Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project Blog Wins First Place in Quill and Scroll Contest, Plus Jim Horne's Grid Discovery

This week I'm delighted and honored to announce that the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project blog won First Place in the Quill and Scroll 2014 International Writing and Photo Contest – Blogging Competition!  Quill and Scroll is an international high school journalism honorary society that encourages and recognizes individual student achievement in journalism.  This award came as a big surprise and means a great deal to me, because the blog has become a major part of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project effort and community.  The judges also made some great suggestions for the blog, which I'm planning to incorporate.  Thanks so much, Quill and Scroll!

It's been a busy week on both the litzing and proofreading fronts!  Saturday morning, Jeffrey Krasnick sent in a month of proofread puzzles, and then Sunday morning, new litzer Matt Skoczen sent in 1 puzzle.  Early Wednesday morning, Todd Gross sent in 10 proofread puzzles, and that night, Mark Diehl sent in his final 19 litzed puzzles, putting his grand total at an amazing 4,400 litzed puzzles—congratulations, Mark!  Early Thursday morning, Todd sent 10 more proofread puzzles, which were followed by 4 litzed puzzles from Larry Wasser later on; that evening, Mark sent in a week of proofread puzzles.  And this week Howard Barkin sent 2 months of proofread puzzles. We're now at 15,943 on the litzing thermometer and almost finished with the 1976 proofreading—thanks so much, everyone!

I've received a few more inquiries about proofreading, this week from John Bulten, Mark Diehl, Jim Modney, Susan O'Brien, and Larry Wasser.  If you'd like to try your hand at the proofreading self-test—which is chock-full of mistakes!—just send me an e-mail.

I also received an e-mail from Jim Horne of XWord Info this week with an interesting observation about pre-Shortzian grid designs:  Some constructors consistently used the exact same grids (with different fills, of course), which suggests that they might have had a slightly different philosophy about which themes to develop into puzzles.  Instead of building a puzzle around any theme that piqued their interest, Jim suggests that these constructors may have started with the constraint of an easy-to-fill grid and just tried to fit their best ideas into it.  Jim cited the example of prolific Maleska- and Weng-era constructor H. Hastings Reddall, who currently has 18 puzzles posted on XWord Info.  Reddall's four most recent constructions have identical grids, and the pentad before these use the same pattern as well.  Reddall's December 9, 1985, puzzle, with its scads of seven-letter words, has a distinct grid, but the eight puzzles he published before this one all use (drumroll, please!) the exact same grid skeleton!  Well, one of these puzzles includes an extra pair of cheater squares, but the grid's framework is pretty much the same.

I find it fascinating that many of the puzzles Reddall constructed using each of his three major grid patterns also have conspicuous thematic similarities.  Three of his four puzzles using "Grid #3" have patriotic themes:   the July 4, 1986, puzzle features the entries INDEPENDENCE DAY, STARS AND STRIPES, and STATUE OF LIBERTY; the September 17, 1987, puzzle features THE CONSTITUTION, THE LAW OF THE LAND, and ATTORNEY GENERAL; and the June 14, 1989, puzzle features AMERICAN FLAG DAY, STARS AND STRIPES, and RED WHITE AND BLUE.  Of the puzzles using "Grid #2," the more recent three have animal-related repeated word themes centered around CAT, DOG, and TAIL, respectively, and the other two have boys' names and girls' names themes (with entries such as ALFRESCO and RUTHLESS).  And of the puzzles using "Grid #1," four have patriotic themes similar to those described above, two have avian themes, and two have repeated-word themes centered around GOLD and THREE.  I wonder whether Reddall or either pre-Shortzian editor was aware of these commonalities.  Well, either way, it definitely appears that Reddall knew what Maleska and Weng were looking for!

Such stylistic patterns and Jim's enlightening proposition also make me wonder whether identifying the constructors of some authorless pre-Shortzian puzzles might be possible by construction style alone.  For example, I've seen many authorless, pangrammatic early-Weng and late-Farrar puzzles that scream William Lutwiniak.  Perhaps it would even be possible to write a computer program to spot geometric and thematic patterns and make educated guesses about the authorless puzzles' constructors!  All existing pre-Shortzian data could first be fed into the program and analyzed based on predetermined stylistic factors (number of theme entries, number of blocks, etc.).  The program would then return its best three or so guesses as to the author of each puzzle and state how confident it was (that is, how good of a match for the puzzle in question it found within the existing data) about its predictions.  I don't think automatically assuming that the computer program was correct would be a good idea, especially since constructors vary in terms of predictability and since it's quite possible that the spreadsheet doesn't currently represent the complete pool of published pre-Shortzian New York Times constructors, but such a program would certainly be interesting to experiment with.  The program might also be able to draw parallels between certain known constructors, which could be equally fascinating!  Thanks again, Jim, for bringing these similarities to my attention.

Today's featured puzzle, whose author is unknown, was published April 29, 1968, edited by Margaret Farrar, and litzed by Mark Diehl.  I've come across several pre-Shortzian word progression themes, but this is the only one I've seen so far that loops all the way around—that is, the last word in the final phrase of the progression (the GIRL from COVER GIRL) is also the first word in the initial phrase of the progression (the GIRL in GIRL GUIDE).  I'm amazed that the constructor was able to formulate a looping word progression theme with so many parts whose words and phrases, GIRL GUIDE, GUIDE LEFT, LEFT HAND, HANDBOOK, BOOK COVER, and COVER GIRL, all feel fresh and in-the-language . . . without computer software!  With so many theme entries, one would expect the nonthematic fill to show some major signs of strain, but for the most part, this puzzle feels as clean as (if not cleaner than) its contemporaries.  I particularly like the entries NEAR-EAST, MODISTE, DROPLETS, EMBOWER, and DROVERS!  The two ten-letter nonthematic downs, REINSTATED and GRAND RIVER (clued as "Michigan waterway."), aren't particularly exciting, but they hold the puzzle together nicely and lead to minimal junk in the middle and in the upper-right and lower-left corners.  The grid does contain a few entries, such as REIS ("Old Portuguese coins."), AWA ("Gone: Scot."), UNDE ("Wavy, in heraldry."), SAK ("Egyptian cotton."), and RAYA ("Sultan's subject."), that seem a bit esoteric, but the constructor did a nice job of spreading them out in the grid to reduce the likelihood of an unsolvable square.  Sarah SIDDONS was also a mystery to me, though I was able to find a lengthy write-up of this 18th century British actress in Britannica.  In all, this is an excellent pre-Shortzian crossword!  If I had to guess who this puzzle's constructor is, I would put my money on Sara V. Tuckerman.  Sara constructed a handful of other word progression puzzles with similar grid structures dating back to 1967, and I have yet to encounter a pre-Shortzian word progression puzzle constructed by someone else.  Here's this puzzle's answer grid (with highlighted theme entries):

I've seen a handful of clues in puzzles from the early to mid-1960s referencing the 1964 World's Fair, which was held in New York.  Wikipedia states that the theme of this fair was "peace through understanding" and that the Space Age, along with computers with punch cards (gasp!), was well-represented.  So what relics from this fair sneaked their way into Farrar-edited Times crossword puzzles?  Here's a complete list of the ones I've seen, though more will probably turn up once the 1964 puzzles are uploaded to XWord Info and can be clue-searched:

• February 17, 1964 (constructed by S. A. Kay, litzed by Nancy Kavanaugh)
• Clue:  Symbol of New York World's Fair.
• Answer:  UNISPHERE
• June 9, 1964 (litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick)
• Clue:  World's Fair goer.
• Answer:  NEW YORKER
• June 10, 1964 (litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick)
• Clue:  Fountain at the Fair.
• Answer:  SOLAR
• June 11, 1964 (litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick)
• Clue:  Destination of a World's Fair voyage.
• Answer:  MOON
• June 24, 1964 (litzed by Denny Baker)
• Clue:  World-famous word.
• Answer:  FAIR
• August 3, 1964 (litzed by Mark Diehl)
• Clue:  World's Fair specialty.
• Answer:  SHOW
• August 17, 1964 (litzed by Mark Diehl)
• Clue:  World's Fair fun.
• Answer:  RIDES
• October 22, 1964 (litzed by Nancy Kavanaugh)
• Clue:  World's Fair name.
• Answer:  MOSES
• April 14, 1965 (litzed by Mike Buckley)
• Clue:  Hub of the World's Fair.
• Answer:  UNISPHERE

There are several other clues that reference different world's fairs, but I'll save those for a future blog post.  For now, here's a picture of the iconic Unisphere:

Image courtesy of NYC Parks.

Miriam Raphael's Maleska Stories, Helene Hovanec's "Creative Cruciverbalists," May Litzer of the Month Vic Fleming, Herbert L. Risteen Article, Another Litzing Script, Over 9,300—and in 1968 and the Farrar Era!

Several weeks ago I received an e-mail from master solver and crossword editor Miriam (Mimi) Raphael (whose National Puzzlers' League nom is Ditto).  Mimi won first place in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 1979 and first place in the Seniors Division 18 times between 1988 and 2011.  She had some Maleska stories she thought I might be interested in—and I was!  With her permission, they appear below, followed by a photo of the Fairfield County Puzzlers:

Back in the 1980s and '90s, there was a group of puzzle people—Will Shortz and a number of constructors and others interested in crosswords—in this area that called themselves the Fairfield County Puzzlers, after Fairfield County, Connecticut, where most of them lived.  I was actually just across the border in Westchester, New York, but I was a member, anyway.  Will Shortz was our leader—he was not puzzle editor of The New York Times in those days.  Norton Rhoades, who had been a school principal in Stamford, Connecticut, was a member, as was Stephanie Spadaccini, Maura Jacobson, and a few others whose names you might be familiar with.

We met every other month, as I remember, and one time decided to have a Maleska Roast (to which he was not invited).  Everyone was encouraged to bring a nasty letter they had received from Eugene.  I had one.  Through a strange combination of circumstances, I was editing a series of puzzle books—Champion Crosswords, for Simon & Schuster.  There were eight books published in the series before it died.  When Margaret Farrar found out about it, she was very helpful.  One of the best pieces of advice she gave me was to be gentle with constructors when I had to refuse their puzzles.  This was their "baby," she reminded me, and they sent it to me with many hopes and misgivings.  I took her advice seriously and once even received a thank-you note for a letter I had written to a constructor explaining why I couldn't use her puzzle—it wasn't very good, but I didn't say that in so many words.

Maleska, on the other hand, returned Maura Jacobson's early effort with, "You have a long way to go before you're ready to submit to the NY Times."  I received a letter from Maleska saying, "It has come to my attention that you are editing Crossword Puzzle Books for Simon & Schuster.  What are your credentials to be a crossword puzzle editor?"  I responded (and this was my letter in full) that "my credentials were sufficient for my publisher to offer me a contract," and I didn't hear from him again.

Just about everyone at that Fairfield County Puzzlers meeting at my house had a similar nasty letter from the great Eugene M.  We had a great time!

The Fairfield County Puzzlers on Miriam Raphael's front porch.  Front row:  Miriam Raphael, Stan Newman, Mark Oshin, Robert Carroll, Unknown.  Second row:  Doug Heller, Nancy Schuster, Bonnie Sirower, Unknown, Grace Frary, Will Shortz.  Back rows:  Unknown, Norman Landis, Halloween Man, Mike Shenk, Evie Eysenburg, Robin Landis, Ted Fishman, Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Ed Snarski. 

Thanks so much, Mimi!  (And thanks, too, to Will Shortz and Stan Newman for helping to identify some of the people in the photo!  If anyone else knows who the remaining "Unknowns" are, please contact me.)

Coincidentally, I've been reading a wonderful book I recently found out about that offers a few quite different impressions of Maleska.  Helene Hovanec's Creative Cruciverbalists contains fascinating profiles of many pre-Shortzian constructors, and the one for Karen Hodge notes that "Hodge submitted several puzzles to Maleska, who although rejecting them, kept on encouraging her for he felt that she showed a flair for constructing."  When he finally accepted one of Hodge's puzzles, Hovanec writes:  "His congratulatory note, which elated her, began:  'Your avian opus is certainly not for the birds.'"

Similarly, the profile of Henry Hook shows another side of Maleska, who was so impressed with Hook's initial submission that he offered "to critique his crosswords and send him a style sheet (which Hook hadn't known existed)."  In fact, Hovanec writes, as "Hook developed under Maleska's tutelage, Maleska further assisted him by sending his work to other editors."

And the profile of Maleska himself is truly amazing.  Maleska's own puzzles did not meet with immediate acceptance.  His first efforts, which he sent to the Herald Tribune, were repeatedly rejected:

Maleska remembers the route he traveled:  "First I bought the newspaper every day and studied the style of the puzzle very carefully.  Months later I submitted my first professional effort—and held my breath.  I had enclosed a self-addressed stamped envelope, but did not bother to write an accompanying letter.  I had too much amour propre to plead.  My bubble of self-esteem burst abruptly.  Not even a formal rejection slip!  I was tempted to give up right then and there.  But persistence emerged to take the place of pride. . . .  I set some sort of record for initial failure—over forty rejections from a silent editor in a two-year period!"

Even more surprising to me was learning that Maleska actually tried to "jazz up" the clues in his puzzles:

He vividly remembers the first puzzle in which he "broke the log jam."  "'Nest' was defined as 'Nutcracker's suite' and the clue for 'noon' was 'When both hands are up.'  For 'ironer' the solvers were confronted with 'He has pressing problems.'"

And the first stepquote Maleska published, under Margaret Farrar, created a furor, with very polarized reactions on the parts of solvers.

Maleska seems to have been someone with many different sides—he could be arrogant and harsh with some constructors but was also apparently very encouraging to others.  And although the "educational" aspect to his puzzles could be stifling, some of his innovations, such as with cluing and stepquotes, were very creative.

In other news, I'm delighted to announce that Vic Fleming is the May Litzer of the Month!  To read about "Judge Vic," click here or on the Litzer of the Month tab above.

Also, I was thrilled to get an e-mail from litzer and proofreader Todd Gross on Wednesday about an article he'd found on pre-Shortzian constructor Herbert L. Risteen.  Todd had been reading the interview with Litzer of the Month Vic Fleming, who mentions the entry VIC SEIXAS, and remembered that he'd seen Vic Seixas mentioned in an article he'd read about Risteen.  I've now linked to this article from the Pre-Shortzian Constructors page; to read it, click on the link there or go directly to the Risteen article here.  Thanks so much, Todd!  If anyone else comes across articles on pre-Shortzian constructors, please let me know.

Herbert L. Risteen.  Image courtesy of
The Milwaukee Journal.

Last week I wrote about the litzing script Martin Herbach had sent me, and today I just received some additional information from him::

fyi, the following one-line sed script merges any line that doesn't begin with a number, with its previous line:

sed ":a; $!N;s/\n\([^0-9]\)/ \1/;ta;P;D" fromfile >tofile

It took a bit of messing with before I got it working.  It's for gnu sed on windows.  Other sed versions will take some syntax  changes.  I'm not an osx expert, so I have no idea what sed is built-in or available.

As you can tell, I hate doing something manually that can be automated.  I run it right after the ocr.

Thanks again, Martin!

It's been a very busy week on the litzing front, with some huge puzzle shipments!  On Sunday, Mark Diehl sent in 21 puzzles; Jeffrey Krasnick, 7; and Todd McClary, 7.  The next day, Mike Buckley sent in 6, and then on Wednesday, Martin Herbach sent in five batches totaling 33 puzzles.  Early today, Mark sent in 35 puzzles—putting us over 9,300 on the litzing thermometer!—and then three hours later, Martin sent in another five batches totaling 35 puzzles!  And on the proofreading front, Tracy Bennett, Todd Gross, and Kristena Bergen all sent in lots of proofread puzzles.  Thanks so much, everybody—awesome job!

One final piece of news:  We're now in the Margaret Farrar era, where we'll remain till the very end!  We're also now in 1968, a very eventful, dark time in history.  On the lighter side, here's a photo from the sketch comedy TV show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, which debuted on January 22, 1968:

Image courtesy of sixties60s.com.

Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle (constructor unknown) was edited by Will Weng, litzed by Mark Diehl, and originally published on August 11, 1972.  It features a mind-blowing 11 symmetrically interlocking theme entries . . . based on the entry NUDIST CAMP!  The theme clues are a riot—here are a few of the wackier ones:  NUDIST CAMP [15 Across] (clued as "Mosquito heaven"), NUDES PAPER ("House organ of 15 Across?"), RAW DEAL ("Poker round at 15 Across"), CLOTHES ("Eyesores at 15 Across"), GAZA STRIP ("Locale of 15 Across?"), and BARE HANDS ("The help, at 15 Across").  This puzzle exemplifies Weng's sense of humor and willingness to publish surprising, bizarre-but-awesome themes!  Unfortunately, we don't have the constructor for this outré masterpiece; however, based on all the authored Weng puzzles I've seen, I'm guessing this puzzle was by master cruciverbalist A. J. Santora.  A. J. Santora was known for his ability to fit an incredible amount of theme entries into a daily-sized grid.

Regardless of who the constructor was, he or she did a great job filling around the 11 theme entries, and I noticed that even the ordinary clues feel a bit more playful than normal.  Some of the more interesting nonthematic entries include I'M GAME, the combination of CAESAR and CESAR, and the combination of DARNS and DAMNED; interesting nonthematic clues include "Taffy event" for PULL and "Wields a needle" for DARNS.  There are some clues and entries that elicited a "Sound of anguish" (GROAN) from me:  BLS ("Beer containers: Abbr."), ORDU ("Turkish army corps"), IRAK (Baghdad's land: Var."), APAR ("Armadillo"), PLUVIAL ("Showery"), SMUT clued as "Plant disease," BRUH ("Macaque of East Indies"), ASEM ("Old gold alloy"), and ACCA ("Old silk brocade").  Nevertheless, this is a brilliant and fun pre-Shortzian puzzle!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian clue is almost as risqué as the featured puzzle!  It originally appeared in the March 27, 1976, puzzle by H. Hastings Reddall, which was edited by Will Weng and litzed by Nancy Kavanaugh.  The clue for TOPLESS read "Like some waitresses."  This clue feels slightly off-color—I'm pretty sure that, of all the pre-Shortzian editors, Will Weng would've been the only one to allow it!  I can see that Maleska used much less suggestive clues for this entry ("Extremely high" and "' . . . ___ towers of Ilium': Marlowe."  Below is a picture of the seemingly topless Mt. Everest:

Image courtesy of Mount Everest Summit Climb.