Over 15,700, In 1944, New Litzer of the Month Tom Pepper, and a Longtime Mystery Solved

This week's post is going to be shorter than usual since I'm going to be at a Latin convention over the weekend, which would make Maleska proud!  Although I probably won't have a chance to work on many crosswords, I'll be busy competing in a Jeopardy-like game called certamen and puzzling through Latin grammar and derivatives tests.  And, of course, there will be a banquet and party at the end of the convention . . . perhaps I'll hear someone use the pre-Shortzian crosswordese EVOE, even though it's more of Greek exclamation than a Latin one.  (Okay, full disclosure:  That someone would probably be me, and I highly doubt that my knowledge of fusty crosswordese would endear me to the STOLA-clad ladies!)  Anyway, on to less Juvenal (pun intended) matters.

It's been a very busy week on the litzing front!  Friday afternoon, Susan O'Brien sent in 7 puzzles, which were followed by 10 proofread puzzles Saturday evening from Todd Gross.  Early Sunday morning, Brad Wilber sent in 7 litzed puzzles; that afternoon, Denny Baker sent in 4 more, which were followed by 10 more proofread puzzles from Todd and then 31 more proofread puzzles from Tracy Bennett that evening!  Early Monday morning, Nancy Kavanaugh sent in a mega-batch of 24 Sunday puzzles, then just a few minutes later, Barry Haldiman sent in 14 more puzzles.  Later that morning, Todd sent 11 more proofread puzzles, which were followed that evening by 4 litzed puzzles from Mike Buckley, who put us at 15,700 on the litzing thermometer and into 1944!  Tuesday afternoon, Susan sent 4 more puzzles, which were followed eight minutes later by 10 more proofread puzzles from Todd.  Wednesday morning, Todd sent another 10 proofread puzzles, then another 8 puzzles that night, and another 10 Thursday afternoon—way to go, Todd!  Then Thursday night Lynn Feigenbaum sent in 2 puzzles, which were followed by 10 more proofread puzzles from Todd Friday morning.  And this week Howard Barkin sent 8 puzzles too.  We're now at 15,714 on the litzing thermometer—thanks so much again, everyone!

As I mentioned, we're now in also 1944, which was the year the first widely used sunscreen appeared!  According to Wikipedia, the product was developed by airman (and later pharmacist) Benjamin Green for soldiers and called Red Vet Pet (for red veterinary petrolatum—no wonder the name got shortened!).  Later, Coppertone acquired the patent and sales soared.  Here's a picture of the original Coppertone girl ad:

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

This week I'm also delighted to announce the April Litzer of the Month:  Tom Pepper!  Tom has litzed more than 100 puzzles and is a New York Times constructor and avid Boggle player—to read more about him, click on the Litzer of the Month tab above or here.

I'd like to conclude this post with an inspiring story about how the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project has been able to help the community at large.  Last Saturday I received an e-mail from Elizabeth Sharf, whose great aunt Edna Dampman passed away on January 30, 1977, at the age of 98—after, among other things, solving a Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle.  Elizabeth was interested in seeing the January 30, 1977, crossword, because she was writing Edna's life story and preparing it for her mother, who is now 91 and was an avid crossword solver until her eyes failed.  Elizabeth wondered whether there was a Sunday puzzle that day and hoped to be able to solve the longtime mystery of which puzzle her great aunt had been working on.  The January 30, 1977, puzzle just happened to be the brilliant puzzle by Dorothea E. Shipp I posted on Scribd some time ago.  This crossword is unlike anything I've ever seen before in a pre-Shortzian puzzle and certainly must have been an inspiring conclusion to many years of solving the Times Sunday puzzle.  In any case, Elizabeth was very happy to receive the puzzle, and I was pleased to be able to help her commemorate her great aunt, particularly since her first name (Edna) is very crossword-friendly!  Here's a picture of EDNA Ferber, whose name has shown up in many a puzzle:

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

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.

ACPT Wrap-Up, Dorothea E. Shipp Puzzle, "Twenty Under Thirty" Now Available, and Over 8,400

This will be another shorter and earlier post than usual, because I'm busy catching up with all the work I missed while at the ACPT—and tomorrow I'm leaving for the California Junior Classical League State Convention in Irvine.  My posting should get back to its regular schedule next week, though; in the meantime, the new Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project Twitter page will have any news that comes up between now and then!

First, the ACPT . . . it was awesome!  I had so much fun meeting, reuniting with, and talking to everybody!  The litzer get-together on Friday afternoon was more sparsely attended than I'd expected, since quite a few people had their flights delayed by the bad weather in New York.  Still, several litzers were able to stop by, and we made it through at least some of the Oreos (though I brought back an unopened package on the plane!).  I met up with other litzers later; all told, there were 15 litzers (including me) at the ACPT—Howard Barkin, Peter Broda, Joe Cabrera, Andrew Feist, Vic Fleming, Mangesh Ghogre, Angela Halsted, Jeffrey Harris, Jeffrey Krasnick (wearing his Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project T-shirt!), Andrew Laurence, Parker Lewis, Tom Pepper, Doug Peterson, and Brad Wilber!  (If I've left anyone out, please let me know—it was all a whirlwind!)  I'll be sure to schedule any future litzer parties for sometime later that weekend so everyone will have arrived.  Here are a few litzer photos:

Me wearing the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project T-shirt

Me and Brad Wilber eating Oreos in the lounge!

Vic Fleming at the Oreo table

Howard Barkin in the tournament room

Jeffrey Krasnick in his Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project T-shirt

On Friday night, I gave a short talk about the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project—you can see a video of it below (or here on YouTube)—just click on the arrow to play it.  (Warning:  The video is a bit shaky at first, but it gets better quickly.)

In the video, I mention a flyer with a Will Weng–edited puzzle.  Unfortunately, because of a mix-up, that wasn't available, but if you'd like to try your hand at the amazing Dorothea E. Shipp 23 x 23 puzzle "Every Which Way" that was on the back of the flyer, I've posted it on Scribd, and you can download it here.  I'll post the solution next week.

You can see more ACPT photos and videos (as well as lots of interesting results!) by scrolling down on the official tournament Web site here.

In other news, I'm delighted to report that Twenty Under Thirty is now available!  Twenty Under Thirty is a collection of crosswords edited by Ben Tausig and written by twenty constructors under the age of thirty, including three litzers—Peter Broda, me, and Alex Vratsanos!  A PDF of the book is $5 and will be e-mailed to you; to order a copy, click here.

Finally, even with all the events of this past week, the litzing continued!  On Sunday, Mark Diehl sent in 13 puzzles and put us over 8,400 on the litzing thermometer—at this rate, I think there's a chance we'll be finished with all the litzing (though not all the proofreading!) within the next year or so!  Thanks again, everybody!

In honor of Joe Krozel's amazing 18-blocker that will appear in tomorrow's New York Times, today's featured puzzle has the lowest block count I've seen so far in a pre-Shortzian puzzle:  23.  XWord Info lists just 7 puzzles that contain 23 blocks, all of which were published in the Shortz era when computer software was available.

This lovely Maleska-edited puzzle, which was constructed by Adelyn Lewis and litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick, was originally published on January 13, 1979.  The fill is almost junk-free, and the constructor even managed to throw in a repeated prefix theme consisting of four intersecting 15-letter entries—wow!  The fill's highlights include ARSONIST, DEEP-SET, and BAD TIMES (cleverly clued as "Depressions and recessions").  The partial DE SACS and the French TAVERNE aren't my favorites, but they're a small price to pay for an otherwise brilliant, ahead-of-its-time puzzle!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

I can imagine that many solvers took offense at the entry WETBACK, which appeared in the May 27, 1986, puzzle by Burns (first name unknown) that was recently litzed by Bob Jones.  Maleska's clue for WETBACK was simply "Illegal border crosser."  However, I also encountered the entry WETBACK (at 1-Across) in the May 7, 1951, puzzle by Jack Luzzatto, which was recently litzed by yours truly.  I couldn't believe that Margaret Farrar published the clue "Mexican smuggled over the Rio Grande"!  The breakfast test must have had a very different meaning back in 1951.

On a more positive note, I saw a very clever clue for ANT in the March 24, 1951, puzzle by Harold T. Bers, which I also litzed:  "Small red socialist."  This clue was not only very current but also exceedingly clever for its time.  Bravo, Mr. Bers!  Below is a picture of a red ant:

Image courtesy of Southern Fire Ant Control.