October Litzer of the Month Ed Sessa, Plus Martin Ashwood-Smith on Vaughn Keith

Proofreading 1966 Puzzles

It's been another busy week, starting off with 19 puzzles from Mark Diehl that had 19 mistakes.  Saturday afternoon he sent 33 more with 38 mistakes, then later on 27 more with 8 mistakes, 16 with 35 mistakes, and 6 with 2 mistakes!  Sunday morning, Mark sent another 31 with 16 mistakes, then later that afternoon, an additional 30 with 16 mistakes.  Late Monday night Todd Gross sent in 16 puzzles with 20 mistakes, which were followed by 31 more from Mark late Thursday afternoon with 15 mistakes.  And this week Howard Barkin sent 31 puzzles with 24 mistakes.  Thanks so much, everyone—though some puzzles from 1967, 1968, and 1969 are still out with proofreaders, quite a few from 1966 have already come in!  And as I write this, Mark still leads in the Pre-Shortzian Proofreading Challenge, with 621 found mistakes—congratulations, Mark!

October Litzer of the Month Ed Sessa

I'm delighted to announce that Ed Sessa is the October Litzer of the Month!  In addition to being a New York Times constructor and retired pediatrician, Ed is also a bird carver.  To read more about him, click here or on the Litzer of the Month tab above.

Martin Ashwood-Smith on Vaughn Keith

I recently received an e-mail from litzer and quad-stack constructor extraordinaire Martin Ashwood-Smith, who had been wondering about Maleska-era constructor Vaughn Keith, "one of the early (if not the earliest) masters of the triple stack genre."  Martin had found an obituary from 1990, which you can link to here, and wrote:

He was a school teacher who died at the young age of 40 of AIDS. The obit shows that this talented man faced his death with great bravery. The obit speaks for itself. Very sad, and also inspiring.

Vaughn Keith was a classicist who seems to have led a fascinating life.  Thanks so much again for this great find, Martin!

Featured Puzzle

Today's featured puzzle, whose constructor is unknown, was published March 22, 1961; edited by Margaret Farrar; and litzed by Ralph Bunker.  Each of this puzzle's theme entries is a TV or movie reference that contains at least one title, such as MRS MINIVER (clued as "Theatrical headliner of 1942.").  Having each theme entry be a TV/movie reference adds a nice level of consistency to the puzzle, and I especially appreciate that none of the titles is directly repeated.  My favorite theme entry is MR PENNYPACKER ("Theatrical headliner of 1959."); even though I'm not familiar with the movie The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker, the words are so much fun to say!  The nonthematic fill also seems pretty solid—I especially like the entries SANTA MARIA, KNIGHTHOOD, and END TABLE, and the only rather iffy piece of fill is the plural RT HONS ("Titles for some civic officials.").  Clues that pique my interest include "Abbreviation useful in the 1800's." for TERR and "Piquancy (from French for orange peel)." for ZEST.  Overall, this puzzle, with its cute theme and minimal reliance on obscurities, is a zesty gem from the early '60s!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Proofreading 1967 Puzzles, Maleska's Millennium Mistakes, and Todd Gross on Sidney L. Robbins and Elmer Toro

Proofreading 1967 Puzzles

It's been an amazing week on the proofreading front—I'm now sending out puzzles from 1967!  Some puzzles from 1968 and 1969 are still being proofread, but there should be another full year completed in the not-too-distant future!  This week's shipments started off late Friday night when Mark Diehl sent in 31 puzzles with 30 mistakes, which were followed the next morning by 30 more puzzles with 19 mistakes and, Saturday afternoon, by another 31 with 17 mistakes.  Sunday morning, Mark sent 31 more puzzles with 15 mistakes, then another 29 that afternoon with 11 mistakes and 31 more that evening with 21 mistakes (passing the 400 mark—congratulations, Mark!).  Monday night, Mark sent 31 puzzles with 27 mistakes, which were followed Tuesday night by 25 puzzles with 9 mistakes.  Thursday night he sent 27 more puzzles with 5 mistakes, then a couple of hours later, another 31 puzzles with 11 mistakes—wow!  Thanks so much, Mark!  Needless to say, Mark is currently in first place in the proofreading contest—as I write this, he has found 472 mistakes, and I'm guessing he'll top the 500 mark this coming week!  Thanks again, Mark—awesome job!

Maleska's Millennium Mistakes

I recently received an e-mail from Martin Ashwood-Smith, who had found a mistake in the April 23, 1972, puzzle constructed by Eugene T. Maleska and edited by Will Weng.  The word millennium was misspelled millenium.  Maleska misspelled this word more than once:  On August 9, 1985, the word MILLENIUM appeared as a grid entry—egad!  Thanks again for pointing this out, Martin!

Todd Gross on Sidney L. Robbins and Elmer Toro

I also recently heard from litzer and proofreader Todd Gross, who had been researching pre-Shortzian constructors and come across some new information.  Todd found a death notice for Sidney L. Robbins, a very prolific constructor who apparently was born in August of 1909 and who, according to my (incomplete) records, published 153 pre-Shortzian puzzles and 50 Shortz-era puzzles.

Todd also thought he might have found information on Elmer Toro, who published six puzzles in the Times between 1969 and 1977:

Among several constructors I've tried to look up, Elmer Toro is a particularly interesting case.  I found someone I think is our constructor, but I'm not sure.  There aren't many Elmer Toros, but there is more than one.  The guy I think is our constructor is rather interesting, you can read about his work for the NYPD and related agencies here.  I found that he later moved to Florida, where he worked for a few years as a police officer but retired last year (2013), see here.

Very interesting discoveries, Todd—thanks again!  I look forward to reading any future updates.

Featured Puzzle

Today's featured puzzle, whose constructor is unknown, was published Saturday, January 21, 1961; edited by Margaret Farrar; and litzed by Ralph Bunker.  This puzzle features eight symmetrically interlocking theme entries that appeal to solvers with a sweet tooth, such as A FINGER IN THE PIE and CANDY CANE.  The puzzle masterfully uses stacking and interlock at multiple points (such as with the two down theme entries) to cram all eight sweets into the grid, though the overall quality of the theme suffers a bit as a result.  I find it slightly inelegant that two theme entries use the same sweet (PIE); also, I've never seen COOKY JAR spelled with a Y, and APPLEJACK sticks out as the only liquid sweet in the puzzle.  Still, the theme is impressive for its time, and the teenager in me has a hard time criticizing a theme that relates to junk food!  The nonthematic fill is a mix of entries that feel fresh—including BUSBOYS, HATPIN, ORBITAL (complete with the "modern" clue "Pertaining to a satellite's path."), and the quasi-thematic GINGER and ICED—and entries that are neither sweet nor savory, including SSES ("Compass points."), ATHL ("Sports: Abbr."), and ARGALAS ("African storks.").  Argala is such an uncommon term that it doesn't appear in Merriam-Webster; after Googling argala, I discovered that this type of stork is better known as the greater adjutant, which still seems rather obscure.  In sum, this puzzle has a sweet theme idea, but the execution isn't fully consistent, and the nonthematic fill feels a bit iffy in parts.  I nevertheless look forward to seeing more themed daily puzzles from this time period as we continue our journey through crossword history!  The puzzle's answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) appears below:

Interview with Ed Julius, 1973 Puzzles Up, Call for Proofreaders, Proofed vs. Unproofed Puzzles, and a Surprising Entry

Interview with Ed Julius

This week I'm delighted to present an interview with pre-Shortzian constructor Ed Julius!  Ed is a professor of business administration at California Lutheran University whose specialty is financial accounting and . . . crossword puzzles!  To read more about Ed, click here or on the Pre-Shortzian Constructor Interviews tab above—and be sure to check out this week's featured puzzle below, which he published in 1974, as well as the interview's links to downloadable PDFs of two of his favorite puzzles!

Project Update

Great news:  The proofread puzzles from 1973 are now up on XWord Info, thanks to Jim Horne—we've finished 21 years!  And after the few remaining weeks of puzzles come in that are still out with litzers, we'll be done converting all the 52 years of pre-Shortzian puzzles we have!

It's been a very busy week on the proofreading front:  Early Saturday morning, Todd Gross sent in 9 puzzles, which were followed by 9 from Mark Diehl on Tuesday night.  Mark sent 23 more Wednesday night, and then Thursday morning Todd sent in 10 more.  A few hours later, Denny Baker sent 30 more, and then 31 more came in from Mark that evening, followed by another 29 from Mark later that night!  Thanks so much, everyone—awesome job!

Call for Proofreaders

We still need proofreaders—the more people we have proofing, the sooner we'll be able to get all the litzed puzzles up on XWord Info!  If you think you'd be a good proofreader and own Crossword Compiler, please let me know and I'll send you the proofreading self-test.  As with litzing, any and all amounts of help with this effort will be most appreciated!  Also, one of our proofreaders thought of a way to hold a proofreading contest (with prizes, of course!) that wouldn't directly involve speed, so stay tuned. . . .

Proofed vs. Unproofed Puzzles

Recently someone suggested to me that we simply post the unproofread puzzles—in fact, I myself thought of doing this a year or two ago.  The main advantage would be that all the litzed puzzles we have would be available now (and backed up on an additional server); the main disadvantage would be that the puzzles vary considerably in how accurately they've been litzed—a significant percentage would contain major errors.  Another big disadvantage would be that posting the unproofread puzzles now and then replacing them with proofread puzzles later would mean a lot of extra work at XWord Info.

More on BTS

In other news, litzer Martin Ashwood-Smith restored my faith in pre-Shortzian fill standards!  Last week's featured puzzle contained the entry BTS (clued as "British titles: Abbr."), which I had erroneously assumed stood for British titles.  Martin pointed out that BTS is actually the abbreviation for baronets.  I wouldn't want to add BTS to my word list now, but at least it's a legitimate piece of fill.  Martin and I have also been having an interesting correspondence about the history of stacks in crosswords, which I may write more about later.  To make a long story short, triple stacks of 15-, 17-, and even 19-letter entries have been around for quite some time, and even quad stacks came into existence before Joe Krozel introduced them to the Times in 2009.  Luckily for historical purposes, the history of quint stacks is quite straightforward!

Featured Puzzle

Today's featured puzzle, which can be solved on XWord Info, was constructed by Ed Julius; published January 15, 1974; (pun mode on) ed-it-ed (pun mode off) by Will Weng; and litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick.  This nifty themeless, which was Ed's Times debut, features six interlocking 15-letter entries in a 78-word grid, a themeless structure similar to that used in many Manny Miller puzzles from the Farrar era.  The 15-letter entries have a nice dash of sparkle—I especially like BEGIN THE BEGUINE (clued as "Cole Porter tune"), THE HASTY PUDDING ("Harvard club"), and REGRESSION LINES ("Math ratio entries")!  I wasn't hugely fond of regression lines last year, since that was the chapter my AP Statistics course covered while I was out of town, but I eventually figured out how they worked by the time we got around to the slope of the regression line t-test.  Just imagine trying to squeeze SLOPE OF THE REGRESSION LINE T-TEST into a crossword!  Anyway, as for the rest of the fill, Ed expertly balanced his grid-spanners with clean 3s, 4s, and 5s.  The only entries that really gave me pause were DREE ("Suffer, in Scotland") and TENE ("Filament: Suffix), which makes the puzzle quite well built for its time.  The clues are mostly straight definitions, but I appreciate that Ed wove in a few more unique ones, such as "Durocher's nickname" for LIP and the misleading "Famous doctor" for SEUSS.  My favorite clue, however, is the self-referential "Edward of TV" for ASNER!  In all, this is a solid pre-Shortzian puzzle with a pleasing amount of oomph.  The puzzle can be viewed on XWord Info; for those of you whose fingers have had too much of a workout from litzing or proofreading, I've pasted the solution grid below so you don't have to click on anything!

Entry of the Week

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry, which gave me a real laugh, comes from the December 27, 1942, crossword, which was constructed by Alexis P. Boodberg, edited by Margaret Farrar, and litzed by Alex Vratsanos.  Back in the early days of the Shortz era (August 27, 1995, to be precise), constructor Martin Schneider famously used the entry PENIS in a Times crossword, cluing it as "The ___ mightier . . . " (as in "the pen is mightier than the sword").  This "partial phrase" has yet to be reused in a more recent Times puzzle, and I hadn't seen any entries that caused me to raise my eyebrows quite so much in a pre-Shortzian puzzle . . . until I came across the entry DILDO in Alexis P. Boodberg's grid!  The clue?  "West Indian cactus."  It turns out that dildo is the unfortunate term for several species of long, narrow cacti, such as Acanthocereus tetragonus and Pilosocereus royenii.  Unfortunate as the term may be, I'd much prefer to call them dildos than to try to pronounce their full scientific names!  Here's a picture of Pilosocereus royenii, which does indeed look quite phallic:

Image courtesy of Desert-Tropicals.com.

Bernice Gordon Interview, Over 9,000, In 1969, Marbles Tournament, and Pre-Shortzian Stumpers

Today I'm delighted to present another interview with a pre-Shortzian constructor, the amazingly creative and prolific Bernice Gordon!  At 99, Bernice is the oldest constructor in the history of The New York Times; according to my (incomplete) records, she published 112 puzzles in the pre-Shortz era and has published 18 under Will Shortz's editorship, but she reportedly has published more than 150 puzzles in the Times.  To read my interview with Bernice Gordon, click here or on the Pre-Shortzian Constructor Interviews tab above.

I'm also thrilled to announce that we've now litzed more than 9,000 puzzles!  On Sunday, Todd McClary sent in a batch that put us over 8,900, and then, in very short order, more puzzles came in—including a batch of 34 from Mark Diehl—that put us over 8,950!  Finally, on Wednesday, Martin Herbach sent in five batches totaling 35 puzzles, putting us well over 9,000!  Thanks so much, everybody—great job!

We also reached another milestone this week:  On Tuesday, litzer Nancy Kavanaugh received the first batch of 1969 puzzles!  Here's a representative photo from that very eventful year.  It's of astronaut Buzz Aldrin walking on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, which, on July 20, 1969, landed the first humans there:

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Although there won't be any pre-Shortzian puzzles to solve, I wanted to help spread the word about this weekend's Marbles 5th Annual Crossword Tournament at various locations throughout the country.  This should be a very fun event, and litzer Doug Peterson and I will be judges at the one taking place in Sherman Oaks, California!

Finally, if you haven't checked out the Pre-Shortzian Stumpers on Twitter, many of the previous stumpers are listed there under #psstumpers.  Litzers Jeffrey Krasnick, Martin Ashwood-Smith, and Denny Baker have come up with some doozies, and I'm sure there'll be more to come!

Today's featured puzzle was constructed by the legendary Bernice Gordon.  As Bernice mentioned in her interview, this puzzle caused something of a controversy—in fact, Margaret Farrar initially rejected it!  The puzzle, titled "Words and Words," was published on May 30, 1965.  It features ten common phrases containing a word, AND, and then another word; the catch is that AND is squeezed into a single square, making this puzzle the earliest Sunday rebus I've seen so far.  This puzzle is way ahead of its time thematically—Sunday rebus themes didn't catch on until much later during the Maleska era!  In addition to using a completely innovative theme, Bernice also chose a wide-open grid and did a lovely job filling it.  Some highlights of the nonthematic fill include RASPBERRY, CONDUCTOR, QUAKING, and AESTHETES, but perhaps the most interesting/unusual entry is ODTAA.  At first, I thought it had to be a mistake—litzers have found several errors in the solutions to Times puzzles recently.  But ODTAA, clued as "Masefield novel, 1926," is indeed a legitimate entry.  My first thought was that the title had something to do with TAA, a piece of pre-Shortzian crosswordese commonly clued as "Chinese pagoda"; I couldn't have been more wrong, however—ODTAA is an acronym for "One Damn Thing After Another!"  In sum, this is a very futuristic and creative pre-Shortzian puzzle!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

A few months ago, one of our proofreaders came across a very clever clue in the Maleska-edited Saturday, June 7, 1986, puzzle, constructed by Irene Smullyan.  The clue, for the entry SMASHED, was "Under the alfluence of incohol."  This clue, like the featured puzzle, feels way ahead of its time—both are exceptionally clever!  Below is a picture of SMASHED in a different sense of the word:

Image courtesy of 123RF.

Over 8,600, PRESHORTZIAN in a Grid, Martin Ashwood-Smith on "Dip," and Publicity

We've now litzed more than 8,600 puzzles!  On Thursday Jeffrey Krasnick sent in a batch that put us over this milestone, so we're now on our way to 8,700.  Great job, everybody!

A few days ago I received an e-mail from litzer Martin Ashwood-Smith about something he thought I'd enjoy seeing—it turned out to be a grid he'd built with PRESHORTZIAN at 1-Across!  I'm delighted to reproduce it for you below—thanks, Martin!  Maybe someday "pre-Shortzian" will indeed appear in the OED! ;)

Martin also sent in the following last Sunday, in response to last week's humorous typo involving NERD:

The typo/mistake for NERD "A real dip" (vs: "A real drip") may not be a typo. Back in the 70s "dip" also meant "loser". Here's a citation (at the very end):

dip  (dp)

v. dipped, dip·ping, dips

v.tr.

1. To plunge briefly into a liquid, as in order to wet, coat, or saturate.

2. To color or dye by immersing: dip Easter eggs.

3. To immerse (a sheep or other animal) in a disinfectant solution.

4. To form (a candle) by repeatedly immersing a wick in melted wax or tallow.

5. To galvanize or plate (metal) by immersion.

6. To scoop up by plunging the hand or a receptacle below the surface, as of a liquid; ladle: dip water out of a bucket.

7. To lower and raise (a flag) in salute.

8. To lower or drop (something) suddenly: dipped my head to avoid the branch.

9. Slang To pick the pockets of.

v.intr.

1. To plunge into water or other liquid and come out quickly.

2. To plunge the hand or a receptacle into liquid or a container, especially so as to take something up or out: I dipped into my pocket for some coins.

3. To withdraw a small amount from a fund: We dipped into our savings.

4. To drop down or sink out of sight suddenly: The sun dipped below the horizon.

5. To drop suddenly before climbing. Used of an aircraft.

6. To slope downward; decline: The road dipped.

7. To decline slightly and usually temporarily: Sales dipped after Christmas.

8. Geology To lie at an angle to the horizontal plane, as a rock stratum or vein.

9.

a. To read here and there at random; browse: dipping into Chaucer.

b. To investigate a subject superficially; dabble: dipped into psychology.

10. Slang To steal by picking pockets.

n.

1. A brief plunge or immersion, especially a quick swim.

2. A liquid into which something is dipped, as for dyeing or disinfecting.

3. A savory creamy mixture into which crackers, raw vegetables, or other foods may be dipped.

4. An amount taken up by dipping.

5. A container for dipping.

6. A candle made by repeated dipping in tallow or wax.

7. A downward slope; a decline.

8. A sharp downward course; a drop: a dip in prices.

9. Geology The downward inclination of a rock stratum or vein in reference to the plane of the horizon.

10.

a. Linguistics A part of a phrase or sentence that is unstressed or less strongly stressed relative to surrounding words, as the words I and to in I have to go.

b. Poetry The unstressed portion of a metrical foot.

11. Magnetic dip.

12. A hollow or depression.

13. Sports A gymnastic exercise on the parallel bars in which the body is lowered by bending the elbows until the chin reaches the level of the bars and then is raised by straightening the arms.

14. Slang A pickpocket.

15. Slang A foolish or stupid person.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dip

Very interesting—thanks again, Martin!

The Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project received some new publicity this week:  T Campbell linked to the site from Amy Reynaldo's Diary of a Crossword Fiend.  Thanks so much, T!

Today I'm featuring the two pre-Shortzian "vanity puzzles" I've seen so far in which the constructor incorporated part of his or her name into the grid.  The earlier of the two, published on September 20, 1976, was constructed by Jack L. Steinhardt, edited by Will Weng, and litzed by Doug Peterson.  The constructor cleverly masked STEINHARDT (clued as "Envoy to Russia under F.D.R.") in a repeated sound theme of STEIN.  Steinhardt also included the entry STEINBERG, which he clued as "Comedian or conductor."  The comedian's full name is actually David Steinberg—I'm flattered!  If only he had clued STEINBERG as "Comedian or constructor-to-be". . . .  The theme is a bit inconsistent in that BEER STEIN is the only theme entry that isn't a person; also, STEINBECKS ("Author John and family") feels a little weak.  The nonthematic fill, on the other hand, is quite solid—the only mystery entry I see is CERMET ("Heat-resistant alloy").  This puzzle is very clever for a vanity puzzle, and it gets major bonus points in my book for including the entry STEINBERG!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

The second vanity puzzle, published on October 13, 1984, was constructed by Joe Clonick, edited by Eugene T. Maleska, and litzed by Andrew Feist.  Clonick cleverly split his name in the first two Across entries of this "themeless":  JOSEPH was clued as "Owner of a multicolored coat" and CLONIC (which was as close as Clonick could come to including his last name) was clued as "Spasmodic, as a muscle."  In addition, the constructor placed the entry VANITY ("Dressing table") symmetrical to CLONIC, which is how I came up with the term vanity puzzle in the first place.  The nonthematic fill feels decidedly more lively and contemporary than usual—I especially like the entries JANE DOE, MOLOTOV, JEDI, ICEBERG, and IMMINENT.  The JEDI clue, "They returned in a Lucas film," is particularly interesting—it was very unusual for a Maleska-era puzzle to reference current pop culture (Return of the Jedi came out just a year before this puzzle was published).  The clue "Rapper's article" for THA didn't exist yet (instead we get the more obscure clue "Fourth Arabic letter"), and admittedly, AURICLE ("Outer ear") and EVULSED ("Plucked forcibly") aren't the greatest.  Nevertheless, this is a very nice pre-Shortzian vanity puzzle.  The answer grid (with highlighted vanity entries) can be seen below:

The most recent Margaret Farrar–edited Sunday puzzle I litzed, titled "For Global Strategists," was almost like a snapshot of the world on March 22, 1942.  The constructor, Alma Talley, packed in lots and lots of geography-related entries and clued them according to their influence on World War II.  She also included many general war-related clues.  Below is a selection of the more interesting of these clue/entry pairs:

• MALTA, clued as "On Britain's lifeline."
• HAITI, "Good neighbor."
• ESSEN, "R. A. F. target."
• ANTIGUA, "U. S. naval base."
• NICE, "City claimed by Italy."
• DÉAT, "He didn't want to 'die for Danzig.'"
• Refers to Marcel Déat, a French politician who admired Nazi Germany and published the controversial 1939 article "Why Die for Danzig?," in which he claimed that France had no interest in defending Poland against Hitler.
• CHINA, "One of the United Nations."
• TOTAL, "The kind of war this is."
• CHILE, "A good neighbor."
• THRACE, "Occupied Balkan territory."
• RIOM, "Site of a famous trial."
• Refers to the Riom Trial, during which Vichy France tried to prove that leaders of the French Third Republic were responsible for its 1940 defeat by Germany.
• LIÈGE, "Heroic Belgian city."
• DOMEI, "Source of bad news."
• Domei was a Japanese telegraph agency.
• ARGENTINA, "A hesitant good neighbor."
• BELGRADE, "A blitzkrieged city." 
• CHAD, "Free French territory."
• OTORI, "Temporary name for Wake Island."
• Wake Island was called Otori when the Japanese occupied it.
• TOKYO, "One of our objectives."
• MALAY, "Conquered native of Far East."
• ARUBA, "Strategic oil center."
• HESSIAN, "We fought this German in another war."
• INDOCHINA, "An enemy base."
• DRESDEN, "German city."
• DELHI, "A GHQ for United Nations."
• DUCE, "The heel of the boot."
• JAVA, "Scene of a big naval battle."
• RHINE, "Historically disputed river."
• CONGO, "Territory in Africa."
• ROME, "Enemy city."
• GORT, "British general."
• ICELAND, "American outpost."
• LEAHY, "American ambassador."
• EGYPT, "Country of British lifeline."

That's a lot of 1942-related clues/entries!  I'm surprised that Margaret allowed the constructor to use both INDOCHINA and CHINA in the same puzzle.  Nevertheless, this list is quite impressive!  Below is a map that shows what territories that Axis powers occupied in 1942:

Image courtesy of Iowa State University.