Vic's Third Column, Litzing on the Go, Plus Another Humorous Error

Following up on last Friday's post, litzer Vic Fleming's third and final column about the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project appears in today's Daily Record!  The column lists some of the funniest (and most risqué!) Shortzian clues and entries.  For more, click here.

In other news, litzer Mark Diehl has shown just how versatile litzing can be, even on the go:  Coming back from a trip, he was planning to litz on the plane!  This just goes to show that litzing can be worked on almost anywhere, at almost any time!

While proofreading the 1991 puzzles, I happened to catch another funny mistake.  A clue for NEVIN was supposed to read "Composer Ethelbert ___" but had accidentally been typed as "Composter Ethelbert ___"!  Maybe Ethelbert Nevin was an early environmentalist too!

Today I'm featuring a duad (as pre-Shortzian editors might say) of puzzles.  These two puzzles break the basic rules of crossword construction.  Since many pre-Shortzian puzzles were asymmetric, I'm only featuring puzzles that violate the more major rules of construction.  The first puzzle, whose constructor is unknown, originally appeared on September 16, 1950, and was recently litzed by yours truly.  Oddly enough, the puzzle has a pair of two-letter nonthematic entries in it, SM and NS!   Aside from this flaw, though, the fill is interesting and Scrabbly.  I especially like the entries SERENDIPITY, MAJORCA, and SILVERY.  The answer grid with highlighted two-letter entries appears below:

The second puzzle was constructed by Rosalind Pavane.  It was originally published on December 7, 1991, and was recently litzed by Andrew Feist.  The puzzle contains seven rebus squares of BUCK, which is very impressive for a 15x!  All the rebus entries are rock-solid—my favorites are DADDY WARBUCKS and BUCK ROGERS.  Unfortunately, though, the grid is divided into three nonintersecting sections, which is a major no-no.  Nevertheless, breaking this rule allowed the constructor to cram all the rebuses in and still include several lively nonthematic entries, such as  REFEREE and RAZOR.  The answer grid with highlighted theme entries can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is NOSTOC.  According to the Ginsberg database, NOSTOC has never been reused in a Shortzian puzzle.  It originally appeared in the September 30, 1989, puzzle by Eugene T. Maleska, which was recently litzed by Todd McClary.  The clue for NOSTOC was "Freshwater alga."  Webster defines a nostoc as "any of a genus (Nostoc) of usually filamentous cyanobacteria that fix nitrogen."  Nostic comes from New Latin and was first introduced into our language in 1650.  I wonder how low Todd McClary would score this entry in his word list—it would probably have an even worse fate than INFANT EYES (see his INONESCUPS/UNTHEMELY #27 post), if that's even possible!  Below is a picture of some nostocs on a microscope slide:

Image courtesy of Connecticut College.

Vic's Second Column, More Publicity, New Litzer of the Month Andrew Feist, Plus a Funny Mistake

I have some more big announcements!  First, litzer Vic Fleming's second column about the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project was published in today's Daily Record!  The column discusses many of the featured pre-Shortzian entries of the day; you can read Vic's piece here.

The project has also received a lot more publicity recently!  Jim Horne's announcement on CRUCIVERB-l gave us another two litzers, which is terrific.  Also, Amy Reynaldo announced the project on Diary of a Crossword Fiend here, and Wordplay blogger Deb Amlen and The Puzzle Brothers tweeted about our work!  Thanks, everyone!

Now that we're in August, we have a new Litzer of the Month:  Andrew Feist!  Andrew hit the ground running—and the 2,400 mark on our thermometer!  To read more about him, click here.

Before I get to the puzzle of the day, I thought I'd share a funny mistake I happened to catch while proofreading.  A clue for TSETSE was supposed to be "Ugandan pest," but it had accidentally been typed as "Ugandan priest"!  Litzing and proofreading are tough jobs, and everyone's been doing a great job!

Today's featured puzzle was constructed by Ralph G. Beaman.  It was originally published on April 7, 1990, and was recently litzed by Angela Halsted.  This puzzle has a very clever gimmick executed to a tee—exclamation points are actually parts of several answers in the grid, yielding a total of 13 theme entries!  In addition, the puzzle included the defining entry SCREAMER, which was clued as "This puzzle's theme, to a printer."  My favorite theme entry is TORA! TORA! TORA!, which has three exclamation points!!!  Because of this theme's complexity, though, some of the nonthematic fill feels strained (particularly ERYTHEMA [clued as "Skin redness"] and ALALIA [clued as "Mutism"]).  Nevertheless, the constructor still managed to include the terrific entries RICKRACK and BUSTY!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is TERAI.  According to the Ginsberg database, TERAI has been reused in only one Shortzian puzzle from 1994.  It originally appeared in the February 16, 1990, puzzle by Peggy Devlin, which was recently litzed by Alex Vratsanos.  The clue for TERAI was "Hat worn for sun protection."  Webster defines a terai as "a wide-brimmed double felt sun hat worn especially in subtropical regions."  Terai comes from Tarai, a lowland belt of India, and was first introduced into our language in 1888.  Below is a picture of an officer wearing a terai:

Image courtesy of the ODM Group.

Vic Fleming's Column on Litzing (Part 1)

I'm delighted to announce that the first column in Vic Fleming's series on litzing and the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project was published today in the Daily Record, and you can read it here.  Thanks so much, Vic—this was a great piece, and I'll be posting the next installments as they're published!

2,000-Plus Puzzles Litzed, 1950s Puzzles, and Vic Fleming's Columns

I'm thrilled to announce that more than 2,000 puzzles have been litzed so far!  A few days ago, litzer Mark Diehl finally pushed us over this milestone.  We are now approximately 1/8 done with all the litzing, which is mind-blowing!

As many litzers have noticed, I've been sending out puzzles from the 1950s for litzing.  I sent these puzzles because I was out of town for two weeks and hadn't downloaded enough 1990s puzzles to satisfy such a great demand!  I figured that the rest of 1991 would be enough to last two weeks, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  In addition to the 1991 puzzles, I ended up needing more than 15 additional weeks to send out!  The 1950s puzzles have been very interesting so far.  Though many of them were themeless, some had surprisingly elegant themes.  One particular puzzle, which will be featured in a future blog post, had nine interlocking theme entries and very little crosswordese!  This is still incredible by today's standards.

Finally, litzer Vic Fleming is dedicating three of his "I Swear!" columns, which can be seen in the Daily Record and other Southern newspapers, to the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project!  I've had the pleasure of reading two of them in advance, and they are wonderfully written and a lot of fun to read!  I'll be posting links to them as they're published over the next few weeks.

As promised, today's featured puzzle is another Ronnie K. Allen masterpiece.  It was originally published on April 20, 1991, and was recently litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick.  In addition to having a fun letter insertion theme (WENT OUT ON A LIMBO [clued as "Took a chance with a dance?"] and BUY A PIG IN A POLKA [clued as "One way to get Polish sausage?"] ), this puzzle also uses the rare 13-/14-/15-letter stacking pattern.  Though I wasn't fond of all of the long adverbs in the bottom section, the fill sparkled for a Maleska puzzle.  WEATHER CHARTS, STARSKY, and SARDONIC are all excellent entries!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is TOMBOLOS.  According to the Ginsberg database, neither TOMBOLOS nor TOMBOLO has been reused in a Shortzian puzzle.  TOMBOLOS originally appeared in the October 30, 1991, puzzle by Bert Rosenfield, which was litzed by Peter Broda.  The clue for TOMBOLOS was "Island-to-mainland sandbars."  Webster defines a tombolo as "a sand or gravel bar connecting an island with the mainland or another island."  Tombolo comes from Italian but can more specifically be traced to the Latin word tumulus, which means "mound."  Tombolo was introduced to our language in 1899.  Below is a picture of a tombolo.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.