Interview with Half-Century Constructor Lou Sabin

Today I'm delighted to publish an interview with Lou Sabin, a prolific New York Times crossword constructor of at least 137 puzzles, 108 during the pre-Shortz era and 29 under Will Shortz's editorship.  Lou is also one of the few constructors to have published in The Times for more than 50 years!  To read the interview, click here or on the Pre-Shortzian Constructor Interviews tab above, then scroll down.  If you'd like to read more about Lou, see this 2009 Wordplay article by XWord Info's Jim Horne and this 2011 profile by John Saccenti, "The Puzzling Pastime of Creating Crosswords."

Stan Newman Finds William Lutwiniak NSA Interview; Constructor Regina M. Heil Identified

Stan Newman Finds William Lutwiniak NSA Interview

Some time ago I received an email from Newsday crossword editor Stan Newman, who'd discovered a long piece about William Lutwiniak, one of the most prolific New York Times crossword constructors ever.  Lutwiniak, a former cryptologist for the National Security Agency (NSA), published at least 304 pre-Shortz puzzles in The Times, which are available here on XWord Info.  Stan's find is a long, formerly top-secret but now declassified interview by Robert Farley of the NSA on October 18, 1981.  Here's Lutwiniak discussing his background:

To read the full interview, click here.  (And for more on William Lutwiniak, see other links on this blog, including on the Pre-Shortzian Constructors page; this CROSSW_RD Magazine profile by Helene Hovanec; and, as Stan suggested, links that come up when Googling "Lutwiniak NSA," such as this Wikipedia entry.)  Thanks so much again, Stan, for this great discovery!

Constructor Regina M. Heil Identified

Regina M. Heil. Photo courtesy of Bill Heil.

In mid-April, Thomas Heil emailed The New York Times about his mother, Regina M. Heil, who'd built a daily crossword puzzle edited by Will Weng.  The puzzle was published on January 29, 1973.  Tom wondered whether The Times had a copy in its archives or wanted one for its files.

The email made its way to Times crossword editor Will Shortz, who sent Tom a copy of the puzzle, which our records at the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project (and now on XWord Info) had previously listed as being by "Unknown."  Tom confirmed that this was indeed the puzzle his mother had constructed; he also mentioned that he recalled her having submitted two other puzzles to Will Weng before this one was published.  "Mr. Weng put my mother through Goldilocks editing," Tom noted.  "The first puzzle was too hard, the second too easy and the third was just right."  She received $10 for the puzzle.  Tom added that his mother "never missed a day of the puzzle, all while raising nine kids.  She was pretty amazing."  At the time, she lived on Thomas Road in Wayne, Penn.

Will suggested that Tom send a headshot of his mother, if he had one, to Jim Horne at XWord Info so it could appear with her puzzle.  I emailed Tom too asking if we could write about her on this blog and encouraging him to send along any further information or photos.

I then received an email from Bill Heil, Tom's brother, along with this photo and the one above:

Regina M. Heil. Photo courtesy of Bill Heil.

Bill wrote that their sister, Mary Colleen, had reiterated Tom's "Goldilocks" comment.  In a follow-up email, Bill reported that he'd asked Regina's 81-year-old brother, Brian Torsney, for more information, and Brian had written:

My father used to sit in the den and do the NY Times Sunday puzzle.  My father could do at least 3/4's of the puzzle and when he was stumped, he would get your mother and I to brainstorm.  I still do the NY Times crossword puzzles.  They appear in the Desert Sun (the Palm Springs paper) daily and Sunday. I can complete the Sunday puzzle in one sitting about 1/2 the time, and completely at least 90% of the time. I run into trouble when they use rap music stars, current movie/TV stars or new movies as clues.

And Tom, who'd originally contacted The Times, added:

Did I mention that I also do the puzzles every day but Sunday. Sundays Bobbie [Ed.: Tom's wife], who does at least a puzzle a day, and I work on the puzzle together. It's good for the marriage — 28 years now.

Thanks so much again, Tom, Bill, Mary Colleen, and Brian, for helping us identify and get to know the long-lost constructor of this puzzle!  It's also wonderful to see how an interest in puzzles was passed down over three generations—from Regina's father, to Regina and Brian, to Tom himself.

J. A. Felker (and Another Puzzle Identified), Warren W. Reich, and James E. Hinish Jr.

J. A. Felker (and Another Puzzle Identified)

Photo courtesy of Janet Felker, from 1983

Back in January, Jim Horne and Jeff Chen of XWord Info received an email, which Jim subsequently copied me on, from Janet Felker, the daughter of pre-Shortzian constructor J. A. Felker (1911–91).  Janet wrote that her mother, whose full name was Josephine Ann, had had crossword puzzles published in The New York Times (as well as Bantam Books and Pocket Books) between 1971 and 1977.  Will Weng had published 11 of her diagramless puzzles and four of her regular Sunday puzzles (as well as what turned out to be a previously anonymous Friday puzzle!).  Janet noted that she had files of her mother's submissions to the Times that were accepted, as well as of some submissions that had been rejected.  "Perhaps of most interest to crossword puzzle enthusiasts," she wrote, "are the original memo notes from Will Weng regarding some of the puzzles, including his rationale for those he rejected."

I wrote to Janet expressing interest in these and other items, and she soon sent along the above photo of her mother, taken in 1983; a 1991 Miami Herald obituary, "Josephine Felker, N.Y. Times crossword puzzle composer"; a 1980 note from Will Weng (see below) about her mother's name; and a copy of the original clipping of her mother's August 27, 1971, daily puzzle, along with the original clues (or "definitions," as they were called then), some of which Weng subsequently edited for publication.  I've posted the obituary and clipping plus clues on Scribd; to see them, click on the links above.

Janet also mentioned that she remembered why her mother had used just her initials when submitting puzzles:

I have a vague memory of my mother explaining that she intentionally used "J.A." as she began submitting crossword puzzles to the NYT because she felt that her puzzles might receive more equitable treatment than if she were to submit under "Josephine."  It's interesting to me that in his note, Will Weng admits that he assumed that J.A. was a male and was "astonished" to learn that she was a female.

Here's the note Weng sent:

Janet also reported that her mother had two large puzzles published by Bantam Books, for which she won cash awards for fourth prize and fifth prize in The Bantam Great Master's Crossword Puzzle Hunt, which was where Janet thought Weng had discovered that "J. A." stood for "Josephine."  She had documents for those two puzzles, along with a folder of six rejected large puzzles, each of which included her mother's clues, as well as a blank and handwritten completed grid.  Several puzzles had Will Weng's memos attached, with an explanation of why he was returning them.

In addition to her regular crosswords, J. A. Felker also had 12 diagramless puzzles published in the Times between 1971 and 1977; Janet sent the note below from Will Weng—addressed to "Mr. Felker"—accepting J. A.'s first diagramless puzzle, which was published on August 29, 1971.

Janet also noted:

I don't know if you are interested in more background on my mother, but she was quite educated (for a woman of her time) and talented in other ways as well.  She earned a bachelor's of art from Carnegie Tech and a master's of art from Penn State College in 1936.  She was quite artistic and continued to sketch and paint through much of my childhood. She was also an accomplished seamstress (her master's thesis was on the history of women's dress) and sewed many of her own and her children's clothes, often designing her own patterns.  A few of the outfits (sewed with fabric from Europe) are now part of the collection for students to study in the Fashion Institute of Salt Lake Community College.  As the Miami Herald article indicates, mom also learned several languages as a result of living abroad (Brazil, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, Italy, Belgium, Japan, Hong Kong)  due to my father's work, between 1946 and 1972.  She was an avid reader and loved not only doing crossword puzzles but also jigsaw puzzles.

Thanks so much again for writing and telling us about your mother, Janet!  Thanks to this information, we were able to identify one more previously anonymous daily puzzle and to provide an illuminating look not only into one of the rare female constructors of the pre-Shortz era but also into the mind of editor Will Weng!

Warren W. Reich

Photo courtesy of the Times Union

Shortly after my recent post containing an olio of Todd Gross pre-Shortzian constructor research appeared, I received an email from constructor Jim Modney, who wrote that there had been an obituary of Warren W. Reich in his local paper, which you can read here and which also contained the above photo.  Jim noted:

I met Warren once in the early 1980’s, after Eugene Maleska noticed that Warren and I were both in the Albany, NY area.  By that time I had begun my 30 year “hibernation” from crossword constructing, so Warren and I never crossed paths again.

Jim's email was followed by one in early January from crossword historian Todd Gross, who also sent a link to the Times Union obituary and mentioned that he'd received an email from Warren Reich's daughter, who'd said some nice things about her father.  Thanks so much again for letting me know about this, Jim and Todd!

James E. Hinish Jr.

  Photo courtesy of the Williamsburg York-
  town Daily

A few days later, Todd wrote that another pre-Shortzian constructor, James E. Hinish Jr., had died and sent a link to an obituary, which had the above photo and which you can read here.  James published at least 16 puzzles in the pre-Shortz era.

Thanks again, Todd!

Stay tuned for more updates and commentary coming soon!

Happy Holidays! A New Puzzle, Plus an Olio of Todd Gross Pre-Shortzian Constructor Research: The Sequel

Project Update

Happy Holidays!  One of the more interesting things that's happened since the previous post is that we seem to have discovered a new, previously unlitzed pre-Shortzian puzzle!  Here's how it all went down.  Earlier this week, Jim Horne and I were trying to straighten out exactly how many missing puzzles there were.  Jim noticed a discrepancy in our records for the August 13, 1978, puzzle—the first Sunday during one of the strikes.  Barry Haldiman's records indicated that a puzzle had been published that day ("Putting on Airs," by Louis Sabin [see more on Lou below]), but I hadn't been able to find the PDF on ProQuest.  I shot Barry an e-mail about this puzzle, which he apparently had added to his records after his original microfiche search of The New York Times Magazine.  Barry speculated that the puzzle might have come from microfilm that carried a different version (international or West Coast) of The New York Times, though why just this one strike puzzle turned up is a mystery.  Nonetheless, this discovery gives the missing puzzle quest a new ray of hope!  Barry sent me pictures of the puzzle and solution from a book preview on Amazon, and I litzed it yesterday.  Kristena Bergen proofread the puzzle, and then I sent it off to Jim.  So expect to see a new puzzle on XWord Info in the not-too-distant future!

This seems like the perfect time to publish another amazing olio of pre-Shortzian constructor research from historian, litzer, and proofreader Todd Gross!  This is such a wealth of information that I've decided to divide it into two sections:  The first contains several individual updates Todd sent to me, and the second features a collection of constructors he grouped together, which I've dubbed "The Sequel."  Thanks so much again, Todd, for all your tireless research!

Charles J. Matonti, Elio Desiderio, Jack R. Harnes, Betty Jane Cometa, and Lou Sabin

In mid-November, Todd sent me these photos of three constructors, whom he thought were all still alive and living in the New York City area.  Todd noted, "If I'm right, Charles Matonti turned 80 this year, Elio Desidario recently turned 89, and Jack Harnes turned a very respectable 93 a couple of days later."

According to my (incomplete) records, the first, Charles J. Matonti, published eight pre-Shortzian puzzles between 1980 and 1988 in The New York Times.  Here's a 1964 photo from the Cathedral College of Brooklyn, along with some information that accompanied it:

Elio Desiderio, whose middle name was Phillip, published 11 (or more) Times puzzles between 1974 and 1991.  This photo is from the 1944 Niagara Falls High School yearbook:

Elio Desiderio

Finally, Jack R. Harnes published at least 6 Times puzzles between 1982 and 1993.  The below photo and information are from the 1943 Harvard yearbook:

A few days after sending the above, Todd wrote me that while researching crossword-related obituaries, he'd come across an obituary for Betty Jane Cometa, which you can read here.  Betty Jane published 5 (or more) puzzles in the Times between 1982 and 1989.  Todd's discovery was particularly important because previously we hadn't been able to determine the gender of the constructor known only to us as "Cometa."  Todd reported that Betty Jane was born on September 11, 1932; according to the 1940 Census, lived in Nassau County, N.Y., when she was 7; and passed away this October at the age of 83.

Betty Jane Cometa

The next day, Todd sent me a link to a delightful article on Lou Sabin, which you can read here.  According to my records, Lou published 109 Times puzzles between 1955 and 1993 and so far has published 29 more during the Shortz era, the most recent appearing in 2009. Todd said that as far as he knew, Lou and his wife, Francene, were still alive.

Lou Sabin

Finally, at the end of November, Todd mentioned that he had been compiling a list of crossword constructors' birthdays (and, where applicable, dates of constructors' deaths).  His list includes pre-Shortzian and Shortz-era constructors, as well as a couple of constructors who published before the Times crossword began.  The file, too big to reproduce here, also contains information on constructors' cities and states, where available.

Todd Gross Olio:  The Sequel (Judith C. Dalton, Anne Fox, Judith Perry, Warren W. Reich, Judson G. Trent, and Thomas W. Underhill)

And now, here's Todd's opus!

Judith C. Dalton

Usually, when I’m researching a constructor, what I’m aiming for is (1) an article that mentions they constructed crosswords, and (2) a picture of them as close to their constructing age as possible.  I usually feel lucky if I can get both of these.  In this case, thanks to Ancestry.com and a few fortuitous newspaper articles, I can actually give a pretty complete history of Judith Dalton.  [Ed.:  Judith Dalton published at least 8 Times puzzles between 1981 and 1993.]

She was born Judith Carol Kuta on 25 Dec 1943 (Christmas Day!) in Amsterdam, Montgomery County, New York.  I have a picture of her at Mont Pleasant HS in Schenectady, NY in 1961.

She then attended SUNY Cortland (in Cortland, NY), where she served as a co-editor of the Hilltop Press.  I have a picture of her from 1965 in that role.

She married Thomas Dalton on 3 July 1965 in Schenectady.  I was able to “screen scrape” the relevant info from Newspapers.com, which allowed me to confirm I had the correct person.

Crosswords don’t enter the picture (as far as I know) until she and Thomas move to Saginaw, MI.  I don’t know when they moved, but this article says Thomas was Saginaw’s City Manager from 1978–1986.  It also says Judith (Judy) Dalton constructed puzzles for the New York Times (her first puzzle in XWordInfo is from 1981).

And thanks to the article about Mary Cee Whitten (which I actually found because I was working on Ms. Dalton) you link to, we know Judith Dalton was “public affairs co-ordinator  for a television station WNEM-TV in Flint-Saginaw-Bay City.”

And thanks to this article, I unfortunately can confirm that Ms. Dalton passed away on 8 Jan 1999 at the age of 55 in Indialantic, FL.

Finally, let me include a picture of just her from SUNY Cortland in 1965.  You may want this to be her XWordInfo gallery picture.

Anne Fox

Just a month or two ago, all I knew of Anne Fox’s biography was basic facts: she was born 9 Jul 1911 and passed away 21 Nov 1983 in Short Hills, NJ, and she had a husband named Charles.  I didn’t even know if Fox was her maiden or married name.  But I went back and looked in Maleska’s book Across and Down, which gives some nice tidbits about her life—including living in Tuxedo, NY and attending Cornell.  Well, with those facts, I resumed my search and was able to find more.  Not as much as for Judith Dalton, but interesting nonetheless.  [Ed.:  Anne Fox published 46 (or more) puzzles in the Times between 1964 and 1983.] 

She was born Anna McCreery Lamouree to John E Lamouree and Mary McCreery.  I don’t know where she was born, but probably somewhere near Tuxedo, NY, where she was raised, as her father’s family has deep roots in the area, as discussed in this article, which mentions Anna as a junior at Cornell.

As the article mentions, John was a co-owner of the drug store firm Paret & Lamouree, which had stores in Tuxedo and in Suffern, NY.  I was lucky to find an old photograph of the Suffern store.

Anne/Anna (I’ve also seen Ann in some places) did attend Cornell, but alas she didn’t graduate.  In her 3rd year she met Charles Fox and married him, and they moved in with Anne’s family in Tuxedo (according to the 1940 Census).  So no class picture of her as with Judith Dalton.  However, I did find a picture from her junior year (1931) of the sorority she belonged to (Sigma Kappa).  Here is the picture.

I’ll tell you which one is Anne in a bit, first I want to mention other tidbits I found about Ms. Fox.  First, an obit notice in the Apr 1984 Cornell Alumni News that makes the connection to crosswords clear.

Finally, an article from the Feb 1937 issue of The Alpha Delt, produced by the fraternity Charles Fox belonged to (Alpha Delta).  It shows that Charles wasn’t just freeloading off his new wife’s family.

As ETM noted, at the time Charles Fox “recently retired from a position as sales executive in the textile business.”  So Charles was certainly successful in his own right.

OK, now let me tell you which of those sorority women is Anne Fox.  She’s in the second row from the top, 3rd from the right, wearing a pearl necklace.  Here’s a grainy enlargement I made of Anne.

Judith Perry

Unlike Judith Dalton’s story, Judith Perry’s story is short and sweet.  In fact, you get pretty much everything you need to know from her obituary.  [Ed.: Photo below; Judith Perry published at least 22 pre-Shortzian Times puzzles between 1985 and 1993, plus 3 during the Shortz era.]

Photo courtesy of The
Barre Montpelier Times-
Argus.

Judith Perry was born in Barre, VT on 8 Apr 1920, she graduated from the University of Vermont with a music degree in 1943, never married, taught and played piano and organ, created crossword puzzles, and passed away in Northfield, VT on 3 Mar 2011 at the age of 90.  As far as I can tell, she lived in Vermont her entire life.  I don’t know when the picture in her obituary was taken, I’m guessing well before she turned 90.

I only have one more thing to add.  There are several pictures of her from the U of VT.  I’m enclosing the one that looks best (in part because she’s in the smallest group): the Bluestockings Club of 1943.  I note bluestocking is defined as an intellectual or literary woman, though it’s not meant as a compliment.  I’m glad to see the label taken as a badge of honor, like other pejoratives (e.g. queer).

Warren W. Reich

Thanks to the Simon & Schuster book series (Super Crossword Book 9 – 1996), we know that Warren W. Reich lived in Albany, NY.  [Ed.:  Warren W. Reich published 13 (or more) pre-Shortzian puzzles in the Times between 1982 and 1993, plus 1 during the Shortz era.]

In fact, Warren W. Reich (sorry, don’t know what the middle W stands for) served as a professor in the Slavic and Germanic Languages department at SUNY Albany.  This picture from 1964 (when the dept. was founded) shows Mr. Reich, professor of German, on the far left.

I know this Warren Reich is our constructor because of an article about his wife Nina, who studied with another faculty member in the above photo (Madame Catherine Wolkonsky).  Most of the article, taken from the Spring/Summer 2009 edition of the SUNY Albany LLC News . . . is about Nina, but the last sentence mentions Warren and crosswords.

Image courtesy of the LLC News.

I can tell you a bit more about Mr. Reich.  He was born 26 Jun 1923, probably in or near Erie County, NY.  The 1940 Census shows him living in Tonawonda, and in 1943 he enlisted in the Army from Buffalo.  His occupation at the time was cabinet maker, so I’m guessing he got his education after WW II.

And I’m reasonably sure Mr. Reich is still alive.  Besides not finding an obituary, and having what appears to be a current address for him, I have this article from 2011 about a student reconnecting with him…a student from when he taught German at Mont Pleasant HS in Schenectady (sound familiar?).

If Mr. (Dr.?) Reich is fine with reconnecting with an old high school pupil, I’m hoping he won’t mind an interview with a fellow NYT constructor he’s never met before.

Judson G. Trent

[Ed.:  Judson G. Trent published at least 51 puzzles in the Times between 1978 and 1989.]

This one is a doozy.

Let’s start at the end, with an obituary in the Washington Post. . . .

The obituary appeared on 19 Oct 1989.  So it looks like Mr. Trent was born in 1914 (or late 1913) in Essex, CT, a pretty small community.  And I found him in two of the locations mentioned here: Sacramento [City Directory] in 1955 (working as a proofreader)

and in Boston in 1964 (working as a composer apparently for the Boston Globe).

One could ask how Mr. Trent could have been working full time in Washington since 1962 and be working in Boston in 1964, but we’re going to overlook that for now.  The tale gets a lot more interesting when we look at this Social Security claim for Mr. Trent.

Note the birth date and place match our obituary, so Mr. Trent was born Judson Gordon Trick, and changed his name to Trent in the early 1950’s, when he was 36 or so.  This name pops up in a few places.  First of all, I couldn’t find a connection to Muskingum College as mentioned in the obituary.  But I did find a Judson Gordon Trick attending Oberlin College (in Oberlin, OH) in 1937.

There’s a picture of him (the only picture I have) with a group called Theologians in this annual volume.

Mr. Trick is in the “third row,” wherever that is exactly.  So no, I can’t tell you which of these people is Judson Trick-or-Trent.  I also didn’t find this name connected to Yale University…but I did find a Reverend by that name living in New Haven in 1942.

Well, being a Reverend makes sense connected with the Theologians group at Oberlin…but the obituary mentions psychology, not theology.  And what does all this have to do with proofreading/printing, which is what he was doing when he started constructing (lots of) crosswords?  Could these be two different people?  Maybe…or maybe not.  All I can say is, I have several unanswered questions, and I wish I was as good at solving tricky puzzles as your average ACPT attendee.

Thomas W. Underhill

With Judith Perry, the obituary told you everything you needed to know.  For Thomas Underhill, the following obituary was posted by the Harvard Law Bulletin . . . and [was] surprisingly brief:

Fortunately, I have other sources to tell me more.  He was born Thomas Westlake Underhill on 6 Apr 1924.  [Ed.:  Thomas W. Underhill published 11 (or more) pre-Shortzian Times puzzles between 1986 and 1993, plus 1 during the Shortz era.]  I’m not sure where he was born, but probably in or near northern New Jersey, as I have a picture of him from 1941 at Summit HS in Summit, NJ.

I also have a picture of him from 1944 at the College of New Jersey in Ewing, NJ.  Mr. Underhill is the second from the right.

This picture is the school’s Charter Club…actually, the group was large enough to need two pictures.  I was lucky Thomas sat in the front, so I could include the legend without making everything too small.

He went on to get a bachelor’s degree from Princeton, then a degree from Harvard Law School (hence the obit above).  But we haven’t mentioned crosswords yet.  We also haven’t mentioned that Thomas was a mystery writer.  He wrote a novel called The Cambridge Caper, which was published posthumously by his children.  Here is the introduction written by his daughter Sarah, which gives a nice overview of her father, including mentioning he constructed crosswords.

Sarah Wisseman isn’t just a mystery writer, she’s also an archaeologist who published “five books of non-fiction on ancient Greek vases, Greek archaeology, scientific methods in archaeology, and Egyptian mummies.”  This is from the About page on her personal website . . . , which I enclose a part of below.

Her website also has a Contact page, where one can e-mail Sarah. . . .

Finally, I want to mention another obituary I found, this one from Princeton University.  As you can see, they published a more thorough biography, including details I wasn’t aware of.

Score: Princeton 1, Harvard 0.

"Moving Forward" Metapuzzle Wrap-up

Still wondering how the "Moving Forward" metapuzzle worked?  Although quite a few people wrote to me saying they were stuck, only 11 solvers actually submitted an answer, so the puzzle was clearly much more of a stumper than I'd intended!  Well, whether you tried it or not, the time has come for an explanation.

Let's start with the note, which specified that the answer was a "two-word phrase especially appropriate now that the project is essentially over."  The note also contained a link to the XWord Info page listing all the entries commonly used in pre-Shortzian puzzles that have yet to appear in a Shortz-era grid.  As everyone who submitted an entry realized, this page was essential to solving the puzzle.  But the note also contained another hint, albeit a very subtle one.  Were any of you wondering why the third sentence was written in such a clunky way?  Why did it read "To learn more about the crosswordese entries featured in this puzzle, each of which has been used zero times in the Shortz era, go to http://www.xwordinfo.com/Popular?year=psunique," as opposed to something like "To learn more about the uniquely pre-Shortzian crosswordese entries featured in this puzzle, go to . . . "?  Well, more on that later!

The next step was to solve the puzzle.  Most solvers naturally gravitated toward the longer entries, and a handful of them noticed that all but the last one were hiding pieces of pre-Shortzian crosswordese from the XWord Info page.  Here's a picture of the solved grid with the pieces of pre-Shortzian crosswordese highlighted:

Now, notice what happens when you arrange the pieces of pre-Shortzian crosswordese by their order in the grid:

BLET
ARAR
DREE
CANO
REHAN
ODAL
SABA
SBE

The first letters spell BAD CROSS . . . which was the most common incorrect answer!  Remember, the answer was supposed to be a two-word phrase especially appropriate now that the project is essentially over.  Although BAD CROSS is the right number of words and relates to the pre-Shortzian puzzles, it doesn't quite fit the description.  So what was the purpose of BAD CROSS?  Well, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a deliberate trap, but its overarching purpose was to be a hint for the next stage of solving.  The other major hint in the grid was POLISH, POLISH, POLISH—if BAD CROSS were indeed the answer, then why include POLISH, POLISH, POLISH rather than sticking with the original eight theme entries?  Another tip-off was that certain easier-to-fill areas of the grid were filled much more poorly than you might expect.  Take a look at the upper center, for instance, which contains both LLB and EELERS.

So, armed with BAD CROSS and the aforementioned observations, the next step was to notice that nine of the Across clues were unusually lengthy/awkward.  What did these nine clues have in common?  The word "zero," which was also forcibly worked into the third sentence of the note and which describes the number of times each piece of pre-Shortzian crosswordese on the XWord Info list has been used in the Shortz era.  I've listed the strained clues and their answers below:

Not zero-skilled ---> ABLE
Its slope is never zero ---> RAMP
Make display a time other than zero, as a parking meter ---> FEED
Reduce to zero health in a video game, say ---> SLAY
Situation with zero ways out ---> BIND
Salon treatment invented at least 3,200 years before zero, informally ---> MANI
Person making zero sense ---> LOON
Shows zero originality ---> APES
Prefix associated with elevations greater than zero ---> ACRO

Well, you might be wondering, what's so special about these nine entries?  All of them have been used many times over in the Shortz era.  If you look more closely, though, you'll notice that each of these entries is also one letter different from a piece of pre-Shortzian crosswordese on the list.  What happens when you "recreate" each piece of pre-Shortzian crosswordese?  First off, you'd notice that a second piece of pre-Shortzian crosswordese from the list is formed each time a substitution is done correctly.  Thus, changing ABLE to ATLE also changes BAA to TAA, etc.  Here's what the grid looks like before and after the pre-Shortzian crosswordese substitutions:

 

When the letters at each bad cross are read in order, they spell TIMES PAST, which is the correct answer to the puzzle:  The project, which converted all the available Times puzzles published before Will Shortz became editor into a digital, fully analyzable format, is basically a thing of the past at this point.

It took a long time for the first correct solution to arrive in my inbox—I was seriously worried I had made the puzzle too hard and would have to give a hint!  So I was thrilled to receive not just one but two correct submissions at exactly the same time (10:59 a.m.) on Friday, August 28!  More followed—here's a list of everyone who sent in the correct solution, along with the dates and times (Pacific time) of their submissions:

1.  (Tie) Emma Astroth, Friday, August 28 10:59 a.m.; Jay Winter, Friday, August 28 10:59 a.m.
2.  Louis Lana, Friday, August 28 4:55 p.m.
3.  Kyle Dolan, Saturday, August 29 4:43 a.m.
4.  Jeffrey Harris, Sunday, August 30, 4:17 p.m.
5.  Nicholas Harvey, Sunday, August 30, 6:18 p.m.

I used a random number generator to pick a winner—Jeffrey Harris, who coincidentally also won the previous metapuzzle contest (Metaleska)!!!  Congratulations to Jeffrey, who will receive a $50 iTunes card, and to everyone else who submitted the correct solution!

Thanks, too, to all the solvers who entered or attempted to enter the contest, and special thanks to Jim Horne and Jeff Chen for hosting the puzzle on XWord Info!

Before I wrap up this wrap-up, though, I'd like give a special shoutout to my favorite incorrect answer, which was submitted by Ralph Bunker.  After noticing the hidden pre-Shortzian crosswordese in the long entries, Ralph zeroed in on the entry CANO, which he discovered was Latin for "I sing."  Ralph also noticed that "I sing" is a homophone of "icing," which he noted could describe the finishing touches on the project.  Ralph's final answer, therefore, was "I sing."  Kudos to him for coming up with a very clever answer I'd never even anticipated!

Finally, here are a couple more interesting coincidences and observations that relate to "Moving Forward."  First of all, Matt Gaffney happened to publish a brilliant metapuzzle whose gimmick also involved changing single letters of grid entries to make new thematic ones last week, which I have a feeling may have subconsciously helped a number of the correct solvers!  So I'd like to give a shout-out to Matt for reading my mind . . . and for being the true master of metapuzzles!  Second, as Barry Haldiman noted, the entry CANO isn't as undesirable as the other pieces of pre-Shortzian crosswordese now that former Yankee Robinson CANO has become famous.  Finally, Jim Horne e-mailed me a couple days ago noting that a piece of pre-Shortzian crosswordese on the list—ARO (clued modernly as "Michael Sheen's character in 'Twilight'")—had been reused in the Sunday, August 30, 2015, New York Times puzzle.  After panicking for a few minutes, I was relieved to see that I hadn't used ARO in my meta!  This just goes to show that even the ugliest-looking bits of pre-Shortzian crosswordese can sometimes be salvaged, so we shouldn't necessarily assume that all the uniquely pre-Shortzian entries are bad!

Project Done—1942 through 1951 Puzzles Up, Next Steps, and "Moving Forward" Metapuzzle

Project Update

Big news:  Thanks to Jim Horne, the 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, and 1951 proofread puzzles are up on XWord Info, which means all the available pre-Shortzian puzzles are now there and the project is essentially done—appropriately enough, on Will Shortz's birthday!  Happy Birthday, Will!

I still can't believe we were able to accomplish this feat in just four years (or three years, two months since the project's official start).  I'd like to extend a huge thank-you to everyone in the crossword community who helped me accomplish my dream of having all the pre-Shortzian puzzles in a digital format—there's no way this could have happened without all your continuous time, support, and motivation.  As a community, we've accomplished something that each of us individually would have dismissed as too challenging and unrealistic, which I think is very special.  We've created a resource that will entertain curious minds for years to come, change the way we look at the history of crosswords (and maybe even history itself), and ensure that the names of the exceptionally prolific pre-Shortzian constructors won't just be footnotes in puzzle history.  We can now learn lessons from generations of earlier constructors, and we just might find a handful of usable entries for our own puzzles that were previously lost to time.  And even if most of the uniquely pre-Shortzian entries are too obscure, it can't hurt to have an extra 52 years of clues to draw from!  The uses for the database we've created are only limited by the creativity of the crossword and puzzle community, which I'm convinced is boundless.  But perhaps the biggest takeaway from the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project is that a whole world of possibilities can become reality through teamwork.  If an impractical high school freshman can watch his dream come true one step at a time over the course of four years, who knows what else can be accomplished?

I'd like to take a moment to thank all the litzers again, especially Mark Diehl, Barry Haldiman, Nancy Kavanaugh, Jeffrey Krasnick, Denny Baker, Howard Barkin, and Ralph Bunker, who were the most prolific.  Their totals, along with the totals for all the other litzers, can be seen on the Litzer & Proofreader Totals page.  (Some of these totals were slightly revised recently after I recalculated them from my current spreadsheet.)

Thanks, too, to all the proofreaders, of whom there were far fewer.  Proofreading was less appealing to many people, but it was an essential part of this process.  I didn't keep a running total of the proofreaders' totals while the proofing was under way because I didn't want people to compete with each other and race through the puzzles.  I calculated those totals recently, though, and you can now view them at the bottom of the Litzer & Proofreader Totals page, underneath the "found mistakes" tallies.

Special thanks to Mark Diehl, who was not only the Litzing King but also the Proofreading King!  Even more amazing, Mark's old-school litzing by hand beat out more technologically advanced (and very impressive!) optical character recognition litzing methods—congratulations again, Mark!

Thanks, too, to Todd Gross, not only for his litzing and proofreading but also for his painstaking research on pre-Shortzian constructors.  Todd's findings have been a major feature of numerous posts and added a richness to what might otherwise be just a list of constructor names.

Along the same lines, I'd like to thank all the pre-Shortzian constructors—and friends and relatives of constructors, or simply crossword aficionados—who provided interviews or sent in reminiscences of, or memorabilia from, pre-Shortzian constructors and times.  These have been delightfully entertaining and informative, and I hope to add new ones in the future.

Special thanks, too, to Barry Haldiman, who gave me the puzzles he and various other people, including project litzer and proofreader Denny Baker, had begun litzing back in 1999.  These puzzles got the project off to a running start—thanks again, Barry!  Barry also provided much historical context for the litzing and helped tremendously in tracking down copies of puzzles missing from ProQuest on good old-fashioned microfiche.

A few other people have offered to help search for the missing puzzles, contacting libraries and even the Times itself to that end.  Even though none of these efforts has proved successful so far, they've been great starts and helped rule out a number of formerly promising possible sources—thanks again to all the puzzle detectives!

I'd also like to thank everyone who's made a financial donation to the project.  Jim Horne was the first, generously giving the project a month of his XWord Info donations, and in the past few years several other people have contributed as well.  These donations have been much appreciated and helped pay for prizes and other expenses.

A few people have also helped by donating old books and newsletters, which have been exceptionally useful—thanks so much again!  I'm still making my way through the newsletters, and I'm always on the lookout for more old books containing the pre-Shortzian daily New York Times puzzles with bylines.  I'll be updating the Pre-Shortzian Crossword Books page as soon as time permits, but suffice it to say I'm still missing many of these old volumes, some of which may be the only way we can identify the remaining anonymous constructors.

I'd also like to thank the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project Advisory Board members, Jim Horne, Stan Newman, and Will Shortz.  They've been incredibly helpful over the past few years, and I think it's fair to say that without them, the project simply would not have taken off.  Thanks, Jim, for being the best partner in all this that anyone could ever want—XWord Info is a masterpiece, and I'm honored that I've been able to contribute to it in a significant way.  Thanks, Stan, for the hundreds of books, newsletters, and, most important, your encyclopedic knowledge and memory of the pre-Shortzian era and people—you've been a tremendous support (not to mention a delightful lunch companion!).  And thanks, Will, for being so generous with your time and advice and allowing me to hunt through your treasure trove of crossword books for constructor names—you are not only the Puzzlemaster but an inspiration, and I hope the project's completion makes your birthday an especially memorable one!

Finally, I'd like to give a shoutout to Kristena Bergen (aka my mom, Karen Steinberg).  If I wrote about everything she's done to help with the project, Blogger would likely implode, because there would simply be too much!  In addition to helping with the PDF downloading, puzzle-packet assembling, litzing, and proofreading, she spent countless hours just helping to keep track of everything, pitching in wherever and whenever needed, and making a final pass through almost all the available pre-Shortzian puzzles before I sent them to XWord Info.  Mom never took credit for any of the work she did, but without her this project never would have gotten as far as it did so quickly.  On behalf of us all, I'd like to give her a virtual round of applause with a standing ovation!  My mom is my hero, and if I can grow up to be a fraction of the person she is, I'll consider myself even more fortunate than I already am.  I love you, Mom—it is truly an honor to be your son!

Next Steps

Now that there are no more puzzles left to litz, proofread, or look through before sending to XWord Info, you might be wondering what's next for this project.  As I mentioned in a previous post, many tasks still remain.  First, the rest of the PS Notes from our litzers and proofreaders need to be entered onto XWord Info.  I'll be working on that over these next couple of weeks before heading off to college.  Second, the constructor names on XWord Info need to be standardized and, in some cases, updated.  When I was doing research at Will's house last summer, I was able to find the first names of many constructors for whom the only identifying information we had was a last name or a pair of initials.  I entered all this data into my spreadsheet but didn't make changes to the actual puzzle files because they were already up on XWord Info and because the focus was on finishing the rest of the puzzles.  As for the standardization, Jim Horne has pointed out a number of instances in which the spelling of constructors' names has been inconsistent.  Some of the incorrect spellings are simply oversights, but in most cases, different sources (i.e., the Times itself and books of reprinted puzzles) used slight name variations.  For example, it's clear that Marian Moeser and Marion Moeser were the same person, yet 22 puzzles are listed on Marian's XWord Info page and 15 on Marion's.  When time permits, I'll also be posting information on the project's style guide and editorial decisions, which will clarify how words and punctuation were usually handled.  Finally, I'm going to keep trying to hunt down the missing puzzles.  I haven't had a lot of success recently, but I haven't lost hope yet!

"Moving Forward" Metapuzzle

Last but not least, to celebrate the final major milestone of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project, I constructed another 23x23 metapuzzle, "Moving Forward."  The puzzle, in either Across Lite or PDF format, will be available on XWord Info at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time today from a link I'll insert here—http://www.xwordinfo.com/MovingForward/—and also post on Twitter, Facebook, and Cruciverb.  Very important instructions will appear in a notepad in the Across Lite file, so read carefully!  Send your answer to preshortzianpuzzleproject at gmail dot com (using the standard format).  The deadline for submitting your solution is September 2 at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time.  You may only submit one answer, so be sure you're 100% happy with your answer before clicking "Send"!  One lucky winner will be chosen at random from the correct solutions.  That person will receive a $50 iTunes gift card courtesy of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project!  Even though only one solver will receive a prize, everyone who submits a correct answer will have his/her name listed in a wrap-up blog post (unless you tell me you'd rather not have your name appear).  Names will be listed in the order in which the correct solutions came in.  Have fun—and good luck!

1953 and 1952 Puzzles Up, Todd Gross on Betty Jorgensen and William J. Yskamp, and XWord Info Powwow

Project Update

Great news:  Even though it's been a very busy travel month, the 1953 and 1952 puzzles are now up on XWord Info, thanks to Jim Horne!  Only one more complete year—1951—before we get into Sunday-only puzzles, which means I should be able to make faster progress getting them ready.  I'm still hoping to have all of them done by the end of the summer (which, luckily for me, goes until mid-September!).

Todd Gross on Betty Jorgensen and William J. Yskamp

Betty Jorgensen

I've been meaning to catch up on some more of Todd Gross's great research into pre-Shortzian constructors, starting off with his findings on Betty Jorgensen.  Betty published 69 puzzles in the Times under Eugene T. Maleska and 8 during the Shortz era.  Todd writes:

In my never-ending search for pre-Shortzian constructors, I decided to try looking up Betty Jorgensen.  An S&S puzzle of hers mentions Oregon, so I used that to try and find her.

Well, I found a Betty Jorgensen in Portland, born in 1919 and passed away 2008.  I was able to find her obituary on the Oregonian web site....

Alas, the obit made no mention of crosswords, which is odd considering how many she published.  So I can't be sure I have the right person.  I've found other Betty Jorgensens, but they aren't in Oregon and don't seem to be good candidates.  I have found out a fair amount about this Betty Jorgensen...but, again, nothing tying her to crosswords.  But she wrote poetry, which seems fitting.

I agreed with Todd that this may not have been the right person, because her crossword activity would almost certainly have been mentioned in an obituary.  So I decided to hunt around some more and found a link to Betty Jorgensen and crosswords in Eugene, Oregon.  I then Googled Betty Jorgensen and Eugene, Oregon, and found a recent obituary for a Robert DuBois Jorgensen, who was survived by various relatives, including a daughter, Laura Anne, who lives in Eugene and his mother, "Mary Elizabeth 'Betty' Jorgensen"; his father was also named Robert.  After a couple of other searches that didn't lead to anything, I Googled Robert Jorgensen and Betty Jorgensen together and found an obituary for a Robert Jorgensen of Monticello, Illinois, who died in 1988 and was survived by his wife, "Mary E. 'Betty' Jorgensen," also of Monticello.  I did a few more searches but didn't find anything more. My guess is that the Betty Jorgensen from Portland was not the crossword constructor but that this "Betty" (really Mary Elizabeth) is and is now living in Monticello, Illinois.  Following up with her granddaughter in Eugene would seem to be the next logical step.

William J. Yskamp

Todd had a more auspicious search with William J. Yskamp, who published three pre-Shortzian Times puzzles.  He reports:

While I haven't found the smoking gun connecting him to crosswords, I feel pretty sure the constructor is William James Yskamp, born in 1930 somewhere in New Jersey and, alas, passed away in 2007 in Oakland, CA.  I haven't seen his obituary, though it looks like I can get a copy from the Oakland Library (for a price).  There are other William Yskamps, but they don't have the J initial and the dates aren't right.

And I found this photo from his high school yearbook that seems to indicate he's the sort of person who could be a successful constructor.

College High School, Montclair, New Jersey, 1948.

What Todd found sounded very promising, and I agreed that this was likely the crossword constructor, so I did some more research.  I found this obituary of William in the April 2008 issue of Colby [College] Magazine:

More Googling led me to an Amanda Yskamp, who is also active in writing and science and is listed by Amazon.com as the co-author of book of short stories for young adults, Suddenly Lost in Words, Volume 2.

I also found a 2003 obituary for a Delia Yskamp that linked all three Yskamps—William was the father of Delia and Amanda (and a third sister, Lis [ed.:  Claire Yskamp informed me in November 2015 that this sister's name is Lise, not Lis.]).  So the circumstantial evidence points very strongly to Todd's yearbook find being the right person.  Thanks so much again, Todd, for this fantastic research!

XWord Info Powwow

I've been gone for much of the past month on couple of long driving trips, one to Vancouver for the National Puzzlers' League convention.  On my way there, I passed through Seattle, where I had an awesome lunch with Jim Horne and Jeff Chen (and Jeff's budding cruciverbalist baby daughter, Tess!)!  Here are some photos from this XWord Info culinary powwow:

Me and Jim at Monsoon

Tess, Jeff, Jim, and me

Thanks so much again, Jim and Jeff!