope to be finished with the 1957 puzzles!  As always, you can continue to send in proofread puzzles while I'm gone, though I may not be able to send out any new ones until my return.

Mark Diehl First to Solve Blast! Challenge

Mark Diehl was the first person to solve last week's Blast! challenge—he sent in his answer late Saturday night, after only one letter (the E) had been revealed!  Congratulations, Mark!  The clue from the July 12, 1956, puzzle was "Quest of the modern 'forty-niner.'"  The answer:  URANIUM ORE.  This clue certainly enriched my understanding of the 1950s!

As usual, you'll find the next Blast! challenge in the sidebar—the name of the first person to solve it correctly will be announced in two weeks!

Frances Hansen in CROSSW RD Magazine

I've been going through a few more issues of CROSSW RD Magazine, and this week I've posted Helene Hovanec's wonderful profile, "The Limerick Lady," of the legendary Frances Hansen on Scribd—to read it, click here.  Although Frances was perhaps most famous for her limericks, she can also be credited with popularizing the rebus puzzle:  She was among the first constructors to regularly use this then-novel gimmick.  Another interesting thing about Frances is that although her first Times puzzle on record dates back to 1964, she didn't publish any daily-sized crosswords until 1983!  She was truly a master of Sunday grids.

Photo copyright 1992, 2015, Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted
by permission of Stan Chess and CROSSW-RD Magazine.

The article mentions that one of Frances's puzzles inspired humorist Russell Baker to write "Crashing into Crosswordland," a hilarious column that appeared in the January 19, 1975, New York Times and that can be accessed for free through many libraries on ProQuest.

Featured Puzzle

Today's featured puzzle was constructed by Eugene T. Maleska; published September 10, 1955; edited by Margaret Farrar; and litzed by Mark Diehl.  Seven entries in this puzzle's grid contain the word HORSE; as a bonus (and to make the theme symmetrical), CLOSE RACE was added as an eighth theme entry.  Generally I'm not a big fan of repeated-word themes, but this one stood out to me for two reasons.  First, the interlock of the theme entries is remarkable!  Having double-stacks of 9- and 10-letter entries cross was especially uncommon in pre-Shortzian themeless puzzles, so pulling off such an ambitious grid using only thematic 9- and 10-letter entries was no mean feat.  More significantly, however, the HORSE parts of all the theme entries look like they're competing in a close race, provided that the grid is treated as a racetrack.  This interpretation of the theme entries' layout may be a bit of a stretch—the constructor may simply have been striving for impressive theme entry interlock—but I was totally feeling the visual element!  The assortment of bonus horse-related entries (such as MANEGE, SHOW, and STALL) scattered throughout the grid is another nice touch.  The nonthematic fill has a handful of chewy entries, though the puzzle was published on a Saturday, so the inclusion of tougher vocabulary is more forgivable.  Yes, I'm talking to you, PURLIEU ("Outlying district."), VOLANT (clued as "Able to fly."), and SOCORRO ("City in New Mexico.")!  Interestingly, the most esoteric entry in the grid, HORSE EMMET ("Large ant."), is one of the theme entries.  I wasn't able to dig up much information about this bugger!  On the flip side, DRY ICE and PREFAB are excellent, and GSC ("General Staff Corps: Abbr.") is the only real stinker among the 3- and 4-letter entries.  In all, this is a top-notch pre-Shortzian puzzle whose possible visual element really sung to me!  In fact, many of Maleska's Farrar-era constructions were standouts for their time.  In any case, here's the solution grid (with highlighted theme entries) for this puzzle:

Raymond Simon's Tribute to Bernice Gordon in GAMES, Awesome Crossword T-shirts, and Doug Peterson Another Three-peat Winner!

Project Update

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.

ACPT Wrap-Up, Unusual Entries, and Doug Peterson First to Solve Blast! Challenge

Project Update

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:

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.