Project Done—1942 through 1951 Puzzles Up, Next Steps, and "Moving Forward" Metapuzzle

Project Update

Big news:  Thanks to Jim Horne, the 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, and 1951 proofread puzzles are up on XWord Info, which means all the available pre-Shortzian puzzles are now there and the project is essentially done—appropriately enough, on Will Shortz's birthday!  Happy Birthday, Will!

I still can't believe we were able to accomplish this feat in just four years (or three years, two months since the project's official start).  I'd like to extend a huge thank-you to everyone in the crossword community who helped me accomplish my dream of having all the pre-Shortzian puzzles in a digital format—there's no way this could have happened without all your continuous time, support, and motivation.  As a community, we've accomplished something that each of us individually would have dismissed as too challenging and unrealistic, which I think is very special.  We've created a resource that will entertain curious minds for years to come, change the way we look at the history of crosswords (and maybe even history itself), and ensure that the names of the exceptionally prolific pre-Shortzian constructors won't just be footnotes in puzzle history.  We can now learn lessons from generations of earlier constructors, and we just might find a handful of usable entries for our own puzzles that were previously lost to time.  And even if most of the uniquely pre-Shortzian entries are too obscure, it can't hurt to have an extra 52 years of clues to draw from!  The uses for the database we've created are only limited by the creativity of the crossword and puzzle community, which I'm convinced is boundless.  But perhaps the biggest takeaway from the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project is that a whole world of possibilities can become reality through teamwork.  If an impractical high school freshman can watch his dream come true one step at a time over the course of four years, who knows what else can be accomplished?

I'd like to take a moment to thank all the litzers again, especially Mark Diehl, Barry Haldiman, Nancy Kavanaugh, Jeffrey Krasnick, Denny Baker, Howard Barkin, and Ralph Bunker, who were the most prolific.  Their totals, along with the totals for all the other litzers, can be seen on the Litzer & Proofreader Totals page.  (Some of these totals were slightly revised recently after I recalculated them from my current spreadsheet.)

Thanks, too, to all the proofreaders, of whom there were far fewer.  Proofreading was less appealing to many people, but it was an essential part of this process.  I didn't keep a running total of the proofreaders' totals while the proofing was under way because I didn't want people to compete with each other and race through the puzzles.  I calculated those totals recently, though, and you can now view them at the bottom of the Litzer & Proofreader Totals page, underneath the "found mistakes" tallies.

Special thanks to Mark Diehl, who was not only the Litzing King but also the Proofreading King!  Even more amazing, Mark's old-school litzing by hand beat out more technologically advanced (and very impressive!) optical character recognition litzing methods—congratulations again, Mark!

Thanks, too, to Todd Gross, not only for his litzing and proofreading but also for his painstaking research on pre-Shortzian constructors.  Todd's findings have been a major feature of numerous posts and added a richness to what might otherwise be just a list of constructor names.

Along the same lines, I'd like to thank all the pre-Shortzian constructors—and friends and relatives of constructors, or simply crossword aficionados—who provided interviews or sent in reminiscences of, or memorabilia from, pre-Shortzian constructors and times.  These have been delightfully entertaining and informative, and I hope to add new ones in the future.

Special thanks, too, to Barry Haldiman, who gave me the puzzles he and various other people, including project litzer and proofreader Denny Baker, had begun litzing back in 1999.  These puzzles got the project off to a running start—thanks again, Barry!  Barry also provided much historical context for the litzing and helped tremendously in tracking down copies of puzzles missing from ProQuest on good old-fashioned microfiche.

A few other people have offered to help search for the missing puzzles, contacting libraries and even the Times itself to that end.  Even though none of these efforts has proved successful so far, they've been great starts and helped rule out a number of formerly promising possible sources—thanks again to all the puzzle detectives!

I'd also like to thank everyone who's made a financial donation to the project.  Jim Horne was the first, generously giving the project a month of his XWord Info donations, and in the past few years several other people have contributed as well.  These donations have been much appreciated and helped pay for prizes and other expenses.

A few people have also helped by donating old books and newsletters, which have been exceptionally useful—thanks so much again!  I'm still making my way through the newsletters, and I'm always on the lookout for more old books containing the pre-Shortzian daily New York Times puzzles with bylines.  I'll be updating the Pre-Shortzian Crossword Books page as soon as time permits, but suffice it to say I'm still missing many of these old volumes, some of which may be the only way we can identify the remaining anonymous constructors.

I'd also like to thank the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project Advisory Board members, Jim Horne, Stan Newman, and Will Shortz.  They've been incredibly helpful over the past few years, and I think it's fair to say that without them, the project simply would not have taken off.  Thanks, Jim, for being the best partner in all this that anyone could ever want—XWord Info is a masterpiece, and I'm honored that I've been able to contribute to it in a significant way.  Thanks, Stan, for the hundreds of books, newsletters, and, most important, your encyclopedic knowledge and memory of the pre-Shortzian era and people—you've been a tremendous support (not to mention a delightful lunch companion!).  And thanks, Will, for being so generous with your time and advice and allowing me to hunt through your treasure trove of crossword books for constructor names—you are not only the Puzzlemaster but an inspiration, and I hope the project's completion makes your birthday an especially memorable one!

Finally, I'd like to give a shoutout to Kristena Bergen (aka my mom, Karen Steinberg).  If I wrote about everything she's done to help with the project, Blogger would likely implode, because there would simply be too much!  In addition to helping with the PDF downloading, puzzle-packet assembling, litzing, and proofreading, she spent countless hours just helping to keep track of everything, pitching in wherever and whenever needed, and making a final pass through almost all the available pre-Shortzian puzzles before I sent them to XWord Info.  Mom never took credit for any of the work she did, but without her this project never would have gotten as far as it did so quickly.  On behalf of us all, I'd like to give her a virtual round of applause with a standing ovation!  My mom is my hero, and if I can grow up to be a fraction of the person she is, I'll consider myself even more fortunate than I already am.  I love you, Mom—it is truly an honor to be your son!

Next Steps

Now that there are no more puzzles left to litz, proofread, or look through before sending to XWord Info, you might be wondering what's next for this project.  As I mentioned in a previous post, many tasks still remain.  First, the rest of the PS Notes from our litzers and proofreaders need to be entered onto XWord Info.  I'll be working on that over these next couple of weeks before heading off to college.  Second, the constructor names on XWord Info need to be standardized and, in some cases, updated.  When I was doing research at Will's house last summer, I was able to find the first names of many constructors for whom the only identifying information we had was a last name or a pair of initials.  I entered all this data into my spreadsheet but didn't make changes to the actual puzzle files because they were already up on XWord Info and because the focus was on finishing the rest of the puzzles.  As for the standardization, Jim Horne has pointed out a number of instances in which the spelling of constructors' names has been inconsistent.  Some of the incorrect spellings are simply oversights, but in most cases, different sources (i.e., the Times itself and books of reprinted puzzles) used slight name variations.  For example, it's clear that Marian Moeser and Marion Moeser were the same person, yet 22 puzzles are listed on Marian's XWord Info page and 15 on Marion's.  When time permits, I'll also be posting information on the project's style guide and editorial decisions, which will clarify how words and punctuation were usually handled.  Finally, I'm going to keep trying to hunt down the missing puzzles.  I haven't had a lot of success recently, but I haven't lost hope yet!

"Moving Forward" Metapuzzle

Last but not least, to celebrate the final major milestone of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project, I constructed another 23x23 metapuzzle, "Moving Forward."  The puzzle, in either Across Lite or PDF format, will be available on XWord Info at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time today from a link I'll insert here—http://www.xwordinfo.com/MovingForward/—and also post on Twitter, Facebook, and Cruciverb.  Very important instructions will appear in a notepad in the Across Lite file, so read carefully!  Send your answer to preshortzianpuzzleproject at gmail dot com (using the standard format).  The deadline for submitting your solution is September 2 at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time.  You may only submit one answer, so be sure you're 100% happy with your answer before clicking "Send"!  One lucky winner will be chosen at random from the correct solutions.  That person will receive a $50 iTunes gift card courtesy of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project!  Even though only one solver will receive a prize, everyone who submits a correct answer will have his/her name listed in a wrap-up blog post (unless you tell me you'd rather not have your name appear).  Names will be listed in the order in which the correct solutions came in.  Have fun—and good luck!

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.

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:

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.

Bernice Gordon Interview, Over 9,000, In 1969, Marbles Tournament, and Pre-Shortzian Stumpers

Today I'm delighted to present another interview with a pre-Shortzian constructor, the amazingly creative and prolific Bernice Gordon!  At 99, Bernice is the oldest constructor in the history of The New York Times; according to my (incomplete) records, she published 112 puzzles in the pre-Shortz era and has published 18 under Will Shortz's editorship, but she reportedly has published more than 150 puzzles in the Times.  To read my interview with Bernice Gordon, click here or on the Pre-Shortzian Constructor Interviews tab above.

I'm also thrilled to announce that we've now litzed more than 9,000 puzzles!  On Sunday, Todd McClary sent in a batch that put us over 8,900, and then, in very short order, more puzzles came in—including a batch of 34 from Mark Diehl—that put us over 8,950!  Finally, on Wednesday, Martin Herbach sent in five batches totaling 35 puzzles, putting us well over 9,000!  Thanks so much, everybody—great job!

We also reached another milestone this week:  On Tuesday, litzer Nancy Kavanaugh received the first batch of 1969 puzzles!  Here's a representative photo from that very eventful year.  It's of astronaut Buzz Aldrin walking on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, which, on July 20, 1969, landed the first humans there:

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Although there won't be any pre-Shortzian puzzles to solve, I wanted to help spread the word about this weekend's Marbles 5th Annual Crossword Tournament at various locations throughout the country.  This should be a very fun event, and litzer Doug Peterson and I will be judges at the one taking place in Sherman Oaks, California!

Finally, if you haven't checked out the Pre-Shortzian Stumpers on Twitter, many of the previous stumpers are listed there under #psstumpers.  Litzers Jeffrey Krasnick, Martin Ashwood-Smith, and Denny Baker have come up with some doozies, and I'm sure there'll be more to come!

Today's featured puzzle was constructed by the legendary Bernice Gordon.  As Bernice mentioned in her interview, this puzzle caused something of a controversy—in fact, Margaret Farrar initially rejected it!  The puzzle, titled "Words and Words," was published on May 30, 1965.  It features ten common phrases containing a word, AND, and then another word; the catch is that AND is squeezed into a single square, making this puzzle the earliest Sunday rebus I've seen so far.  This puzzle is way ahead of its time thematically—Sunday rebus themes didn't catch on until much later during the Maleska era!  In addition to using a completely innovative theme, Bernice also chose a wide-open grid and did a lovely job filling it.  Some highlights of the nonthematic fill include RASPBERRY, CONDUCTOR, QUAKING, and AESTHETES, but perhaps the most interesting/unusual entry is ODTAA.  At first, I thought it had to be a mistake—litzers have found several errors in the solutions to Times puzzles recently.  But ODTAA, clued as "Masefield novel, 1926," is indeed a legitimate entry.  My first thought was that the title had something to do with TAA, a piece of pre-Shortzian crosswordese commonly clued as "Chinese pagoda"; I couldn't have been more wrong, however—ODTAA is an acronym for "One Damn Thing After Another!"  In sum, this is a very futuristic and creative pre-Shortzian puzzle!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

A few months ago, one of our proofreaders came across a very clever clue in the Maleska-edited Saturday, June 7, 1986, puzzle, constructed by Irene Smullyan.  The clue, for the entry SMASHED, was "Under the alfluence of incohol."  This clue, like the featured puzzle, feels way ahead of its time—both are exceptionally clever!  Below is a picture of SMASHED in a different sense of the word:

Image courtesy of 123RF.

Arthur Schulman Interview, New Record, Over 8,800, 1984 Puzzles on XWord Info, and More Publicity

Last week's review by Rex Parker and Matt Gaffney of a pre-Shortzian puzzle was a big hit!  Thanks again, Rex and Matt, and thanks to everyone who stopped by (and especially to those of you who left comments)!

This week I'm thrilled to present a fascinating interview with Arthur Schulman, a prolific pre-Shortzian constructor and cognitive psychologist who (according to still-incomplete records) published 80 New York Times puzzles in the pre-Shortz era and 1 under Will Shortz's editorship.  To read the interview, click here or on the Pre-Shortzian Constructor Interviews tab above; to read "The Art of the Puzzler," the very interesting book chapter he mentions in the interview, click here.

During the course of this interview, I learned that Arthur's first published puzzle in The New York Times appeared when he was 18.  I wrote to Jim Horne about this discovery so he could update the teenage constructors page on XWord Info, and he contacted Will Shortz, who originally began tracking these data.  So we now have a new entry for the record books:  Arthur Schulman was the 21st-youngest constructor to publish a crossword in The New York Times!

In other news, on Sunday veteran litzer Denny Baker sent in a packet that put us over 8,800 on the litzing thermometer, and we've received so many packets this week from other litzers that we're now almost at 8,900!

Also, the proofread 1984 puzzles are now up on Xword Info—that makes 10 years of pre-Shortzian puzzles that are now available on Jim Horne's wonderful site!

The Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project received some more publicity this past week connected with the review by Rex Parker and Matt Gaffney:  Rex wrote about it here on Rex Parker Does the NY Times Crossword Puzzle, Matt mentioned it here on Facebook, and T Campbell discussed it here on Amy Reynaldo's Diary of a Crossword Fiend.  Several people tweeted about it as well, including Jeffrey Krasnick, Brendan Emmett Quigley, and Ben Tausig.  Thanks, everybody!

Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle was constructed by . . . (drumroll, please) . . . Arthur Schulman!  It was originally published on March 29, 1975, and was recently litzed by Howard Barkin.  This impressive 74-word themeless features a host of zippy entries such as SQUEEGEE, JAVA MAN, and METHANOL.  Oh , and I forgot to mention that the puzzle is a pangram—wow!  I've seen many fine William Lutwiniak pangrams from around this time period, but they've all had relatively closed-off grids with 76 or 78 words.  Another noteworthy feature of this puzzle is its relative absence of obscurity and crosswordese.  The crossing of HAKIM (clued as "Moslem judge") and KOP (clued as "African hill" instead of as "Keystone Kop") would've left me 41-Down, but the rest of the puzzle is very clean.  All in all, this is an exceptional Will Weng–edited themeless—I very much look forward to seeing the remainder of Arthur Schulman's puzzles as they get litzed!  The answer grid can be seen below:

On March 22, the entry of the week was the Norwegian town HAMMERFEST, which I thought sounded awesome but probably wouldn't be showing up a New York Times crossword again anytime soon.  Imagine my surprise when I was solving Julian Lim's Wednesday puzzle this week and saw the clue "Hammerfest's locale: Abbr." for NOR!  I wonder if this clue was written by the constructor or by Will Shortz himself—either way, I was delighted and had no trouble filling it in!

So this week I'm featuring another amazing-sounding city, HÄMEENLINNA.  HÄMEENLINNA was originally used in the January 13, 1973, puzzle (author unknown), which was recently litzed by Mark Diehl.  It was clued as "City in Finland"; Britannica mentions that Hämeenlinna's name was derived from the Häme castle and became the northernmost terminus of Finland's first railroad in 1862.  I look forward to seeing if "Hämeenlinna's locale: Abbr." shows up as a clue for FIN in the near future—that would be awesome!  For now, below is a picture of the Häme castle:

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Publicity, Solution to Puzzle, Over 8,500, and Funny Typos

The Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project has received some more great publicity in the past couple of weeks!  Will Shortz's 2013 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament page linked to this blog, and litzer Jeffrey Krasnick mentioned the project in a comment on Amy Reynaldo's Diary of a Crossword Fiend.  Then Rex Parker (who, together with Matt Gaffney, will be discussing pre-Shortzian puzzles on this site in the near future) wrote about the project in his blog.  Thanks so much, everybody!

In other news, the solution to the Dorothea E. Shipp puzzle I posted on Scribd last week is now available—click here to see it.

Even though the second litzing contest has long since ended, we've continued to make excellent progress!  Denny Baker sent in several batches of puzzles that almost brought us to 8,500, and then on Tuesday, Jeffrey Krasnick put us over this major milestone!  We're currently sending out packets from March 1971, which is mind-blowing!

Before I get to the puzzle of the day, here are ten more funny typos our proofreaders have caught, which I've listed below in a new format:

• Entry:  DOWSE
• Right:  Use a divining rod
• Wrong:  Use a diving rod

• Entry:  ARAL
• Right:  Caspian's eastern neighbor
• Wrong:  Caspian's easter neighbor

• Entry:  NUTMEGS
• Right:  Some spices
• Wrong:  Some species

• Entry:  SHOE 
• Right:  Kind of shine
• Wrong:  Kind of shrine

• Entry:  ROSE
• Right:  Stein's flower
• Wrong:  Stein's follower

• Entry:  NERD
• Right:  A real drip
• Wrong:  A real dip

• Entry:  NEU
• Right:  Modern, in Mannheim
• Wrong:  Modem, in Mannheim

• Entry:  HERS
• Right:  Towel word
• Wrong:  Towel world

• Entry:  LEA
• Right:  Yarn measure
• Wrong:  Yam measure

• Copyright field (my personal favorite)
• Right:  Will Weng
• Wrong:  Willy Weng

Today's featured puzzle was constructed by Elaine D. Schorr.  I've seen lots of great Will Weng–edited crosswords by this constructor, many of which are lovely minithemes crammed into wide-open themeless grids.  Originally published on January 1, 1974, and recently litzed by Mark Diehl, this outside-the-box crossword features four simple math problems that lead to the digits 1, 9, 7, and 4, to kick off the year 1974!  It's very rare to see math in crossword puzzles, period (outside of the dreaded Roman numeral clues), let alone in pre-Shortzian puzzles.  This may in fact be the earliest puzzle to use math in a crossword!  The constructor not only included the four (albeit a bit forced) 15-letter math problems but also managed to make the fill quite clean.  I especially like the entries NO-HOW, SEES RED, and EDGES UP.  The puzzle does have its share of crosswordese (EVOE, RUGA, ORRA, TANO, etc.).  Nevertheless, this is a very creative and clever pre-Shortzian puzzle!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry, HAMMERFEST, originally appeared in the April 8, 1972, crossword (constructor unknown), which was recently litzed by Todd McClary.  According to the Ginsberg database, HAMMERFEST has never been reused in a Shortz-era puzzle.  The original clue for HAMMERFEST was "Europe's northernmost city."  Merriam-Webster gives a much more detailed description of the town:

Northernmost town in Europe (pop., 2007: 9,391), on the island of Kvaløya, northwestern Norway. It was chartered in 1789, but most of it was destroyed by fire in 1891. Norway's first municipal hydroelectric station was built with its reconstruction. Germans occupied the town (1940–44); on their withdrawal, they blew up the installations and evacuated the population. The town has since been rebuilt. Despite its latitude, its harbour is ice-free year-round because of the warming North Atlantic Current. The sun shines continuously between May 17 and July 29, and there is no sunlight from November 21 to January 21. Tourism and fish-oil processing are important economically.

Even though Hammerfest isn't the most well-known Norwegian town, it sounds awesome and looks beautiful!  Below is a panoramic picture of Hammerfest:

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

1986 Puzzles on XWord Info, Sending 1973 Puzzles, Over 7,400 at Halfway Point in Contest, Mark Diehl Hits 2,000, New Litzer of the Month Denny Baker, and David Astle's Call for Crossword Stories

Great news:  The 1986 puzzles are now up on XWord Info, and we've begun proofreading puzzles from 1985!  We're also now sending out puzzles from 1973 to be litzed—it won't be long before we're in the Margaret Farrar era!

We're also now at the halfway point in the litzing contest, and I'm delighted to report that we've litzed more than 7,400 puzzles!  At the beginning of January, we'd litzed 6,198 puzzles, and we're now at 7,441.  So in just one month, we've litzed 1,243 puzzles—a phenomenal achievement, surpassing even the first litzing contest in terms of number of puzzles litzed!  Our goal is the halfway point—8,113—by the end of February, so we only have 672 more to go in the next four weeks.  Awesome job, everybody!

Some of you have commented on what appears to be a neck-and-neck race between longtime litzing legend Mark Diehl and already-astounding Howard Barkin.  Mark put us over the 7,300 mark on Sunday and then over the 7,400 mark yesterday, and he has now litzed more than 2,000 puzzles—another all-time litzing record!  Congratulations, Mark!  And Howard, who just started litzing at the beginning of January, has already litzed more than 300 puzzles—that's approximately 10 per day.  Great job, Howard!  Here at Litzing Central, I never know what's going to come in or when:  Last night at 8:18, I received 23 litzed puzzles from Mark; just three minutes later, at 8:21, an e-mail with 19 litzed puzzles came in from Howard!  Then, a couple of hours later—at 10:06, to be precise—5 more puzzles arrived from Mark, putting Mark and Howard in a tie, with 308 litzed puzzles each during the contest!

The 616 puzzles from Mark and Howard comprise slightly less than half of the 1,243 that have been litzed so far this month, so all the other puzzles from everyone else are helping an enormous amount too!  Thanks so much, everybody—I think we'll be over the Halfway Hump in just a few weeks, if not sooner!

In other news, we have a new Litzer of the Month for February:  Denny Baker, who, as I've written before, is a constructor and was a litzer back in the day when Barry Haldiman was litzing his favorite puzzles!  To read more about Denny, click on his photo on the right or the Litzer of the Month tab above.

Also, I recently received an e-mail from Amy Reynaldo (Diary of a Crossword Fiend), who forwarded an e-mail she'd received from David Astle ("DA").  DA is putting together what sounds like a fascinating book that will celebrate the first 100 years of crossword puzzles.  The Great Clue Chase will contain 100 mini-chapters containing different stories linked to each of the 100 years.  DA is interested in "good stories, remarkable puzzles, flukes, backfires, Russian, Ninas, firsts and lasts" to fill out his timeline.  He comments that the "best stuff has a year attached—the further back the better often—as well as neat story."  He's not reproducing puzzles—just providing a clue or two and telling the story.  If you have any ideas or stories for this book—there are probably many about puzzles from the pre-Shortzian era!—contact DA through his web site.  Anyone who sends a "zinger" will receive a copy of DA's Puzzles and Words, a new book of word origins and connected word puzzles!

Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle, "Living It Up,"  was constructed by Frances Hansen.  It was originally published on December 29, 1974, and was recently litzed by Mark Diehl.  This is one of several Will Weng–era quote puzzles I've seen that doesn't work the same way as a modern quote puzzle.  Instead of dividing the quote by natural word breaks, the constructor broke the quote at every twenty-third letter; the quote simply continues from line to line in an acrosticlike fashion!  Nowadays this puzzle probably wouldn't fly because of the word-break issue, even though the constructor's original verse is very clever.  Interestingly, Maleska probably would have rejected this puzzle as well.  In all the many Maleska-edited quote puzzles I've looked at (some of which were constructed by Frances Hansen), I have yet to encounter a straight quote puzzle with this kind of word breakage (though I have seen several step quotes).

Back to the puzzle.  The ingenious verse reads:  A DEFIANT OLD MAID, PRAY FORGIVE HER, REMARKED WITH A HABIT OF A QUIVER: "TONIGHT I SHALL SMOKE AND DRINK TIL I CHOKE AND NUTS TO MY LUNGS AND MY LIVER."  It's amazing that the verse, in addition to being exactly 115 letters long, makes perfect sense (even with the word-break issue)!  Also, the fill, in addition to being pangrammatic, feels more polished and clean than the average Will Weng–edited Sunday.  I especially like the entries ROOF JOBS, RAFFISH, and TABASCO!  I can do without AANI (clued as "Dog-headed ape"), ADMIS ("African gazelles"), DHAVA ("East Indian gum tree"), NABO ("P. I. shrub: Var."), and TONDO ("Circular painting"); nevertheless, this is a remarkably small number of flat-out obscurities for a hand-constructed 23x.  Is anyone else surprised that Will Weng allowed the entry HOMICIDAL into the grid?  To me, this seems to violate the breakfast test. . . .

Even though it has its weaknesses, this crossword provides insight into what quote/verse puzzles looked like before the Maleska and Shortz eras.  I look forward to seeing how other types of themes evolve as we continue to litz through the Weng era and further back into the Farrar era!  This puzzle's answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian clue appeared in the November 28, 1950, puzzle by Thomas Meekin, which was edited by Margaret Farrar and recently litzed by yours truly.  The clue, which led to EXTRACURRICULAR, read: "Describing activities now lacking in N.Y.'s public schools."  Apparently in 1950 and 1951, New York teachers were dissatisfied with their salaries and decided to boycott extracurricular activities until their pay rates were increased!  I find this kind of historically significant clue fascinating—there's hardly any information about the boycott anymore.  Each pre-Shortzian puzzle (particularly those edited by Margaret Farrar) is a snapshot of major events occurring when it was published!  Below is a picture of children in a classroom from the 1949–50 school year:

Image courtesy of Artswipe.

Litzing One-Third Complete, 1988 Puzzles Up on XWord Info, More Publicity, T-shirts Ordered, List of Constructor Names, and Interview with Original Litzer Denny Baker

Great news—we're now more than one-third done with all the litzing!  Even though things slowed down a bit after the October litzing contest ended and Sandy temporarily left some litzers without power, we're still moving at an amazing pace.  Thanks, everybody!

The proofreading is also going well—all the 1988 puzzles are now up on XWord Info!  Be sure to check out Jim Horne's awesome animation of Ralph G. Beaman's "Space Saver" puzzle that was featured a month or two ago.

In other news, the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project received some more great publicity this week!  Patrick Merrell announced the project on his blog Pat Tricks.  In addition, the Palos Verdes Peninsula News recently ran a great article that included more information about the project.  That part is about halfway through the article.

The Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project T-shirts have been ordered and should be arriving soon!  As soon as they do, I'll be sending them to everyone who won or ordered a T-shirt.  Since the design on the current T-shirt is geared toward litzers, I'm considering creating a second T-shirt design that should have broader appeal.  If you have any design suggestions, please let me know!

Last but not least, litzer Jeffrey Harris finished typing up all the Will Weng–era constructor names from Will Shortz's index and Rolodex cards.  He sacrificed many lunch breaks to do this, and I really appreciate it.  Great job, Jeffrey, and thanks so much to you and Will again!

A week and a half or so ago, I received an e-mail from Denny (Holden) Baker, a Shortz-era constructor and one of Barry Haldiman's original litzers.  Denny converted many puzzles from 1957, and I thought readers might be interested in his reminiscences of litzing "back in the day."

You were one of the first-ever litzers—how did you become involved with litzing?

The New York Times’s Crossword Forum was moderated (for a couple of years at least) by Hex (i.e., Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon).  Many constructors were participants on the forum; we called ourselves the CRU.  One of the things that happened on the forum was that people would post their own puzzles, or, sometimes, puzzles from sources other than The New York Times, for the delectation and consideration of other CRU.  Somebody on the CRU—I’m thinking it may have been Lloyd Mazer—coined the term litzing for what we were doing.

You litzed 79 puzzles back then, which was a lot!  Did you have a particular goal in mind, and what software did you use for litzing?

I did my litzing starting in late 2002 and on up until at least Jun 18, 2003.  I had no software for doing this.  I basically copied a puzzle by hand—entry by entry, clue by clue—into Crossword Compiler and then sent it to Barry Haldiman, who put it in the proper format for posting.  I used as my source Daily Puzzles, Crosswords from The Times, edited by Margaret Farrar, #11 in the series, published in 1964.  (Most of the puzzles were from 1953.  Barry did a great job of figuring out the original publication dates of almost all of those puzzles, as well as those of other books in the series.)  I litzed a few cryptics (my favorites) from a collection I had from the old Saturday Review of Literature, but I gave up on that due to the copyright difficulty.

How many other litzers were there, and did you see each other or mainly communicate by e-mail?

I knew the other litzers by name only, though the names were familiar to CRU members, and I met some of them at various ACPTs.  I met Barry on a trip west as we passed through KC, because he shares with me an interest in birding.  We had a great KC barbecue lunch, and he gave us some excellent suggestions on birding sites in Kansas.  A couple of years later, we again stopped for a barbecue lunch with Barry.  (Then he put up Denny’s Den on the Internet!  And it’s still there!)

What are the best and worst entries you've come across in a pre-Shortzian puzzle?

I have no particular least favorite or most favorite entry from those days; the puzzles were pretty dull, no themes whatsoever, no punning clues, in fact, few interesting clues or answers.

Which aspect of the eventual pre-Shortzian database are you most excited about?

It will be interesting to see what the pre-Shortzian word list looks like.  It might occasionally be helpful in filling difficult corners.


Thanks so much again, Denny!

Today's featured puzzle, "Svittles," was constructed by Phyllis Fehringer.  It was originally published on October 21, 1990, and was litzed a few months ago by Andrew Feist.  This phenomenal construction features ten symmetrically interlocking food-related terms that take on a humorous meaning when an S is added to the front of them.  For example, SMOCK TURTLE SOUP is clued as "Dinner course, dressed up?" and SHAM BURGERS is clued as "Grill counterfeits?"  My personal favorite theme entry/clue is "Inebriated vege-taters?" for SMASHED POTATOES.  In addition to all these theme entries, the blocks in the center of the puzzle (which were shaded a different color in the PDF) form a giant S!  On top of all this, the fill is remarkably clean considering how open the grid is—I especially like the entries SLOWS UP, EXTRUDE, and AGITATOR.  TELEMARK (clued as "Skier's turn") and KERNITE (clued as "Important ore of boron") are a little obscure; overall, though, this is a fine pre-Shortzian puzzle.  The complete puzzle can be seen on XWord Info, and the answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) appears below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is TATTERDEMALION.  TATTERDEMALION originally appeared in the November 21, 1979, puzzle by William Jarvis, which was recently litzed by Beth Welsh.  According to the Ginsberg database, TATTERDEMALION has been reused in a few Merl Reagle puzzles, though never in a Shortz-era New York Times puzzle.  The original clue for TATTERDEMALION was "Ragamuffin."  Webster defines a tatterdemalion as "a person dressed in ragged clothing."  It also lists tatterdemalion as an adjective meaning "ragged or disreputable in appearance" or "being in a decayed state or condition."  The origin of tatterdemalion is unknown, though it is known that the term was introduced into our language around 1608.  Below is a picture of a tatterdemalion flag:

Image courtesy of UnitedStatesFlags.com