1965 Puzzles, Weird Grid, and Olio of Interesting Clues—Plus, Howard Barkin First to Solve Blast! Challenge

Project Update

We've made great progress this week!  On Saturday afternoon an anonymous proofreader sent in 6 puzzles with 10 mistakes, then early Sunday morning Todd Gross sent 11 more with 21 mistakes, and a few hours later, Denny Baker sent another 31 puzzles—thanks so much, everyone!  To top it all off, the proofread 1965 puzzles were sent to Jim Horne at XWord Info earlier today and should be posted soon—thanks again, Jim!  As I've mentioned, the 1965 puzzles had numerous issues in September and October because of the New York newspaper strike; all told, 13 puzzles are missing from that year.  I hope to find them eventually in another paper that wasn't affected by the strike.

Howard Barkin First to Solve Blast! Challenge

On Tuesday at 7:03 p.m. Howard Barkin was the first to send in the correct solution to last week's Blast! challenge—congratulations, Howard!  The clue from this July 23, 1958, puzzle was, "Subject for a contemporary scientist."  The answer:  THERMODYNAMICS.  I remember studying thermodynamics in my physics class last year, but that unit definitely wasn't in the "modern physics" portion of the course.  I always love seeing clues that reflect how much the times have changed!

There's a new challenge up in the sidebar—as always, every day one new letter will be added to the solution, hangman style, until the answer is posted.  Good luck!

Weird Grid

While proofreading a batch of 1964 puzzles, Todd Gross discovered that New York Times typesetters had misprinted one of the solutions such that several entries appeared in white type within black boxes!  In addition, several black squares appeared as blank white squares for some reason.  The puzzle itself, which has a subtle -CH theme, is quite nice—CATCH AS CATCH CAN crossing two theme entries is especially elegant.  Perhaps the constructor included CATCH AS CATCH CAN to taunt any proofreaders who failed to notice the errors in the solution!  Below is a screenshot of this anomaly—thanks again, Todd!

Featured Puzzle

Today's featured puzzle was constructed by Jack Luzzatto; published February 1, 1958; edited by Margaret Farrar; and litzed by Nancy Kavanaugh.  This stellar 68-worder is the cleanest pre-Shortzian puzzle I've come across so far—I was amazed to discover that the grid is free of both major obscurities and pieces of pre-Shortzian crosswordese.  There isn't even a multiple-word partial phrase to detract from this puzzle's beauty!  One could quibble with KOP (which was clued as "Hill, in So. Africa.") or LUPE ("Actress Velez."), but both these entries have more modern cluing options, such as "Keystone lawman" for KOP and "Rapper Fiasco" for LUPE.  In fact, there are so many fun entries in this grid that splitting hairs over entries whose clues aren't as well-known these days or over some of the less in-the-language -er concoctions (such as PANTER and BUSTLER) seems unnecessary.  After all, who doesn't like seeing CATHODE, REARGUARD, DENATURED, RASHERS, KINDRED, and PEPPER POT in a themeless puzzle?  I also appreciated learning a new term:  TRIP LINE ("Rope used as a releasing device.").  Webster's primary definition for trip line is "a line or light rope used to operate a trip (as to free a dog hook in logging)."  In my continuous journey through New York Times crossword history, I've found that certain bylines are particularly thrilling to see—Jack Luzzatto's is definitely among my favorites!  I love how Luzzatto experimented with wide-open grid patterns rather than sticking to standard 72- and 74-word designs that showed up time after time in the pre-Shortzian era; every once in a while, he would even go so far as to include a minitheme in one of his ambitious grids.  And his filling skills give even computer programs a run for their money!  Luzzatto also seems to have had quite the sense of humor—in many of his constructions, I've come across clues that are exceptionally clever for their time.  I didn't see any such clues in this puzzle but did notice the juxtaposed clue pair "Operatic star." and "Operatic aria." for DIVA and SOLO, respectively.  I look forward to featuring more Luzzatto masterpieces in upcoming blog posts!  For now, here's the answer grid for this one:

Olio of Interesting Clues

Below is a list of clues from early 1958 crosswords that interested or surprised me for one reason or another—when considered as a whole, they are truly a mishmash!  The answers to these clues are included in parentheses, and the constructors' names (if known) appear after the dates.  All these puzzles were litzed by Nancy Kavanaugh and edited by Margaret Farrar.

• 1/7 (A. H. Drummond, Jr.):  Weapon of the future. (ICBM)
• 1/8:  Current Broadway play. (LOOK BACK IN ANGER)
• 1/8:  Space pioneer. (LAIKA)
• 1/8:  Modern material. (ORLON)
• 1/10 (W. E. Jones):  Army missile headquarters. (REDSTONE ARSENAL)
• 1/10:  German rocket expert, at 17 Across. [REDSTONE ARSENAL] (WERNHER VON BRAUN)
• 1/11:  Recent Eisenhower appointee. (KILLIAN)
• 1/11:  Inhabitant of a satellite. (MOON MAN)
• 1/13 (Helen Delpar):  Recent James Thurber opus (with "The"). (WONDERFUL O)
• 1/13:  Teenagers' idol. (PAT BOONE)
• 1/20 (Madeline Corse):  Force of a rocket. (PROPULSION)
• 1/20:  A kind of space. (OUTER)
• 1/24 (Marcia Gladstone):  Famous octogenarian musician. (CASALS)
• 1/24:  Follower of Schickelgruber. (NAZI)
• 1/24:  Salutation by 47-Across. [NAZI] (HEIL)
• 1/26 (Eugene T. Maleska):  Frisco fans in '58. (GIANT ROOTERS)
• 1/26:  Fifty cents? (DOLLAR)
• 1/26:  Sunday TV fare. (WIDE WIDE WORLD)
• 2/7 (A. H. Drummond, Jr.):  Florida scene of scientific feats. (CAPE CANAVERAL)
• 2/7:  Sidewinder or Bomarc. (GUIDED MISSILE)
• 2/8:  One way to address a Boston celebrity. (SEN JOHN F KENNEDY)
• 2/8:  Historic hurricane. (EDNA)
• 2/12 (Evelyn E. Smith):  Zealous dieter. (STARVER)
• 2/14:  Recent royal visitor to the U.S. (MOHAMMED V)

The most bizarre clue I've seen from early 1958, however, came from the April 8 puzzle by Herb L. Risteen, which was litzed by Ralph Bunker.  The clue:  Supposedly extinct bird, recently found in Bermuda.  The answer:  CAHOW.  This reference is so specific and obscure that it made me laugh out loud—clue/entry pairs like this one make running the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project so much fun!  I can't think of a better way to close off this post than with a picture of a cahow:

Image courtesy of Bermuda Conservation.

PSPP's First Anniversary, Metapuzzle Contest, Bernice Gordon Collaboration, and Project Updates

Tomorrow, June 29, will be the first anniversary of the official start of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project!  I can hardly believe that this all began just twelve months ago when I wrote the first post and we were litzing puzzles from 1992.  Now I'm writing the 70th post and we're in 1966—and at 10,237 puzzles litzed, we're nearly two-thirds of the way done!  Awesome job, everybody—at this rate, there's an excellent chance that by next year at this time, all the litzing will be complete!

In celebration, I've created the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project's First Anniversary Metapuzzle Contest—Metaleska!  You'll be able to access this free 23 x 23 cranium crusher tomorrow at 12 noon Pacific Time on XWord Info, thanks to Jim Horne!  In a special minipost tomorrow, I'll link to the exact page; you'll also be able to link to the puzzle from XWord Info's home page.  There will be a file of detailed instructions and two different formats of the puzzle:  Across Lite, for those of you who prefer to solve that way, and PDF, if you'd rather print out the puzzle.  Metaleska is offered without charge to everyone—litzers, solvers, and fans of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project (though contributions to the project are always welcome!).  There will be crossword-friendly prizes for the first correct entry and for two random correct entries as follows:

First Prize:  Splickety Lit, a spoonerism-based trivia game from the Marbles brain store

Random Prize #1:  Word.: 144 Crosswords That Prove It's Hip to be Square, by Natan Last—a compendium of crosswords written by talented young constructors

Random Prize #2:  The New York Times Little Black (and White) Book of Crosswords, by Will Shortz—a lovely spiral-bound ana of Shortz-era New York Times crosswords

So sharpen your pencils (or limber up your typing fingers) and see if you can conquer Metaleska!  All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. (one minute before midnight) Pacific Time on Saturday, July 6.

In other news, some time ago I contacted pre-Shortzian and Shortz-era crossword legend Bernice Gordon about doing an interview for this blog.   Bernice is 99 and has been an active New York Times constructor since the Margaret Farrar days!  I published that interview on April 19, and you can read it by clicking here or on the Pre-Shortzian Constructor Interviews tab above and then scrolling down.

While I was corresponding with her about the interview, it occurred to me that a collaboration between us might be not only fun but historic.  At 99, Bernice is the oldest New York Times constructor; at 16, I am currently the youngest (though I wasn't the youngest ever to publish a crossword in the Times—pre-Shortzian constructors Artie Bennett and Mike Miller were both younger than I was—14 1/2—when my first puzzle was published, as was Shortz-era constructor Ben Pall).  Bernice was excited about the idea, so we began constructing the puzzle that appeared on June 26 in the Times.

Because of the 83-year age difference, our collaboration was very interesting.  Bernice knew many older things that I didn't, and she wasn't familiar with some modern terms I used.  Deb Amlen wrote up the puzzle and interviewed us about the collaboration for Wordplay; to read her piece, click here.  In addition, a reporter from The Philadelphia Inquirer contacted me and Bernice about the collaboration and wrote about it in an article, which you can read here.  I was very honored to collaborate with such a crossword legend, and getting to know Bernice has been delightful!  I'm hoping we'll be able to meet each other in person in the not too distant future.

Back to the project:  We've made a lot of progress this week!  On Tuesday, Martin Herbach sent in 35 puzzles, putting us over 10,200!  Then Wednesday, Denny Baker sent in 7, and a few hours later, Howard Barkin sent in 21.  Todd Gross finished proofreading another month of 1982 puzzles and sent in 10 more proofread puzzles from his final month of that year.  Thanks so much, everyone!  Although the 1982 puzzles will likely be completely proofread by the end of this month, I'm going to hold off on having them posted on XWord Info until Metaleska is over, just so no one gets confused (you'll see why when you read the instructions tomorrow!).

Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle, "For the Distaff Side," was constructed by Sidney Lambert.  It was originally published on March 26, 1967, and was recently litzed by Denny Baker.  This Margaret Farrar–edited puzzle doesn't have a particularly gimmicky theme, though it does contain nine solid theme entries and the reveal WOMAN'S WORK (cleverly clued as "It's never done").  Each theme entry, such as SCRUB TEAM, starts with a stereotypical chore women did during the time period in which this puzzle was published.  The puzzle struck me as being particularly sexist.  There were plenty of women, such as Margaret Farrar herself, who achieved great things back in the 60s—I don't see the entry CROSSWORD EDITOR anywhere in the grid!  Nevertheless, this puzzle is very interesting historically in that it shows how society viewed women.  The nonthematic fill looks nice on the whole.  On the positive side, the puzzle contains SWORDS crossing SHEARS, TEAR GAS, HORNET, and TWINGE.  Also, the clue "Pieces of music." (SONGS) is reused for GLEE, ALTOS, and NOELS, which I thought was a nice touch.  I do have a few BEEFS ("Complaints: Slang."), though.  The puzzle contains ANDIRON (the IRON part of which is distracting), the partial ARM IN ("___ arm") that repeats part of the answer in its clue, and the lesser-known goddesses SPES and HESPER (the latter of which is also a less-common poetic form).  In sum, this is a historically significant Sunday puzzle that feels like an accurate representation of the average Sunday puzzle from its time period.  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

I've been on the lookout for clever pre-Shortzian clues from the early Weng era.  In most puzzles, they're few and far between, but I noticed that Weng always managed to throw in at least one thought-provoking clue per puzzle.  Here are some of my favorites:

• 5/20/69 (constructor unknown, litzed by Martin Herbach)
• Places of no return (ONE-WAY STREETS)
• 7/7/69 (constructor unknown, litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick)
• Elevator of a sort (THE COST OF LIVING)
• 1/17/71 (constructed by Herb L. Risteen, litzed by Tom Pepper)
• His living depends on net income (MAN SHOT FROM A CANNON)
• 3/2/71 (constructor unknown, litzed by Barry Haldiman)
• They keep falling on heads (RAINDROPS)
• 3/3/71 (constructor unknown, litzed by Barry Haldiman)
• Story unsuitable for a bald man (HAIR-RAISING TALE)
• Opposite of summer in the country (SIMMER IN THE CITY)

The 1/17/71 clue is, in my opinion, the coolest clue/answer pair of the bunch!  Below is a picture of a person whose living would definitely depend on net income:

Image courtesy of the Daily Mail.

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.