Crossw_rd Magazine Cornucopia, Barry Silk's Jack Luzzatto Find, and More from Todd Gross

Happy New Year, everyone—as promised, here are a few cruciverbal treats to start the year off right!

Crossw_rd Magazine Cornucopia

Some of you may have read the previous articles I've posted on Scribd from Crossw_rd Magazine.  I still have a treasure trove of them left that I've been meaning to put up for some time.  One of my New Year's resolutions was to post them all, and since things will get busy once school starts up again, I've done it in one fell swoop—enjoy!

Mike Shenk
First up is legendary constructor and editor Mike Shenk, whose 1996 profile was written by Marilynn Huret—click here to read it.  Mike, now crossword editor of The Wall Street Journal, was then editor of Games Magazine.  Mike has published at least one pre-Shortzian puzzle in The New York Times and seven Shortz-era puzzles.

Mike Shenk. Photo copyright 1996,
2017, Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted
by permission of Stan Chess and
CROSSW-RD Magazine.

For a more recent profile of Mike, see this 2014 article in Penn State News.

Mel Rosen
Crossword luminary Mel Rosen is profiled by Alex Vaughn in this 1994 article, which you can read by clicking here.  Author of the classic Random House Puzzlemaker's Handbook and former editor of The Crosswords Club, Mel has published at least 24 pre-Shortzian Times puzzles and 14 in the Shortz era.

Mel Rosen. Photo copyright 1994,
2017, Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted
by permission of Stan Chess and
CROSSW-RD Magazine.

For more on Mel, see this 2010 L.A. Times Crossword Corner interview and this 2013 one that appeared on this site.

Manny Nosowsky
Manny Nosowsky, one of the most prolific constructors ever, is profiled by Alex Vaughn in this 1994 piece—click here to read it.  Manny, whose first career was as a urologist, has published at least 8 pre-Shortzian New York Times puzzles and 246 Shortz-era puzzles.

Manny Nosowsky. Photo copyright 1994,
2017, Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted by
permission of Stan Chess and CROSS-
W-RD Magazine.

To read more about Manny, see this 2012 Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project interview.

Randolph Ross
Randolph (or Randy) Ross, another prolific constructor, is profiled by Helene Hovanec in this 1993 article, which you can see here.  Randy, also a longtime high school principal, has published at least 2 pre-Shortzian Times puzzles and 101 in the Shortz era.

Randolph Ross. Photo copyright 1993,
2017, Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted by
permission of Stan Chess and CROSS-
W-RD Magazine.

For more on Randy, see XWord Info creator Jim Horne's 2009 interview on Wordplay.

Maura Jacobson
Celebrated crossword constructor and editor Maura Jacobson is profiled by Helene Hovanec in this 1993 article—to read it, click here.  Maura, who was honored with the first MERL Memorial Award in 2016 for lifetime achievement, published at least 63 pre-Shortzian Times crosswords and 3 in the Shortz era.

Maura Jacobson. Photo copyright 1993,
2017, Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted by
permission of Stan Chess and CROSS-
W-RD Magazine.

For more on Maura, see this 2011 article in New York Magazine.

Nancy Nicholson Joline
Nancy Nicholson Joline, who had her very first crossword accepted by Eugene T. Maleska, is the subject of this 1995 profile by Marilynn Huret—click here to read it.  Nancy published at least 61 pre-Shortzian puzzles in The New York Times and 48 in the Shortz era.

Nancy Nicholson Joline. Photo copyright
1995, 2017, Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted
by permission of Stan Chess and CROSS-
W-RD Magazine.

For more on Nancy, see this 2008 article on Barnard constructors that originally appeared in Barnard Magazine.

A. J. Santora
Another hugely prolific constructor (and, appropriately enough, constructor of homes), A. J. Santora is profiled by Helene Hovanec in this 1994 article, which you can read here.  A. J. had at least 185 pre-Shortzian Times puzzles published and 68 in the Shortz era.

A. J. Santora. Photo copyright 1994,
2017, Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted by
permission of Stan Chess and CROSS-
W-RD Magazine.

Karen Hodge (Karen Young Bonin)
Karen Hodge (aka Karen Young Bonin) is the subject of this 1994 profile by Helene Hovanec, which you can read here.  A longtime high school French teacher who started the Connecticut Shoreline crossword contest, Karen published at least 2 pre-Shortzian puzzles in The New York Times and 11 in the Shortz era.

Karen Hodge. Photo copyright 1994,
2017, Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted
by permission of Stan Chess and
CROSSW-RD Magazine.

For more on Karen, see this 1999 article in the Hartford Courant.

Cathy Millhauser (Cathy Allis)
Another renowned punster, Cathy Millhauser (aka Cathy Allis) is profiled in this 1994 article by Alex Vaughn—to read it, click here.  Cathy has published at least 4 pre-Shortzian Times puzzles and 84 in the Shortz era.

Cathy Millhauser. Photo copyright
1994, 2017, Megalo Media, Inc. Re-
printed by permission of Stan Chess and
CROSSW-RD Magazine.

For more on Cathy, see this 2011 article in the Albany, N.Y., Times Union.

Obituaries:  Will Weng, Eugene T. Maleska, and Jordan S. Lasher
Several noteworthy obituaries appeared in CROSSW_ORD Magazine, including this lengthy joint one on Will Weng and Eugene T. Maleska, who both passed away the same unfortunate year.  Written by Helene Hovanec in 1993, it can be read here.

Will Weng (left) and Eugene T. Maleska (right).
Photo copyright 1993, 2017, Megalo Media, Inc.
Reprinted by permission of Stan Chess and CROSS-
W-RD Magazine.

Two years later, a short but informative obituary on Jordan S. Lasher appeared without a byline—to read it, click here.  Jordan passed away at an early age (48), having published at least 60 pre-Shortzian puzzles in The New York Times.  A chemical engineer, he created the "world's hardest puzzle" for a bookstore contest.

For more on Jordan, see this 1995 obituary in The New York Times and other articles listed on the Pre-Shortzian Constructors page.

Eric Albert's Op-ed on Puzzle Tedium
I came across this 1993 op-ed on puzzle tedium written by New York Times constructor Eric Albert, "So Damn Dull," and found it most interesting historically—to read it, click here.  Clearly crosswords have come a very long way since then!

Stan Newman on Crosswordese
Finally, I can't think of a better way to finish up this crossword cornucopia than with this four-part crosswordese (and brand name) series by the inimitable Stan Newman, new-wave crusader and Newsday crossword editor—click here to read it.

Barry Silk's Jack Luzzatto Find

Some time ago New York Times constructor and Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project volunteer Barry Silk wrote to me about a great find.  He'd been watching some old What's My Line? videos and discovered this one with an appearance by Jack Luzzatto, one of the most creative and prolific pre-Shortzian constructors ever.  Jack appears at approximately 20:45 in the video; to see it, click on the link above or watch it below.  Terrific find—thanks so much again, Barry!

More from Todd Gross

Following up on last week's post, crossword historian Todd Gross just published this article on pre-Shortzian constructor Helen Pettigrew.  Congratulations, Todd!

Todd also found articles on pre-Shortzian and Shortz-era constructors Derrick Niederman and Merl Reagle that are now linked to here and on the Pre-Shortzian Constructors page.  Thanks, Todd!


That's it for now—I look forward to seeing many of you at the ACPT and in the meantime wish everyone a happy and puzzle-filled 2017!

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:

20th Anniversary of Will Shortz's Editorship (and of the Post–Pre-Shortzian Era!), Lynn Feigenbaum's 1993 Interview with Will Shortz, Eric Albert's "The World's Most Ornery Crossword," Project Update, Looming Litzing Challenges, and More Publicity

Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of Will Shortz's editorship of the New York Times crossword—and, hence, of the post–pre-Shortzian era!  The past 20 years have truly been the golden age of Times crosswords—congratulations, Will!

November 21, 1993, New York Times announcement.

And, serendipitously, yesterday I received an e-mail from our newest litzer, Lynn Feigenbaum, reportedly the first journalist to interview Will after he became puzzle editor of the Times.  Lynn's article, "Bill Clinton Of The Crossword Puzzle World," appeared in December 1993 in Editor & Publisher.  She writes:  "I had met him at the 1986 U.S. Open Crossword Championship (where I came in an inglorious 203rd out of 250 puzzlers . . . I've never gotten much better) and was appalled that the press didn't know what a revolutionary change was ahead.  I hoped writing the article for E&P, a newspaper trade mag, would spread the word.  I like to think it did. . . . "  You can read Lynn's fascinating piece here.

If you enjoyed Eric Albert's "Crosswords by Computer" article last week, you may want to try your hand at solving "The World's Most Ornery Crossword."  This computer-created puzzle by Eric has two independent sets of clues—"Hard" and "Easy"—so you can choose the challenge level you prefer.  The puzzle appeared in the same issue of Games and can be viewed and downloaded here.

On the litzing front this week, Howard Barkin sent in 7 puzzles (putting his total at more than 800 litzed puzzles!).  Saturday morning, Joe Cabrera sent in 6 more.  Then Sunday morning, Alex Vratsanos sent in 7 puzzles, which were followed by 7 more from Denny Baker that afternoon and 8 from Mark Diehl that night.  Monday morning, Alex sent in 7 more puzzles, which were followed by 7 more from Denny on Wednesday afternoon.  Friday morning, Todd Gross sent in 10 proofread puzzles.  Great job, everyone—by next week at this time, we should be over 13,700!

As we get into the final stretch of litzing, we're facing some new challenges.  Several litzers have already been sent some unusual packets—instead of containing a typical week of Monday through Sunday puzzles, some packets now may have just a few daily puzzles or a few Sunday puzzles with no dailies.  Soon we'll be entering the Sunday-only phase, which will begin (moving backwards in time) on September 10, 1950.  Packets from then on will consist of 4 to 5 Sunday puzzles.  Although this will mean that individual litzing totals will increase more slowly, the Sunday puzzles from this time period had so many fascinating historical and cultural references that they should still hold our interest!

Another looming litzing challenge is the number of missing puzzles, either because of newspaper strikes or because we simply couldn't find PDFs of certain puzzles.  Although these problematic puzzles comprise a relatively small percentage of the total—I recently counted 129 newspaper strike dates, for example—in the not too distant future I'll be soliciting help to track them down.

Finally, the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project received some more publicity this week in Deb Amlen's November 19 post on Wordplay—thanks so much, Deb!

Today's featured puzzle was constructed by George Laczko, edited by Margaret Farrar, published on March 13, 1967, and litzed by Mark Diehl.  This remarkable construction features six symmetrically interlocking theme entries that contain an article of clothing but that are either idiomatic and/or have nothing to do with the articles of clothing in and of themselves, such as SLIPS OUT and IN ANOTHER'S SHOES.  TIES INTO and SNOW CAPS are positioned particularly elegantly since they intersect two other theme entries apiece, a feat that would be exceptionally challenging even with the word lists and other resources available to 21st-century crossword constructors!  What really makes this puzzle extraordinary and way ahead of its time, however, is the inclusion of the reveal entry GARMENT DISTRICT (clued appropriately for The New York Times as "Part of New York City.").  I haven't seen very many daily puzzles from the '50s and '60s with themes as solid as this one, but I don't think I've seen any that go so far as to include a reveal entry!  The theme density did, however, necessitate a barrage of crosswordese and unusual entries in the nonthematic fill, which include ORLO ("Flat plinth."), PINNI ("Feather: Prefix"), ALME ("Egyptian dancing girl."), STYR ("Ukrainian river."), and DTHS ("Theological degrees.").  The weirdest-looking entry has to be WHEYEY ("Like thin milk."), a word that I've never seen before within or outside of crosswords!  Nevertheless, Mr. Laczko did a brilliant job with this puzzle, and I look forward to seeing more puzzles that are 20–30 years ahead of their time as litzing continues!  For now, here's the solution (with highlighted theme entries):

Eric Albert's "Crosswords by Computer," Mark Diehl Litzes One Quarter of All the Pre-Shortzian Puzzles, In 1956, and Cogito Article on the Project

This week I'm delighted to present a link to Eric Albert's classic article, "Crosswords by Computer—or 1,000 Nine-Letter Words a Day for Fun and Profit," on his experiences in the early years of crossword construction software.  This fascinating piece originally appeared in February 1992—more than 20 years ago!  To read it, click here.  Thanks so much again, Eric!

I'm also thrilled to announce that on Sunday litzer Mark Diehl reached a major milestone:  He litzed his 4058th puzzle, meaning he has now litzed more than one quarter of all the pre-Shortzian puzzles!  This is truly an amazing feat—congratulations, Mark, and thanks so much again!

Lots of other puzzles came in this week too, starting off on Saturday afternoon with 7 from Ed Sessa.  Twenty minutes later, Brian Kulman sent in another 7.  Sunday afternoon, Ralph Bunker sent 28 puzzles, putting us over 13,500 on the litzing thermometer (and his own total at more than 600 litzed puzzles—since mid-September!)!  Then later that night, Mark sent in the batch of 22 puzzles that brought his record-breaking total to 4058!  Monday afternoon, Jeffrey Krasnick sent in 7 more puzzles.  Tuesday morning, Denny Baker sent 7 puzzles, which were followed that evening by 10 more proofread puzzles from Todd Gross.  Wednesday morning, Ralph sent in 28 more puzzles.  Thursday afternoon, Nancy Kavanaugh sent a mega-batch of 42 puzzles, putting us over 13,600 on the litzing thermometer and into 1956!  A short while later, Todd sent 10 more proofread puzzles, which were followed by 11 litzed puzzles from Mark later that night.  Then late this afternoon, Todd sent in 11 more proofread puzzles, which were followed 15 minutes later by 7 litzed puzzles from Mike Buckley.  Super job, everyone—we're really whizzing through the 1950s!

We're now in 1956, the breakout year for "the King" (no, not the Litzing King, Mark Diehl!).  Elvis Presley rocketed to superstardom with the January release of his first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel."  Here's a picture:

Image courtesy of HowStuffWorks

In other news, the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project received some more publicity recently!  Kristi Birch's article, "Project Spotlight:  Getting a Clue," features an interview with me about the project and is on the Cogito.org site of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth.  To read it, click here.

Today's featured puzzle, "Sweet Talk," was constructed by the legendary A. J. Santora, edited by the legendary Margaret Farrar, and litzed by the legendary Mark Diehl!  The publication date, which was November 27, 1966, isn't particularly legendary, though this puzzle is from one of the first batches of litzed puzzles I reviewed in the year 1966.  The theme, which involves different types of candy clued in ways that don't relate to candy, is a solid representation of what Sunday puzzle themes were like from this time period (category members with alternate meanings).  I've noticed that there were relatively few themeless Sundays published in the late Farrar era, and the ones that did appear seem to have all been constructed by the same person (the exceptionally prolific William A. Lewis, Jr.).  Anyway, my favorite theme entries in this puzzle are CHOCOLATE CREAM SOLDIER (clued as "'Arms and the Man' man."), ON THE GOOD SHIP LOLLIPOP (clued trickily as "Temple song of years ago."—Mr. Santora was referring to Shirley Temple rather than to the place of worship!), CRACKERJACK ("First-rate: Slang."—which, interestingly, is a brand name of sweets), and BUTTERSCOTCH ("Yellowish-brown.").  I haven't personally heard of the first two of these theme entries, but I like that they're both 21 letters—and besides, who can split hairs over such a sweet theme?  The only theme entry that feels a little weak is PEPPERMINTS ("Pungent plants."), since its clue isn't that far off in terms of meaning from the candies.  The nonthematic fill, which feels fresh and lively, makes up for this slight inconsistency and really shines because of the puzzle's relatively low theme density.  I especially like the entries TAMMANY, ZEALOT, EXODUS, BABOONS, CROUPIER, UPROAR, and, most of all, BALLYHOO!  That said, this puzzle review would feel too treacly if I neglected to mention the slew of partials in the grid, which include TAKING A ("___ back seat"), REAP THE ("___ whirlwind"), and the repetitious À-TÊTE ("Tête ___"), as well as the unpleasant TRAUMAS ("Emotional stresses") and the lesser-known SEGETAL ("Growing in fields of grain."), RORIC ("Dewy."), and TSHI ("Gold Coast language.").  In sum, however, this is a fine construction with a mouth-watering theme—I look forward to seeing some more of A. J. Santora's earlier constructions as litzing continues!  For now, here's the answer grid with highlighted theme entries.  Time to go grab some candy!