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:

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:

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:

1959 Puzzles Done (35 Years!), American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in the Pre-Shortz Era, Nancy A. Corbett, and Three-peat Winner Barbara Hindenach

Project Update

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!

1960 Puzzles Up, Will Shortz in CROSSW RD Magazine, and Barbara Hindenach Solves Blast! Challenge—Again!

Project Update

It's been another busy week on the proofreading front, starting off with 5 puzzles from Mark Diehl on Friday night, which he followed up with 31 more Saturday morning, then another 31 that afternoon, and finally 30 more later on.  Tuesday night he sent another 31 puzzles, which were followed by 19 more.  Then early Wednesday morning Todd Gross sent 8 puzzles with 14 mistakes.  Soon thereafter Mark sent 7 more, and after that 31 came in from Denny Baker.  Thursday night Mark sent 26 more, which were followed by 31 more Friday afternoon.  Thanks so much again, everyone—we're continuing to make great progress!

Speaking of progress, I sent the 1960 proofread puzzles to Jim Horne at XWord Info Monday evening—to see them, click here.  Thanks again, Jim!  I'm hoping to have the 1959 puzzles ready within the next week or so.

Barbara Hindenach Solves Blast! Challenge—Again!

Congratulations to Barbara Hindenach, who was the first to solve last week's Blast! challenge—again!  Barbara sent in her answer Wednesday morning and was also the first to solve the February 20 challenge!  Last week's clue, from the July 28, 1956, puzzle, was "Item on the Congressional agenda."  The entry:  FORTY-NINTH STATE.  How times have changed!

New York Times, October 14, 1956.

This week's Blast! challenge is up in the sidebar and is a real doozy!

Will Shortz in CROSSW RD Magazine

I'm continuing to make my way through the old issues of CROSSW RD Magazine, and this week I'm delighted to post Helene Hovanec's fascinating profile of puzzlemaster Will Shortz!  "Renaissance Man:  Will Shortz" originally appeared in the May/June 1992 issue and can be seen on Scribd by clicking here.  A comprehensive overview of Will's legendary life in puzzles, this article is only missing one thing that might appear in a similar piece today:  an allusion to his other great passion, table tennis!

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

 

Featured Puzzle

Today's featured puzzle, titled "Triple Play," was constructed by Charles Baron; published April 8, 1956; edited by Margaret Farrar; litzed by Barry Haldiman; and proofread by Mark Diehl.  This innovative puzzle could well be the first Sunday-sized crossword with a triple-stack of grid-spanning entries!  And although I haven't yet looked through the last few years of daily crosswords, I wouldn't be surprised if this were the first Times crossword to contain a triple-stack of grid-spanning entries.  What makes this puzzle even more remarkable is that the constructor didn't just settle for an ordinary stack of 21-letter entries—he chose three that are somewhat related in that they could all fit under the umbrella of Americana:  THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR, SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFIT, and UNITED STATES TERRITORY!  Other sparkly entries in the puzzle's 136-word grid include SARCASM, RAW FOOD, MARTYRS, LABRADOR, and LOVABLE.  I find it amazing that, despite the triple stack and wide-open corners, the constructor was able to squeeze in so much zip!  Not surprisingly, the stack and open corners necessitated a handful of major obscurities, such as AMANIA (Afghanistan gold unit.), CRIBRAL (Of sieve-like structure.), MATSURI (Japanese religious festival.), PAEGELS (Danish liquid measures.), and SISTANI (Natives of SW Afghanistan.).  That said, the majority of the entries crossing the tri-stack are perfectly fine.  Thus, from a technical perspective, I think the constructor did an admirable job!  The clues are mostly standard, though there are a couple that caught my eye:  "Scene of Russian visitation." for ENGLAND and "Descriptive of our age." for JET.  While looking through packets, I've made a point of noting every potential Cold War or Space Age reference I come across.  I'm hoping that all these contemporary clues, when read together, will provide a unique perspective on 20th-century history!  My dream would be to discover patterns in the pre-Shortzian crosswords that would detail a World War II or Cold War plot, sort of like what John Nash was seeking in magazines and newspapers in A Beautiful Mind, though I highly doubt that such patterns were present in the early puzzles.  So for now, I'll just stick to my goal of coming up with a new perspective!  Philosophy and speculation aside, here's the solution to the featured puzzle:

Merl Reagle in CROSSW RD Magazine and Todd Gross on Con Pederson

Project Update

Our proofreaders have been very busy again this week, starting off on Friday night with 3 puzzles from Mark Diehl!  He sent 31 more Saturday morning, another 30 that afternoon, and 31 more that night.  Early Sunday morning Todd Gross sent 6 with 10 mistakes, which were followed by four more shipments that day from Mark:  31, 16, 30, and 6 (whew!).  Monday afternoon Todd sent 14 more puzzles with 30 mistakes, and then Denny Baker sent in 25 more.  That night Mark sent another 30, then 31 more Tuesday night, another 29 Wednesday night, and 9 more Thursday afternoon.  That night, Denny sent another 30.  Great job, everyone—thanks so much again!

I'm just finishing going over the 1960 proofread puzzles, which are taking a bit longer than I expected, and working my way through packets from the mid-1950s before sending them out for proofreading.  Sometimes the litzed puzzles are incomplete, have incorrect dates, or contain other obvious problems, which I try to resolve before they get proofread.  It's a long, slow process, but we'll get there!  Thanks again, everyone!

Blast! Challenge Unsolved

Last week's Blast! challenge was unsolved—I guess it was a real stumper!  The clue, which was a mouthful and from the May 19, 1957, puzzle, was "Resurgent type of feminine pulchritude."  The entry:  PLATINUM BLOND.  Here's a photo of Marilyn Monroe, perhaps the most famous platinum blond—and example of feminine pulchritude!

Photo courtesy of thehairstyler.com.

There's a new Blast! challenge up in the sidebar—hopefully this one will prove easier!

New Nancy Schuster Photo

After last week's post appeared, Nancy Schuster e-mailed me and sent along a great photo from her Dell days—thanks so much, Nancy!

Nancy Schuster (center) at Dell with (left to right) Leslie Billig, Kelly Gary, Linda
Colonna, and Joel Hess.

Merl Reagle in CROSSW RD Magazine

This week I've posted Helene Hovanec's wonderful two-part profile of legendary constructor Merl Reagle on Scribd.  Titled "West Coast Contemporary:  Merl Reagle," this piece originally appeared in the September/October and November/December 1991 issues of CROSSW RD Magazine and can be seen by clicking here.  Merl began constructing puzzles as a child and has led an amazing life—if things had worked out differently, he might well have become a screenwriter or even a rock star!  Luckily for us, he became one of the greatest and most amusing constructors ever.

Photo copyright 1991, 2015, Megalo Media,
Inc. Reprinted by permission of Stan Chess and
CROSSW-RD Magazine.

Todd Gross on Con Pederson

Litzer, proofreader, and historian Todd Gross was doing some research on pre-Shortzian constructors recently and wrote me about Con Pederson, who appeared to have published at least three puzzles in the pre-Shortz era.  That turned out to be incorrect, as Todd explains below, and I have since sent the corrections to Jim Horne at XWord Info.

Photo by William Moritz and courtesy of Animation
World Magazine.

You may know a constructor named Con Pederson who, according to XWordInfo, has had 8 puzzles in the Shortz Era (all Sundays!) and three pre-Shortzian puzzles.  I looked him up, he's quite an interesting fellow.  His main claim to fame isn't actually crosswords, it's his work on Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey.  His IMDB page says he was "special photographic effects supervisor" for the movie.  His role was significant enough he appeared in the TV documentary 2001: The Making of a Myth.  There's a great interview with him about his work on that movie and other things. . . .  [L]et me quote the part most relevant to us:


WM: So what did you do after  2001?

CP: Well, I worked on a novel that I am still working on after 30 years, but I don't take it seriously. The trouble with writing is that I always sort of enjoyed treating it as a kind of cartoon. I like the fact that I started out as a cartoonist more or less, advertising art and commercials not withstanding, so I guess what writing I've done has been sort of verbal cartoons, sort of tongue-in-cheek maybe. I felt that if I wrote really serious stuff, which I have a drawer full of, when I'd look at it later, my mind set was so different that I thought, "This is crap." So I guess I didn't have to be a writer for any particular reasons. My verbal skills were sufficient so that now I entertain myself by constructing crosswords. I started high class crosswords last year. I have had several in the Wall Street Journal, a couple in the Washington Post. Crossword construction has been the hobby that has replaced stamp collecting. It's an unappreciated craft, because it's exceptionally difficult and there are only a few people who are really good at constructing crosswords, by that I mean the Sunday puzzles, the good ones that are always entertaining because of the theme. That's kind of replaced any thoughts of making a movie someday. 

This interview was in 1999.  That might seem odd to you, since Con doesn't mention the New York Times, although XWordInfo shows those 3 pre-Shortzian puzzles.  Actually, there's a good reason for that.  XWordInfo is wrong, those three pre-Shortzian puzzles ascribed to him were actually by someone else. 

How do I know that?  Because I e-mailed Con recently.  I remembered seeing that name in CRU-L in my early days there, so I went back in my archives and found an old e-mail address, and tried e-mailing him there.  It worked.  He told me about the puzzles he did for the NYT, only mentioning the 8 Shortzian ones.  He did once try a 15x15 puzzle on Will, but Will said no.  He liked Sunday puzzles because to him the smaller size puzzles were unthemed.  So that's how far back he goes...but I reckon he was too busy in the film industry and animation to try his hand at constructing until 1998 or so.

Pretty neat, eh?  Con is 80 years old now, and says the yard work and his 6 cats (!) keep him busy.  I'm not sure where he's living now, the L.A. area would be my best guess.

I'm guessing the 3 Pre-Shortzian puzzles ascribed to him were actually by Marjorie Pedersen...though that's far from clear given we only have her doing 2 Sunday puzzles, the last in 1980.

Thanks so much again for all this research, Todd!  It's particularly valuable when corrections to the database can be made, especially with regard to authorship, so if anyone else comes across errors of any sort, please contact me!

1961 Puzzles Up, Nancy Schuster in CROSSW RD Magazine, and Barbara Hindenach Solves Blast! Challenge

Project Update:  1961 Puzzles Up

Great news:  The 1961 puzzles are now up on XWord Info—thanks again to Jim Horne for hosting them!  And this was another busy week on the proofreading front, starting off on Saturday night with 30 puzzles from Denny Baker and then 10 more later on from Todd Gross, who found 22 mistakes in them.  Sunday evening Mark Diehl sent 27 puzzles and then another 30 Monday night.  Tuesday morning Todd sent 10 more with 37 mistakes, which were followed by 31 more from Denny Baker Wednesday afternoon and another 31 that night from Mark.  Then Thursday night Mark sent 31 more, another 17 later on, and 28 more Friday morning, which were followed by another 10 from Todd.  Thanks so much again, everyone—we're making terrific progress, and I should have the 1960 puzzles off to Jim by this time next week!

B. A. Heimbinder Photo

After Todd Gross's piece on B. A. Heimbinder appeared in last week's post, an anonymous commenter sent a link to this 1920 photo of him.  The portrait was one of 23 photos of leading workers for the Hebrew Association Building Fund—thanks again for the link!

Photo courtesy of The Brooklyn Standard Union.

Barbara Hindenach First to Solve Blast! Challenge

Congratulations to Barbara Hindenach, who sent in the first correct solution to last week's Blast! challenge Thursday morning!  The June 18, 1959, clue was "Question mark of 1960."  The entry:  RUNNINGMATE.  I'm glad everything was resolved by the time of the election!  This week's Blast! challenge is now up in the sidebar—good luck!

Nancy Schuster in CROSSW RD Magazine

I've been busy going through more old issues of CROSSW RD Magazine, and this week I'm delighted to present Helene Hovanec's great profile of pre-Shortzian and Shortz-era constructor and editor Nancy Schuster!  You can link to it on Scribd by clicking here.  The feature also includes a very interesting history of the beginnings of Dell Champion, whose editorship had a puzzling start!

Photo copyright 1991, 2015, Megalo Media, Inc.
Reprinted by permission of Stan Chess and
CROSSW-RD Magazine.

Featured Puzzle

Today's featured puzzle, which was constructed by Diana Sessions, was published December 25, 1956; edited by Margaret Farrar; and litzed by Nancy Kavanaugh.  This Christmas-themed crossword shows holiday spirit in a way I haven't seen before:  through a list of gift suggestions.  As a bonus, the constructor sprinkled in a handful of standard holiday entries, such as CHRISTMAS CAROLS, XMAS DECORATIONS, and NICK.  But the constructor didn't stop there:  She even went so far as to connect the ordinary entries VERB and SOOT to Christmas through the clues "Give, for example." and "Santa's chimney problem.," respectively.  All the thematic layers make the puzzle quite elegant, though the gift list was what convinced me to feature this puzzle here.  The list, which reflects numerous stereotypes that were pervasive when the puzzle was published, can be seen below:

Gift for a future Olympics contender. (ICE SKATES)
Gift for a lady of leisure. (MULES)
Gift for a little girl. (DOLLHOUSE)
Gift for a college girl. (CLOCK RADIO)
Gift for a bride-to-be. (SILVERWARE)

The main thing that stood out to me about the list was that four of the five gifts were for female recipients.  I wonder why the constructor chose to structure the puzzle this way—for example, CLOCK RADIO could have been just as easily clued as "Gift for a college student."  Could it be that the constructor added a unique female perspective to the theme because of her gender?  Did the constructor happen to be considering gifts for a daughter?  Or was the whole gender imbalance just chance?  It would have been fascinating to have had constructor notes (as well as bylines, of course) for the pre-Shortzian puzzles—then there would have been very few such mysteries.

The theme took up a lot of real estate in the grid, though the constructor still managed to keep the fill relatively smooth.  There weren't any particularly snappy entries, but only a few entries struck me as rather esoteric:  KOBS ("African antelopes."), COOSA ("River in Georgia and Alabama."), and the crosswordese-y ESSED ("Ancient chariot.").  In this day and age, we would probably add BEVAN ("Aneurin of England.") and ECA ("Gov't agency, 1948-51.") to that list.  BAROCCIO ("Painter of 'Presentation in the Temple.'") is tough, but unlike in the cases of KOBS and COOSA, here I appreciated learning about a Renaissance painter with whom I wasn't familiar.  In all, this is an excellent pre-Shortzian puzzle from another of my favorite pre-Shortzian constructors.  Stay tuned for more Sessions masterpieces—I plan to feature one of her numerous "Central Intelligence" Sunday puzzles in an upcoming blog post!  For now, here's the solution grid (with highlighted theme entries, excluding the semi-thematic VERB and SOOT):

1962 puzzles up, Will Weng in CROSSW RD Magazine, and Todd Gross on B. A. Heimbinder

Project Update:  1962 Puzzles Up

The 1962 puzzles are up on XWord Info, thanks again to Jim Horne, and as soon as I've finished looking through all the 1961 and 1960 puzzles, those will be up too!  We're making great progress, and everyone is now being sent puzzles from the 1950s.  Todd Gross started off this week's stash on Saturday morning by sending 10 puzzles with 33 mistakes, which were followed by 25 more from Mark Diehl that night.  Then Sunday night Mark sent another 30 puzzles—and Monday morning 31 more.  Monday afternoon Todd sent 10 with 28 mistakes, then Tuesday afternoon an additional 3 with 12 mistakes, and that night 6 more with 16 mistakes.  Later Tuesday night Mark sent 28 puzzles, which were followed by 3 more with 5 mistakes from Todd on Wednesday afternoon.  Finally, on Thursday night, Mark sent another 26 puzzles.  Awesome job, everyone—thanks so much again!

Blast! Challenge Goes Unsolved

No one sent in the correct solution to last week's Blast! challenge.  The clue, which was from the August 11, 1963, puzzle, was "Variation of death and taxes."  The two-word answer:  OFFICE COLLECTIONS.  Ha!

One incorrect response led me to think I should clarify something.  In Hangman, when you guess a letter and it's one of the letters in the answer, all instances of that letter get entered.  So, using last week's Blast! as an example, if the letter L was the one I revealed for the day, I entered both Ls in COLLECTIONS, and none of the remaining blanks in OFFICE would be filled by an L.  In any case, there's a new Blast! up in the sidebar—good luck!

Will Weng

I've posted another one of Helene Hovanec's great pieces from CROSSW RD Magazine on Scribd:  "And the Wynners Are . . . Weng, Hook, Cox, Rathvon, Shenk, Pomerance, and Joline," which originally appeared in the March/April 1991 issue.  This article starts off featuring the winners of the "Wynner awards" for various crossword contributions and is followed by a wonderful profile of Will Weng.  To read it, click here.

Photo copyright 1991, 2015, Megalo Media, Inc.
Reprinted by permission of Stan Chess and 
CROSSW-RD Magazine.

Todd Gross on B. A. Heimbinder

Recently litzer, proofreader, and historian Todd Gross contacted me about some research he'd been doing on pre-Shortzian constructors—specifically, B. A. Heimbinder, who, according to my (incomplete) records, published just one New York Times puzzle in the pre-Shortz era.  Todd wrote:

I don't think I'd heard of B A Heimbinder before seeing the Sun 29 May 1966 NYT puzzle, but with such an odd name, I figured I had a chance of finding him or her, even with only initials for the first name.  What I found is complex and multifaceted and rather interesting.  Let me start with the crossword stuff: as far as I can tell, B A Heimbinder started creating puzzles in the mid 60's.  He had a few published in newspapers, but interestingly published several books of crossword puzzles, all of which appear to be aimed at children.  His earliest was Fairy Tales Crossword Puzzles in 1965, then books on Great Americans, Great Inventions, and Sports Heroes in 1966.  Finally, with some co-authors, he created The Blue/Red/Yellow Crossword Puzzle Book: Grades 3 and 4 in 1972.  That's three books in three different colors.  I even found an article in a journal about teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) that recommended a couple of his books.  Copies of these books aren't easy to find, but it looks like there are a couple for sale, and probably a few in public libraries that can be borrowed.

But he wrote another book before this.  Titled White Conquest (An Epic of Antarctica), it was published in 1934.  That's right, more than 30 years before his crossword books.  That book's author is given as Barney A Heimbinder, so yeah, B A is a man.  With help from Google and Ancestry.com, I pieced together a rather interesting tale.  Barney Aaron Heimbinder was born 22 Jul 1894 in Brooklyn.  He worked for the Brooklyn Public Library from 1910–15, served overseas during WWI from Oct 1917–May 1919 and returned to New York marrying in 1920.  He had two sons that I know of, Larry and Murray.

His personal history gets kind of complicated now.  A WWII registration card shows him working for the Klein-Heimbinder Co. on Madison Ave. in Manhattan.  Oddly, when I looked the company up, the records said it was formed in 1962 and dissolved in 1993.  But it clearly existed in some capacity before 1962.  It's quite likely the partnership started in the mid 1930's, given Mssrs. Klein and Heimbinder were awarded a patent for a kind of record book in 1938.

I'm not completely sure what business the Klein-Heimbinder Co. was in, but printing office forms and related materials makes the most sense from what I know (from a list I saw of copyrights for some payroll and tax forms for them in 1936–7).  I don't believe any of B A's crossword books were published by Klein-Heimbinder...but oddly, another book was.  A book of poetry, titled A Moment's Monument, by Florence Hamilton and Edwin Markham, published in 1939, in a limited edition of 500.  I'm guessing it was a kind of personal favor, but I'll note that Edwin Markham is a noted poet and Florence Hamilton was his secretary and apparently something of a poet in her own right (note her name comes first as author before Markham).

So. Mr. Heimbinder took up crossword construction at about 70 years old, and not only got published in the NY Times and elsewhere, he wrote several books for children as well.  Rather impressive.  But this isn't the end of the story.  He was also something of a songwriter.  In 1946, he wrote the lyrics for a song called Miguel the Matador, the music was written by his son Lawrence/Larry.  And in 1956, he's credited with writing the words and music for a song called Champagne in August.  It's the first song that gave me his middle name.

He died at the age of 80, on 23 Aug 1974 in Broward County, FL.  Alas, I haven't found an obituary for him.  I also haven't found any pictures of him.  But I did find an obituary for his son Lawrence (who died last year at the age of 90) which includes a picture.  So we can get some idea of what B A Heimbinder may have looked like.

Larry's a pretty amazing fellow in his own right...but apparently not related to crosswords.  I will say I found an interesting legal case involving Larry Heimbinder: the judge ruled (mostly) in his favor, but I don't know if he was able to collect on it.

Todd finished by noting that in research, "[y]ou turn up all kinds of interesting folk as crossword constructors."  That's certainly true—thanks so much again, Todd, for all of this pre-Shortzian history!

1963 Puzzles Up, New York Times Crossworld in CROSSW RD Magazine, and Howard Barkin Solves Blast! Challenge

Project Update:  1963 Puzzles Up

The 1963 puzzles are now up on XWord Info!  Thanks again, Jim!  What's more, I expect to send off the 1962 puzzles over this long weekend, and all the proofreaders are now receiving puzzles from the 1950s!

It's been another busy week on the proofreading front—Friday evening Todd Gross sent in 10 puzzles with 13 mistakes, which were followed by 11 more with 10 mistakes on Saturday morning.  Sunday night Dave Phillips sent 27 puzzles with 63 mistakes, and then Monday morning Todd sent 14 more with 17 mistakes.  Early Tuesday morning Todd sent another 11 with 31 mistakes, and then Wednesday morning Denny Baker sent 31 more puzzles.  That night Tracy Bennett sent another 30; finally, Friday morning Todd sent in 8 more with 19 mistakes.  Great job and thanks so much, everyone—soon all the puzzles from the 1960s will be done!

Howard Barkin First to Solve Blast! Challenge

Congratulations to Howard Barkin, who submitted the first correct answer to last week's Blast! challenge on Monday, February 9!  The clue, which was from the September 7, 1957, puzzle, was "Mass assault on the world's secrets."  The two-word answer:  GEOPHYSICAL YEAR.  Not as scary as you might have thought!

This week's Blast! challenge, which appears in the sidebar, is from 1963—so no peeking on XWord Info!

New York Times Crossworld—and Eugene T. Maleska—in CROSSW RD Magazine 

The very first issue of CROSSW ORD Magazine featured an overview of the New York Times crossword puzzle world—and its future—and included a profile of then-editor Eugene T. Maleska.  As usual, this insightful article was written by Helene Hovanec; it appeared in January/February 1991.  I've posted it here on Scribd.

Photo copyright 1991, 2015,

Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted

by permission of Stan Chess

and CROSSW-RD Magazine.

Featured Puzzle
The 1963 puzzles are up and tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so what better way to celebrate both occasions than to feature the Valentine's Day puzzle from 1963?  The puzzle—a real beauty (brace yourself for more bad puns within!)—was constructed by Brice Metcalfe, edited by Margaret Farrar, litzed by Nancy Kavanaugh, and proofread by Mark Diehl.  (And now, thanks to Jim Horne, you can solve the puzzle on XWord Info before reading the write-up on this blog if you so choose.)  This lovely construction features five symmetrically interlocking theme entries containing the word HEART; all the theme entries are solidly in the language, and SWEETHEART (clued as "Valentine.") is a particularly apt choice.  My heart really started racing, though, when I discovered that the grid had just 66 words, since 66-word grids were not very common in the days when puzzles were all hand-constructed!  That said, I did notice a handful of unusual and/or esoteric entries:  PLEDGOR ("Legal term akin to promisor."), RAG TREE ("Sacred plant of ancient pilgrims."), MRS WHISTLER ("Famous 'visitor' to Atlanta."), ANGOSTURA ("Bitter bark."), and DELSARTE ("System of calisthenics.").  In the not-obscure-but-not-thrilling category, there's IN SAINT ("'Meet Me ___ Louis'"), REMASH ("Fix over again, as potatoes),  MULCHERS ("Implements for spreading straw, leaves, etc."), and several unsavory three-letter abbreviations.  Although there were more compromises than would have been ideal, I heartily enjoyed seeing the following hexad:  MORASS, DITHER, DEADEYE, SEAHORSES, AL SMITH, and DEWLAP.  I imagine solvers these days would fall into two camps with DURSTNOT ("Was afraid to: Archaic.")—I think it's a quaintly pleasing archaic term, but I can imagine others being frustrated because the word is no longer in common use.  A less controversial part of the puzzle that caught my attention was the timely clue for CHAD:  "African republic, as of 1960."  I always appreciate seeing pre-Shortzian clues that aren't purely definitional!  In sum, I appreciated this puzzle's ambitious theme and grid structure, warts and all.  I hope you all have a sweet and pun-filled Valentine's Day—for now, here's the answer grid (with highlighted theme entries).  The puzzle can also be viewed on XWord Info.

1964 Puzzles Done, John Samson Profile and Fred Piscop Commentary in CROSSW RD Magazine, Mary Cee Whitten, and Funny Typos—Plus, Ben Coe First to Solve Blast! Challenge

Project Update

Great news:  The 1964 puzzles are now up on XWord Info, and I'm hoping to have the 1963 puzzles ready by next Friday—many thanks again to Jim Horne for posting them!  It's been a couple of weeks since the last update, and quite a few more puzzles have come in.  On Saturday the 24th, Todd Gross sent 11 puzzles with 15 mistakes.  Then Wednesday afternoon Denny Baker sent another 30 puzzles, which were followed late that night by 28 more from Mark Diehl.  Friday the 30th Todd sent in 8 puzzles with 12 mistakes, then kicked off February on Super Bowl Sunday by sending in 10 with 24 mistakes.  Late Tuesday night he sent an additional 10 with 29 mistakes, then 10 more with 9 mistakes on Wednesday morning, another 10 with 11 mistakes and 5 more with 8 mistakes that night, and early Friday morning an additional 10 with 20 mistakes—whew!  Thanks so much, everyone—great job!

Ben Coe Solves Blast! Challenge

Congratulations to Ben Coe, who sent in the first correct solution to the most recent Blast! challenge on Friday, January 30, at 11:31 a.m.!  Two entries from the May 4, 1963, puzzle had this clue:  "Newly extinct American species?"  The answers were REDCAP and PASSENGER TRAINS.  Although I don't hear much about REDCAPs, PASSENGER TRAINS definitely still exist in large quantities!  Maybe it's best that crosswords focus on conserving the cahow.

This week's challenge appears in the sidebar—good luck!

John Samson Profile and Fred Piscop Commentary in CROSSW RD Magazine

In honor of Bernice Gordon and her long friendship with John Samson, I've posted the profile of John that originally appeared in the September/October 1994 issue of CROSSW RD Magazine—click here to read it on Scribd.  This terrific piece by Helene Hovanec provides a fascinating glimpse not only of John himself but also of Eugene T. Maleska, who harshly rejected John's first submission, ordering him to never send anything again.  Despite this inauspicious beginning, the two ultimately became co-editors and friends—a testament to John's perseverance (and congenial nature!).

John Samson in 1994. Photo copyright
1994, 2015, Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted
by permission of Stan Chess and
CROSSW-RD Magazine. 

I've also posted Fred Piscop's follow-up commentary, "'Your Stuff Stinks,'" that appeared in the next issue, November/December 1994.  This thought-provoking piece offers aspiring constructors sage advice that is just as relevant today as it was more than 20 years ago.  To read it, click here.

Mary Cee Whitten

Photo courtesy of The Evening Independent.

Litzer, proofreader, and historian Todd Gross has been busy researching pre-Shortzian constructors and recently found a link to a great 1985 article featuring constructor Mary Cee Whitten:  "Crossword constructors:  Who makes up these mind-teasers?" by James Ricci.  According to my (incomplete) records, Whitten published at least 7 puzzles in the pre-Shortz era.  The article includes comments by Eugene T. Maleska, constructor and puzzle editor Herb Ettenson, and constructor Judith Dalton.  To read it, click here; the piece continues on another page, which you can navigate to by clicking on the righthand arrow at the top of the page.  Thanks again, Todd, for this awesome find!

Funny Typos

The proofreading has continued to chug along; as a result, my file of funny litzing errors has continued to grow!  Here are ten rib-ticklers from the archives:

• DANGLE
• Right:  Be misplaced, as a participle.
• Wrong:  Be misplaced, as a principle.
• ELI
• Right:  Blue rooter.
• Wrong:  Blue rooster.
• ETNA
• Right:  Threat to Sicily.
• Wrong:  Treat to Sicily.
• IRREG
• Right:  Kind of verb: Abbr.
• Wrong:  Kind of verb: Irreg.
• ORGIE
• Right:  Carousal: Fr.
• Wrong:  Carousel: Fr.
• SLIP-ON
• Right:  Type of garment.
• Wrong:  Type of government.
• STAGES
• Right:  Rocket parts.
• Wrong:  Pocket parts.
• TILTH
• Right:  Cultivated land.
• Wrong:  Cultivated lard.
• TIMERS
• Right:  Kitchen aids.
• Wrong:  Lichen aids.
• ZANY
• Right:  Clownish.
• Wrong:  Clownfish.

I was actually able to find a picture of a Yale rooster stickpin, which I've included below:

Image courtesy of Collectible Ivy. 

CROSSW RD Magazine, Funny Litzing Mistake, and Wacky Words from 1957 Puzzles

Project Update

Last week the 1965 puzzles went up on XWord Info, and I'm almost finished preparing the 1964 puzzles!  This week Todd Gross has been especially busy:  Early Tuesday morning he sent in 18 puzzles with 28 mistakes.  Then early Thursday morning he sent 10 more with 16 mistakes, which were followed by 10 more with 20 mistakes Friday morning and another 10 with 18 mistakes Friday afternoon!  Thanks so much again, Todd!  For those of you currently proofreading puzzles from 1963, I'm hoping to have all of those back within the next couple of weeks.  It won't be long now before we're done with the 1960s!

Blast! Goes Unsolved

No one solved last week's Blast! challenge correctly, though there were some incorrect guesses early in the week.  The clue, from the July 23, 1958, puzzle, was, "One hazard of space travel."  The answer:  MICROMETEORITE.  The most common incorrect answer was WEIGHTLESSNESS, which, amazingly enough, is another 14-letter single word that fits the clue.

It occurred to me that people may want to know whether or not the Blast! challenge has already been solved by someone.  So from now on, I'll indicate that in the sidebar.  If no one has sent in the correct answer, you'll see STILL UNSOLVED! in green; if someone has, you'll see ALREADY SOLVED! in red.  Good luck with this week's challenge!

Funny Litzing Mistake

As I was looking through packets of litzed puzzles from early 1958, I discovered a rather amusing grid mistake that may have been influenced by the litzing contests.  In the January 5, 1958, crossword, instead of keying in BARKIS IS WILLIN ("Message the carrier sent to Peggotty."), the litzer entered BARKIN IS WILLIN (as in litzer extraordinaire Howard Barkin!)!

CROSSW RD Magazine

Today I'm delighted to roll out the first of what will be a series of constructor profiles and other articles originally published in CROSSW RD Magazine.  A donor who wishes to remain anonymous sent me a big box of this amazing publication a couple of months ago—they're truly a treasure trove from the pre-Shortzian and early Shortz eras (1991–1996)!  I've been immersing myself in them as time permits, and when Jim Horne recently mentioned his interest in learning more about legendary constructor William Lutwiniak—who published at least 297 puzzles in The New York Times during the pre-Shortz era—I remembered having read Helene Hovanec's wonderful profile of him in CROSSW RD.  I contacted the owner of CROSSW RD, Stan Chess, who has generously granted me permission to post material from the magazine online.  Today I've uploaded two pieces to Scribd:  "And the Wynner Is . . . William Lutwiniak," by Helene Hovanec, which appeared in the January/February 1992 issue and can be seen by clicking here; and a short letter from William Lutwiniak that was published a few months later in the May/June 1992 issue, together with brief notice of William Lutwiniak's subsequent death, written by J. Baxter Newgate, which you can read by clicking here.

William Lutwiniak.  Photo copyright 1992, 

2015, Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted by 

permission of Stan Chess and CROSSW-RD 

Magazine.

Featured Puzzle

Today's featured puzzle is another gem by Jack Luzzatto, one of the few constructors who published almost as many crosswords in the Times as Lutwiniak.  The puzzle was published April 17, 1959; edited by Margaret Farrar; and litzed by Mark Diehl.  In this tour-de-force construction, Luzzatto not only filled a wide-open 66-word grid but also included a theme consisting of three 15-letter entries!  The theme is signs, which evokes fond memories of playing a bingo-like sign game during long road trips when I was little.

Photo courtesy of unclesgames.com

I probably still have that game, along with my Etch A Sketch and Wooly Willy, somewhere in a bin of childhood memorabilia I'll have to sort through before going to college!  In any case, I was pleased with the signs Luzzatto chose—DANGEROUS CURVES and SLIPPERY WHEN WET are both in-the-language signs and fun entries in and of themselves!  CROSS AT THE GREEN (clued as "Admonition to Gotham pedestrians.") seemed a bit stretchy to me, though—I've never seen such a sign anywhere, which made me wonder whether CROSS AT THE GREEN signs have simply become less common over time.  To test this hypothesis, I typed CROSS AT THE GREEN into Google Ngram, which shows linguistic trends.  Sure enough, the term seems to have spiked in popularity circa 1970.  To my surprise, the sign doesn't seem to have existed before 1954, which means that Luzzatto must have acted quickly upon learning of this then-fresh entry.  Speaking of Luzzatto's observational skills and talent as a constructor, the nonthematic fill is remarkably clean given the constraints posed by the theme and wide-open grid pattern.  I especially like the entries CHARADE, DECOMPOSE, PINHOLE, AIR TIME, FLAGELLUM, and TRIBUTARY—that's a whole lot of goodness for a 66-worder, let alone a thematic, hand-filled one!  On the minus side, the grid contains an odd pair of un- entries (UNHEROIC and UNLURED—the latter feels especially weak), the plural ISOLDES, RASSE (hardcore pre-Shortzian crosswordese clued as "Tree-climbing civet."), the uncommon abbreviation RMC ("Sandhurst military institution: Abbr."), and INTR ("Not transitive: Abbr.").  As is typical with Luzzatto puzzles, though, the list of "meh" entries is inconsequential compared to the "wow!"s.  I was a little disappointed not to see any standout clues in this puzzle, though I appreciate Luzzatto's effort to sway a bit from straight definitions through clues like "Hours in the sky." for AIR TIME.  I did notice that SEATO was clued as "NATO's Oriental counterpart," which is interesting in that such a clue would no longer be politically correct.  In sum, this is yet another wonderfully ambitious Luzzatto puzzle!  As usual, the answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Wacky Words from 1957 Puzzles

Now that first semester is finally over, I've had some time to look through earlier packets of pre-Shortzian puzzles, albeit at a much slower rate than our indefatigable proofreaders!  Here are some of the most bizarre entries I've encountered in the selection of 1957 puzzles I've had a chance to examine, along with their original clues and, where known, constructors.

• 7/9/57 (constructed by Madeline Corse, litzed by Ralph Bunker)
• Entry:  FALANGIST
• Clue:  Member of a certain political party.
• 7/21/57 (constructed by Herbert Ettenson, litzed by Ralph Bunker)
• Entry:  BUNDESRAT
• Clue:  Federal Council of Switzerland.
• Entry:  FLANNELMOUTH
• Clue:  Catfish of the Great Lakes.
• 9/25/57 (constructed by Helen Fasulo, litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick)
• Entry:  JALOUSIES
• Clue:  Tropical window shades.
• 9/29/57 (constructed by Eugene T. Maleska, litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick)
• Entry:  TELEDUS
• Clue:  Animals of Java, Borneo, etc.
• 10/5/57 (litzed by C. G. Rishikesh)
• Entry:  BANYAI
• Clue:  Bantu tribe.
• 10/7/57 (litzed by C. G. Rishikesh)
• Entry:  PHALAROPE
• Clue:  Bird in Alan Paton title.
• 10/13/57 (constructed by Hume R. Craft, litzed by C. G. Rishikesh)
• Entry:  ALOIDAE
• Clue:  Mythical giants of Ossa-Pelion tale: Var.
• 10/14/57 (constructed by Mel Taub, litzed by Todd McClary)
• Entry:  PELTATE
• Clue:  Shield-shaped, as nasturtium leaves.
• 10/24/57 (litzed by Brian Kulman)
• Entry:  CAPONIERE
• Clue:  In fortification, part of a ravelin.

Below is a picture of the teledu, which somewhat resembles a skunk:

Image courtesy of The Honey Badger.