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:

CROSSW RD Magazine, Funny Litzing Mistake, and Wacky Words from 1957 Puzzles

Project Update

Last week the 1965 puzzles went up on XWord Info, and I'm almost finished preparing the 1964 puzzles!  This week Todd Gross has been especially busy:  Early Tuesday morning he sent in 18 puzzles with 28 mistakes.  Then early Thursday morning he sent 10 more with 16 mistakes, which were followed by 10 more with 20 mistakes Friday morning and another 10 with 18 mistakes Friday afternoon!  Thanks so much again, Todd!  For those of you currently proofreading puzzles from 1963, I'm hoping to have all of those back within the next couple of weeks.  It won't be long now before we're done with the 1960s!

Blast! Goes Unsolved

No one solved last week's Blast! challenge correctly, though there were some incorrect guesses early in the week.  The clue, from the July 23, 1958, puzzle, was, "One hazard of space travel."  The answer:  MICROMETEORITE.  The most common incorrect answer was WEIGHTLESSNESS, which, amazingly enough, is another 14-letter single word that fits the clue.

It occurred to me that people may want to know whether or not the Blast! challenge has already been solved by someone.  So from now on, I'll indicate that in the sidebar.  If no one has sent in the correct answer, you'll see STILL UNSOLVED! in green; if someone has, you'll see ALREADY SOLVED! in red.  Good luck with this week's challenge!

Funny Litzing Mistake

As I was looking through packets of litzed puzzles from early 1958, I discovered a rather amusing grid mistake that may have been influenced by the litzing contests.  In the January 5, 1958, crossword, instead of keying in BARKIS IS WILLIN ("Message the carrier sent to Peggotty."), the litzer entered BARKIN IS WILLIN (as in litzer extraordinaire Howard Barkin!)!

CROSSW RD Magazine

Today I'm delighted to roll out the first of what will be a series of constructor profiles and other articles originally published in CROSSW RD Magazine.  A donor who wishes to remain anonymous sent me a big box of this amazing publication a couple of months ago—they're truly a treasure trove from the pre-Shortzian and early Shortz eras (1991–1996)!  I've been immersing myself in them as time permits, and when Jim Horne recently mentioned his interest in learning more about legendary constructor William Lutwiniak—who published at least 297 puzzles in The New York Times during the pre-Shortz era—I remembered having read Helene Hovanec's wonderful profile of him in CROSSW RD.  I contacted the owner of CROSSW RD, Stan Chess, who has generously granted me permission to post material from the magazine online.  Today I've uploaded two pieces to Scribd:  "And the Wynner Is . . . William Lutwiniak," by Helene Hovanec, which appeared in the January/February 1992 issue and can be seen by clicking here; and a short letter from William Lutwiniak that was published a few months later in the May/June 1992 issue, together with brief notice of William Lutwiniak's subsequent death, written by J. Baxter Newgate, which you can read by clicking here.

William Lutwiniak.  Photo copyright 1992, 

2015, Megalo Media, Inc. Reprinted by 

permission of Stan Chess and CROSSW-RD 

Magazine.

Featured Puzzle

Today's featured puzzle is another gem by Jack Luzzatto, one of the few constructors who published almost as many crosswords in the Times as Lutwiniak.  The puzzle was published April 17, 1959; edited by Margaret Farrar; and litzed by Mark Diehl.  In this tour-de-force construction, Luzzatto not only filled a wide-open 66-word grid but also included a theme consisting of three 15-letter entries!  The theme is signs, which evokes fond memories of playing a bingo-like sign game during long road trips when I was little.

Photo courtesy of unclesgames.com

I probably still have that game, along with my Etch A Sketch and Wooly Willy, somewhere in a bin of childhood memorabilia I'll have to sort through before going to college!  In any case, I was pleased with the signs Luzzatto chose—DANGEROUS CURVES and SLIPPERY WHEN WET are both in-the-language signs and fun entries in and of themselves!  CROSS AT THE GREEN (clued as "Admonition to Gotham pedestrians.") seemed a bit stretchy to me, though—I've never seen such a sign anywhere, which made me wonder whether CROSS AT THE GREEN signs have simply become less common over time.  To test this hypothesis, I typed CROSS AT THE GREEN into Google Ngram, which shows linguistic trends.  Sure enough, the term seems to have spiked in popularity circa 1970.  To my surprise, the sign doesn't seem to have existed before 1954, which means that Luzzatto must have acted quickly upon learning of this then-fresh entry.  Speaking of Luzzatto's observational skills and talent as a constructor, the nonthematic fill is remarkably clean given the constraints posed by the theme and wide-open grid pattern.  I especially like the entries CHARADE, DECOMPOSE, PINHOLE, AIR TIME, FLAGELLUM, and TRIBUTARY—that's a whole lot of goodness for a 66-worder, let alone a thematic, hand-filled one!  On the minus side, the grid contains an odd pair of un- entries (UNHEROIC and UNLURED—the latter feels especially weak), the plural ISOLDES, RASSE (hardcore pre-Shortzian crosswordese clued as "Tree-climbing civet."), the uncommon abbreviation RMC ("Sandhurst military institution: Abbr."), and INTR ("Not transitive: Abbr.").  As is typical with Luzzatto puzzles, though, the list of "meh" entries is inconsequential compared to the "wow!"s.  I was a little disappointed not to see any standout clues in this puzzle, though I appreciate Luzzatto's effort to sway a bit from straight definitions through clues like "Hours in the sky." for AIR TIME.  I did notice that SEATO was clued as "NATO's Oriental counterpart," which is interesting in that such a clue would no longer be politically correct.  In sum, this is yet another wonderfully ambitious Luzzatto puzzle!  As usual, the answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Wacky Words from 1957 Puzzles

Now that first semester is finally over, I've had some time to look through earlier packets of pre-Shortzian puzzles, albeit at a much slower rate than our indefatigable proofreaders!  Here are some of the most bizarre entries I've encountered in the selection of 1957 puzzles I've had a chance to examine, along with their original clues and, where known, constructors.

• 7/9/57 (constructed by Madeline Corse, litzed by Ralph Bunker)
• Entry:  FALANGIST
• Clue:  Member of a certain political party.
• 7/21/57 (constructed by Herbert Ettenson, litzed by Ralph Bunker)
• Entry:  BUNDESRAT
• Clue:  Federal Council of Switzerland.
• Entry:  FLANNELMOUTH
• Clue:  Catfish of the Great Lakes.
• 9/25/57 (constructed by Helen Fasulo, litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick)
• Entry:  JALOUSIES
• Clue:  Tropical window shades.
• 9/29/57 (constructed by Eugene T. Maleska, litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick)
• Entry:  TELEDUS
• Clue:  Animals of Java, Borneo, etc.
• 10/5/57 (litzed by C. G. Rishikesh)
• Entry:  BANYAI
• Clue:  Bantu tribe.
• 10/7/57 (litzed by C. G. Rishikesh)
• Entry:  PHALAROPE
• Clue:  Bird in Alan Paton title.
• 10/13/57 (constructed by Hume R. Craft, litzed by C. G. Rishikesh)
• Entry:  ALOIDAE
• Clue:  Mythical giants of Ossa-Pelion tale: Var.
• 10/14/57 (constructed by Mel Taub, litzed by Todd McClary)
• Entry:  PELTATE
• Clue:  Shield-shaped, as nasturtium leaves.
• 10/24/57 (litzed by Brian Kulman)
• Entry:  CAPONIERE
• Clue:  In fortification, part of a ravelin.

Below is a picture of the teledu, which somewhat resembles a skunk:

Image courtesy of The Honey Badger.

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.

1977 Puzzles Up on XWord Info, New XWord Info Feature, Todd Gross's Research, Barry Haldiman's Find, Inquiry from a Solver, and the One-Puzzle Litzing Challenge!

It's been another busy week, starting off with 10 more proofread puzzles from Todd Gross on Saturday morning.  Early Sunday, new digitizer Roy Leban sent in 1 puzzle, which was followed by 2 from Lynn Feigenbaum that afternoon and 1 more from Roy that night.  Monday evening, Peter Broda sent in 1 puzzle.  Early Tuesday morning, Todd sent 10 more proofread puzzles.  Wednesday morning, Barry Haldiman sent in 8 litzed puzzles, which were followed by 4 from Susan O'Brien that afternoon.  Early Thursday morning, Todd sent 10 more proofread puzzles, then that afternoon, Lynn sent 2 more litzed puzzles, and Susan sent another 6.  And this week Howard Barkin sent in 8 puzzles.  So we're now at 15,747 on the litzing thermometer—thanks so much again, everyone!

Great news:  We've finally finished proofreading the 1977 puzzles, and Jim Horne has now posted them on XWord Info, where they can be viewed, solved, and analyzed.  This year contains the first two months of Will Weng–edited puzzles, so enjoy!  Thanks, Jim!  

Incidentally, a couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail from Jim, who announced that he'd created a new feature that allows you to search for keywords in clues as well as entries!  This very useful feature recently allowed Will Shortz to quickly locate all crosswords with word ladder themes (by searching for "word ladder" in puzzle clues) to help a friend with a book.  Jim suggested that I do a similar clue search for "Stepquote," which turned up a surprising number of pre-Shortzian Stepquotes that weren't constructed by Eugene T. Maleska and, even more significant, that were confined to daily puzzle grids!  The clue search also makes researching how current events played into New York Times crosswords much easier.  I did a clue search for "U.S.S.R." and was able to see how crosswords reflected developments in and changing attitudes about the Cold War, which was truly fascinating!  I can't wait to explore the clue search in more detail—thanks so much again for creating it, Jim!

In other news, litzer and proofreader Todd Gross recently uncovered some very interesting articles. He found three on pre-Shortzian constructor James A. Brussel, who, in addition to being a crossword constructor, was also a psychiatrist and a criminologist who helped track down the Mad Bomber!  Todd also found two articles on Jordan S. Lasher, one of which erroneously listed him as Joseph Lasher!  On top of all this, Todd came across a fascinating early article on late crossword puzzle editor and ACPT judge Doug Heller.  Great finds, Todd!  Links to the articles about James A. Brussel and Jordan Lasher can be found on the Pre-Shortzian Constructors page.

This week I also received an e-mail from Barry Haldiman, who noticed that several of the 1940s puzzles he'd litzed disguised a "headline" in the top row!  Here are two he pointed out, along with the clues for each word in the headline.  Both puzzles were constructed by the legendary Jack Luzzatto:

• February 4, 1945
• BOMBING
• "War of attrition."
• ATTACK
• "Onset."
• GROWING
• "Expanding."
• March 4, 1945
• NAZIDOM
• "Hitler's world."
• FINALLY
• "At long last."
• DOOMED
• "Is kaput."

Barry also observed that the March 4 puzzle contained the clue "Hitler's next title." for HERR and said he found it odd that Margaret Farrar hadn't steered the puzzles to be a diversion from the war news.  Even with the rampant war references, though, I can see how the puzzles would have been considered diversions—it's hard to think much about the war when many clues obligate you to pore through hefty tomes to get the name of one of the Azores Islands or of an obscure arrow poison!

A couple of days ago Jeff Chen of XWord Info forwarded an e-mail he had received from a solver who had been trying to find a couple of puzzles on XWord Info, one by Frances Hansen and the other by Maura B. Jacobson.  The solver's 200-puzzle omnibus of Maleska-edited puzzles indicated that these puzzles had all originally run between 1979 and 1985, yet he couldn't find them on XWord Info.  I was able to search through my data and find the exact dates for both puzzles, which had actually first appeared in 1976—the year we are currently proofreading.  The solver also wondered why some of the puzzles in his book had different titles than the ones on XWord Info.  I explained to him that puzzle titles, clues, and even grids were often changed in the versions that were reprinted in books and that, where possible, the litzed puzzles on XWord Info reproduced whatever was in the original puzzles, not in reprinted versions later on.  It was gratifying to be able to find the Hansen and Jacobson puzzles quickly for this solver and was yet another instance of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project being able to serve as a resource for the community at large.

On Saturday while I was at the Latin convention, I received an e-mail from Roy Leban of Puzzazz.  Roy is very busy but wanted to digitize at least one puzzle before we were through.  I took one puzzle out of a packet and sent it to him, along with instructions.  Even though one puzzle may not seem like much (especially, as Roy noted, when compared to Mark Diehl's litzing achievement!), it still helps a lot.  Welcome, Roy!

I got to thinking that other people in the crossword community who've been too busy to litz might be interested in trying one puzzle too before we're all done, so I'm officially launching the One-Puzzle Litzing Challenge!  If you'd like to digitize one puzzle to see what it's like and help along the project, just let me know.  If you end up liking it, you can always ask for more puzzles, but if one is enough, that's fine too!

Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle was published on March 3, 1964; constructed by Diana Sessions; edited by Margaret Farrar; and litzed by Tracy Bennett.  This impressive construction features a five-part Space Age theme in a 70-word grid!  The theme consists of five asymmetrically arranged entries containing a planet (or what was considered a planet at the time this puzzle was published), most of which are clued in a way that doesn't relate to the planet in question.  Thus, this puzzle's constructor largely passed on entries that would directly reference the planets (such as SATURN'S RINGS and NEPTUNE'S MOON) in favor of ones that would more subtly reference them (such as SATURNINELY and NEPTUNE'S CUP).  My favorite theme entry is EARTH MAN, which was clued as "Future moon visitor."  Talk about an optimistic outlook!  What really makes this puzzle stand out, however, is the cleanliness of the nonthematic fill, given the open grid and constraints imposed by the theme.  I particularly like the entries PRANCES, NEPHEW, MOSCOW, SPEAK UP, PRALINE, YOSEMITE, and PUPPET—that's a lot of fun fill!  UNITO (clued as "Joined: It."), UNIOS ("Fresh-water mussels."), and MUR ("Wall: Fr.") are the only real trade-offs, making this pre-Shortzian puzzle very successful in my books!  I look forward to seeing what other masterpieces Diana Sessions has in store as I continue to review packets sent in by litzers.  I've already seen a few Sundays by her that have amazingly open centers and unusually clean fill, such as this one from 1983!  For now, here's the solution to this week's featured puzzle:

Litzstarter Update and a Random Factoid

The second week of Litzstarter is coming to an end, and as I write this, we're at 11,433 on the litzing thermometer—which means that more than 400 puzzles have been litzed in just 13 days!  An hour or so after I posted last week's update, Jeffrey Krasnick sent in 7 more puzzles, which were followed a few minutes later by 7 from Vic Fleming.  Saturday morning, Nancy Kavanaugh sent in 14 puzzles, which were followed a few hours later by 7 from Ed Sessa.  Saturday night, 10 proofread puzzles came in from Todd Gross; a few minutes later, Jeffrey sent in 7 more litzed puzzles, and then Mark Diehl sent in 21 more.  An hour and a half later, Tracy Bennett sent in 7 litzed puzzles, putting us over 11,300 on the litzing thermometer!  Sunday evening, Jeffrey sent in 7 more, which were followed a bit later by 7 from Todd.  Monday morning, Mark sent in 21 more.  Early Tuesday morning, Jeffrey sent in 7, which were followed a couple of hours later by 14 more from Mark (whose contest total came to more than 100!).  Tuesday evening, Nancy sent in 21 puzzles.  Wednesday night, 11 proofread puzzles came in from Todd.  And then Thursday night, Jeffrey sent in 7 more puzzles, putting us over 11,400 on the litzing thermometer and his regular total at exactly 700!  A few hours later, Mark sent in 21 puzzles, and very early Friday morning, another 7 litzed puzzles came in from Todd.  It's been a truly amazing litzing week—great job, everyone!

Last night when Mark sent in his batch of 21 puzzles, he told me about a "random factoid" that made me laugh out loud:  One of the 1963 puzzles had the clue, "Where 140,353 farms are."  How many of you knew the answer for that one off the top of your head?  Not me, that's for sure!  Turns out the answer is OHIO.  I'm sure that figure has changed over the past 50 years, though!

So far, this blog has almost exclusively featured themed puzzles.  But I've also been keeping track of particularly good themeless puzzles I've come across.  Some of my favorite pre-Shortzian themeless constructors are Jack Luzzatto, Joseph LaFauci (whose work will be featured in a future post), and Arthur Schulman.  This week's featured puzzle, which was constructed by crossword legend Jack Luzzatto, edited by Eugene T. Maleska, litzed by Mark Diehl, and originally published on July 23, 1977, may be the best themeless I've seen in the entire pre-Shortzian era!  First off, the 64-word grid Luzzatto chose is lovely—there aren't too many blocks in any one region, and there are just two three-letter entries in the whole puzzle.  On top of that, the grid is jam-packed with both interesting entries and Scrabbly letters!  Highlights in the fill include HOT POTATO, FLEA TRAP, ALKALIZES, MOBILIZES, TAKEN IN, RUN COLD, CYANIDE, and GRAND AMS, but my favorite clue/entry pair has to be "It's in the bag" for GOLF CLUB!  Other interesting longer entries include BY PROXY, ANTIPODAL, SINECURE, and CATHEAD (which I've never heard of).  CATHEAD, which sounds awesome, was clued as "Timber for the anchor"; Webster offers the more complete definition "a projecting piece of timber or iron near the bow of the ship to which an anchor is hoisted and secured."  DARBIES ("Plasterers' floats; trowels"), ENTAL ("Inner, in anatomy"), the partial A BIG, the crazy-hard clue for AMAS ("Japanase women divers"), and the sprinkling of British spellings (ODOUR and LITRE) are the only other things that I would consider not-so-great.  Overall, this tour de force feels many years ahead of its time!  It's not every day you see a pre-Shortzian themeless with such a stunning grid and fill.  I look forward to reviewing many more Luzzatto masterpieces as we head further back into the '60s and then proceed to the '50s!  For now, the answer grid can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry, DESQUAMATE, originally appeared in the February 21, 1968, puzzle (constructor unknown), which was edited by Margaret Farrar and litzed by Todd Gross.  According to the Ginsberg clue database, this unusual entry has never been reused in the Shortz era.  Its original clue, "Scale, as fish," paraphrases the Webster definition, "to peel off in scales."  Webster goes on to mention that desquamate comes from the past participle of the Latin desquamare, meaning "to scale," which ultimately comes from the Latin de (meaning "from") and squama (meaning "scale").  Apparently desquamate can also be used in a medical sense, meaning "to peel off in the form of scales," which is why I decided not to look for a picture of desquamation!  Instead, here's a much more pleasant picture of some fish scales:

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Over 10,000 Puzzles, Metapuzzle Update, and Will Weng Crossword Trends

I'm thrilled to announce that we passed the major milestone of 10,000 litzed puzzles this week!  Friday night after the last blog post went up, Todd Gross sent in 7 puzzles; late the next day, Mike Buckley sent in another 7.  On Sunday, Denny Baker and Todd McClary each sent in 7 puzzles, and Mark Diehl sent in 28.  Yesterday Alex Vratsanos sent in 10, and Mark sent in another 14.  Just a few hours ago, Denny sent in 7 more puzzles (putting himself over the 500 mark!); shortly thereafter, Alex sent in 6 more, putting himself over 100 and us over 10,000!  Congratulations, Alex, on being the one to get us past this major milestone!  And thanks so much, everybody, for all the awesome litzing—we're definitely on the downhill stretch now, and I'm looking forward to seeing how much terrific progress we make over the summer!

On the proofreading front, Todd Gross finished a month of 1982 puzzles this week and is busy on another—I'm hoping to have 1982 completed by the end of this month, if not before.

At the end of last year, I dropped a hint about a forthcoming 23x Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project metapuzzle.  Over the past few weeks, I've finalized the concept and found all the theme entries (which involved writing a specialized Java program); I also designed and filled the grid.  I'm currently working on writing the 172 (!) clues, which will definitely keep me busy for the next few days!  The metapuzzle should be ready in time for the project's first official anniversary on June 29.  I'll post more details on the blog next week, so be sure to check in!

Now that I've reviewed almost all the Will Weng–era puzzles and we've started litzing into the Farrar era, I figured it would be a good time to elaborate on trends I've noticed in Weng's editorial style.  First and foremost, Weng was willing to take risks as an editor.  He published the whole gamut of gimmicks, ranging from nudist-camp puns to extra squares outside of grids to thematic images formed by block arrangements.  Weng was willing to bend the rules slightly for innovative gimmicks and to publish clever themes that had slight inconsistencies.  I've encountered several 15x puzzles with 50+ blocks and handfuls of others that have asymmetric theme-entry arrangements and/or grids.  Nevertheless, almost all thematic Weng puzzles boasted incredible theme density and interlock.  Jordan S. Lasher was one of the many Weng-era constructors whose puzzles were exceptionally theme-dense—one of his masterpieces contained bi-stacks of 15-letter theme entries!  And A. J. Santora constructed some puzzles with phenomenal theme-entry interlock—some of his dailies contained more than 12 theme entries!

Themeless Weng puzzles often dipped below the 70-word mark, an incredible feat for the time period!  They frequently included Scrabbly letters (particularly in puzzles constructed by William Lutwiniak and Arthur Schulman) and multiple-word phrases.  Weng even published a few themeless Sundays (mostly 21x), which featured shockingly low word counts (often in the 120s) and wide-open grids.  Constructors Jack Luzzatto and Diana Sessions specialized in these themeless Sundays—Diana Sessions did several puzzles with staircases of 9-letter entries in the center, while Jack Luzzatto preferred stacking lengthy entries!

The thing that really differentiates Will Weng from Eugene T. Maleska, however, is that the puzzles Weng edited reflected the time period in which they were published.  Weng published puzzles about man landing on the moon, national concerns in the 1970s, the 1972 chess championship, the 1972 election, and, of course, hippies!  One current (but somewhat bizarre) 1971 daily included the theme entries THIS YEAR (clued as "1971"), LAST YEAR ("1970"), and LEAP YEAR ("1968").  Weng revolutionized crossword clues as well.  He not only published puzzles without periods after each clue but also started to mix clever, punny clues in with the vast sea of straight-definition clues, such as "His contracts had escape clauses" for HARRY HOUDINI and "Visitor from outer space" for METEORITE.  This new style of cluing flourished throughout the Maleska era and is still in use today.

Weng's willingness to publish unusual themes with such incredibly high theme densities did have a drawback, though.  The nonthematic fills of themed Weng puzzles tended to be significantly iffier than those of both the small selection of Margaret Farrar–edited puzzles I've seen and the Maleska puzzles.  Weng's puzzles were riddled with pre-Shortzian crosswordese, flat-out obscurities, lengthy partials, awkward word forms (such as OUTMIME), and contrived multiword phrases.  One multiword nonthematic phrase, MORE LARKS AROUND ("What a birdwatcher might want"), is so implausible that it's almost "risible"!  I can't image this entry appearing anywhere other than Trip Payne's Something Different puzzles these days!

Even though Weng puzzles frequently had fill problems, I've had a blast looking through them over the past few months and have learned a lot about how crossword puzzles evolved during his groundbreaking editorship.  I love how unpredictable looking through Weng puzzles is—I never know what unusual gimmick will crop up next (unless, of course, a litzer has mentioned a certain puzzle in his or her e-mail!).  I'll miss Weng's sense of humor as we continue into the Farrar era, but I'm also really looking forward to seeing how the Farrar-edited puzzles compare.

Today's featured puzzle, titled "Heritage," was constructed by Sylvia Baumgarten.  According to my incomplete records, this is the only puzzle she published in The New York Times, which is a shame, since it's certainly one of the best Will Weng–edited Sundays I've seen to date.  This 23x puzzle was originally published on July 4, 1971, and was recently litzed by Howard Barkin.  It features ten symmetrically interlocking theme entries related to American history (mostly to Paul Revere), two of which contain rebuses of numbers in the grid.  But what really makes this puzzle stand out is its ultrasmooth nonthematic fill and wide-open grid, both of which are amazingly clean considering the lack of computer software and that this appears to be the constructor's debut!  Some of my favorite entries are THE 8 BALL, CHEETAH, HANDBAG, SHOOT UP, SEA FOAM, ANAHEIM, BEET RED, EYELASH, and TORPEDO.  Also, both the upper center and lower center feel particularly elegant in that they flawlessly fill around three theme entries each.  I'm not as fond of 5OTHS, the partials A DOUBT and END OF IT, the Nazi camp DACHAU, OUTMIME (which I mentioned above), RERAMS, the variant spelling ABISS, or the theme entries BOSTON TEA and CONCORD MASS.  I'm partial to the 1-Across entry QUINQUE because I take Latin, though I have to admit, it wouldn't be my first choice for that position, despite its 2 Q's.  Notwithstanding these small flaws, this is a revolutionary pre-Shortzian Sunday (pun intended)—I'm sure it lit up many a solver's Independence Day!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

If you thought HELLBOX was an unusual-sounding typographical entry last week, you'll get a kick out of this one:  ETAOIN SHRDLU (and no, this isn't misspelled).  ETAOIN SHRDLU originally appeared in the June 6, 1971, puzzle by Fay L. Gieschi (another constructor with only one puzzle on record) entitled "Type Casting," which was edited by Will Weng and recently litzed by Denny Baker.  It was clued as "Popular line for printers"; Webster gives a much more detailed description of this unusual term, however:

a combination of letters set by running a finger down the first and then the second left-hand vertical banks of six keys of a Linotype machine to produce a temporary marking slug not intended to appear in the final printing

This devious constructor decided to cross ETAOIN SHRDLU with OELLA, a Maryland town that is also a very challenging entry.  What a printer's devil!

Not surprisingly, I wasn't able to find a good graphical representation for etaoin shrdlu, so below is a picture of a general linotype slug:

Image courtesy of Codes that Don't Count.

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.