Project Wins Davidson Institute Award, Interview with Metaleska First Prize Winner Jeffrey Harris, Approaching 10,500 and In 1965, and Mark Diehl Tops 3,000

This week I have some very big news:  The Davidson Institute for Talent Development just awarded me a $25,000 Davidson Fellows Scholarship for the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project!  This is a huge honor and is especially gratifying because it shows that other people, not just those in the crossword community, understand and appreciate the project's value.  I will be traveling to Washington, D.C., to accept the award in September—thanks so much to my advisory board and everyone else who has helped make this monumental undertaking a success!

I'm also delighted to present an interview this week with Metaleska First Prize Winner Jeffrey Harris, who zipped through the metapuzzle in record time!  Here are his comments:

You correctly solved Metaleska in just 1 hour and 32 minutes, which is amazing!  Which component of the metapuzzle took you the longest?

Far and away the most time-consuming portion was matching up the new theme answers to the old puzzles.

Was there anything you weren't sure about?

I was pretty sure that the SPORTS CAR answer corresponded to the "Stand-Ins" puzzle—none of the other puzzles from that year even came close to allowing something that bizarre—but even knowing the gimmick, I had no idea how to get from {Large scale cover-up} to SPORTS CAR in two steps.  I just assumed I missed the roll-out of the Toyota Watergate or the Chevrolet Conspiracy or something.

What were your favorite and least favorite parts about Metaleska?

I got a kick out of the STEP/QUOTE Easter egg.  My least favorite part was that despite having written down SUNKEN (and apparently mis-writing the remaining letters), my brain was stuck on the Magi-gift-that-didn't-make-it FUNKENCENSE and I ended up using an anagram generator to help me see the final clue.  Shame on me, shame, shame.

What was the most interesting pre-Shortzian Sunday puzzle you encountered while solving?

I don't really remember any of them, they were all a blur!

Which aspect of the eventual database of pre-Shortzian puzzles are you most excited about?  As a constructor and editor, how do you think it will come in handy?

I'm not sure how useful the database will be as a puzzlemaker, but for posterity purposes it is invaluable.

Thanks so much, Jeffrey!  If anyone else has thoughts about Metaleska, feel free to comment below.

Meanwhile, we've now litzed nearly 10,500 puzzles!  On Friday afternoon last week, Denny Baker sent in 7 puzzles.  Then at midnight, Stephen Edward Anderson sent in another 7.  Sunday morning, Jeffrey Krasnick sent in 7, followed by 35 a few hours later from Mark Diehl.  Later that night, Mark sent in 14 more, putting us over the 10,400 mark!  On Tuesday afternoon, Denny sent in 7 more puzzles, and that evening, Mike Buckley sent in another 7.  Later on, Mark sent 14 more puzzles, making his personal litzing total more than 3,000 (3,014, to be exact—congratulations, Mark, on this amazing achievement!).  Thursday night, Mark sent in another 28 puzzles, putting us at 10,475 on the litzing thermometer!  It's been a great week—thanks so much, everyone, for all the litzed puzzles!  Thanks, too, to Todd Gross, who sent in another 10 proofread puzzles on Wednesday!

All this litzing has put us into a new year—we're now in 1965!  This year was notable for many things, but one of the best was the August 15 Beatles concert at Shea Stadium in New York.  According to Wikipedia, it was "the first stadium concert in the history of rock."  Here's a picture of the concert's poster:

Image courtesy of Amoeba Music.

Metaleska Results and Explanations . . . and XWord Info

Metaleska was a huge success—thanks so much to everyone who entered the contest (and thanks again, Jim, for hosting the puzzle and instructions on XWord Info!)!  The feedback I received was overwhelmingly positive, which means I'll definitely consider constructing another Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project metapuzzle next year.

Overall, 548 solvers downloaded the Metaleska Instructions PDF, 177 downloaded the puzzle PDF, and an unknown number downloaded the Across Lite file.  Of those people, 18 submitted solutions to the contest, and 10 of these were completely correct; several other people wrote that they had enjoyed trying the puzzle but had been unable to finish it.

The first-prize winner, Jeffrey Harris, correctly solved Metaleska just 1 hour and 32 minutes after it was posted, which is incredibly fast!  The other two winners were selected using an online random-number generator.  Here are the winners:

First Prize:  Jeffrey Harris
Random Prize #1:  Todd McClary
Random Prize #2:  David Stein

Congratulations Jeffrey, Todd, and David—and everyone else who submitted a correct entry!  Metaleska proved to be a real challenge!  Now that the contest is over, I'm posting a complete explanation of the metapuzzle.  First and foremost, here's the filled-in puzzle grid:

Next, here are the theme entries and the puzzles I intended them to fit into, in order from top to bottom and left to right:

• GA ON MY MIND
• Clue:  *1960 hit written in 1930 [1993]
• Puzzle it would fit into:  Brief Statements
• Publication date:  May 23, 1993
• Constructor:  Alfio Micci
• Link:  http://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=5/23/1993
• Extracted letter:  F
• MCGWIRE'S MARK
• Clue:  *Grade for a former Cardinal [1988]
• Puzzle it would fit into:  Possessive People
• Publication date:  May 22, 1988
• Constructor:  Bernice Gordon
• Link:  http://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=5/22/1988
• Extracted letter:  E
• THANKS A IOOOOOO
• Clue:  *"Much appreciated!" [1986]
• Puzzle it would fit into:  Decimal Descriptions
• Publication date:  November 30, 1986
• Constructor:  Harold B. Counts
• Link:  http://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=11/30/1986
• Extracted letter:  C
• WASHING/MACHINE
• Clue:  *Cyclical spinner [1991]
• Puzzle it would fit into:  Plus Signs
• Publication date:  August 18, 1991
• Constructor:  Jeanne Wilson
• Link:  http://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=8/18/1991
• Extracted letter:  N
• KURDS AND WHEY
• Clue:  *Dish for cannibalistic West Asians? [1990]
• Puzzle it would fit into:  Mideast Monkeyshines
• Publication date:  April 22, 1990
• Constructor:  Maura B. Jacobson
• Link:  http://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/22/1990
• Extracted letter:  E
• AUDEN IN NEW YORK
• Clue:  *Lyrical Gere/Ryder flick? [1987]
• Puzzle it would fit into:  Un-Authorized Poetic License
• Publication date:  April 19, 1987
• Constructor:  Bert H. Kruse
• Link:  http://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/19/1987
• Extracted letter:  U
• HEAD OF [THE TA] BLE
• Clue:  *Leadership position? [1989]
• Puzzle it would fit into:  Greek Sandwiches
• Publication date:  August 6, 1989
• Constructor:  Kenneth Haxton
• Link:  http://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=8/6/1989
• Extracted letter:  N
• JOINT STOCKS
• Clue:  *GOOGAAPL [1992]
• Puzzle it would fit into:  Stick-To-It-Iveness
• Publication date:  January 5, 1992
• Constructor:  Jim Page
• Link:  http://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=1/5/1992
• Extracted letter:  S
• FLATBREAD
• Clue:  *Real estate agent's dish? [1984]
• Puzzle it would fit into:  Workman's Compensation
• Publication date:  April 22, 1984
• Constructor:  Tap Osborn
• Link:  http://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/22/1984
• Extracted letter:  K
• SPORTS CAR
• Clue:  *Large-scale cover-up [1985]
• Stand-in:  ECLIPSE
• Puzzle it would fit into:  Stand-Ins
• Publication date:  April 14, 1985
• Constructor:  Bert H. Kruse
• Link:  http://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/14/1985
• Extracted letter:  N
• EN TEE ESS BEE
• Clue:  *Crash-investigating org.
• Puzzle it would fit into:  A Spell of Letters
• Publication date:  April 24, 1983
• Constructor:  Alfio Micci
• Link:  http://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/24/1983
• Extracted letter:  E

When the eleven extracted letters are combined and anagrammed, they form the meta-clue "Sunken fence."  The meta-clue leads to the meta-answer HAHA (which Tyler Hinman pointed out was reused in this sense of the word, though with a different clue, in the Shortz era in one of his own puzzles).  The better clue is "Laughter," which is hidden inside the clue "Slugger Slaughter" (24-Across).  This better clue tripped up almost all the incorrect entrants, many of whom were very close.  Incorrect submissions included "April fool," "Monkeyshine," "Histrionics," and "Laugh."  Test solver Todd Gross initially came up with "April fool" as the better clue, which I hadn't noticed when constructing the puzzle.  I modified the instructions to eliminate this possibility by stating that the better clue was a single word longer than five letters.  This specification also eliminated "Laugh" as a possible answer.

The puzzle contains several Easter eggs (hidden bonuses).  The first is the inclusion of two pieces of uniquely pre-Shortzian crosswordese, TAA ("Chinese pagoda") and UNAU ("Entry a slothful constructor might use"), the latter of which was traditionally clued as "Two-toed sloth."  Both these entries were very common in pre-Shortzian puzzles but have yet to show up in a Shortz-era puzzle.

The second Easter egg (which I feel is much cooler) is the STEP/QUOTE hidden at 60-Across/63-Down, which reads in a Stepquote fashion.  The Stepquote is a crossword form that was invented by Dr. Maleska himself and was first published in 1964 under Margaret Farrar's editorship.  Stepquotes have been widely criticized recently for their lack of thematic material, though they were quite revolutionary back in the day.

The third Easter egg is the entry GENE, which was clued as "Maleska, to friends."  I read that Maleska's longtime girlfriend and first wife was named Jean—in fact, the two of them were often referred to as a "Chromosome" (two genes, homophonically).

I didn't discover the fourth and final Easter egg until I'd begun to research possibilities for Metaleska—the meta-clue (and a major hint to the better clue) is hidden within another pre-Shortzian Sunday puzzle with a theme similar to "Stand-Ins"!  This puzzle, titled "Trace the Transitions," was constructed by T. W. Underhill and was originally published on August 21, 1988.  This added twist, which I think is quite elegant, proves that the puzzle is entirely pre-Shortzian!

One of the goals of Metaleska was to expose today's constructors and solvers to some of the brilliant pre-Shortzian puzzles published in the Maleska era.  Even though the crossword puzzle scene has dramatically changed since Will Shortz became editor, these puzzles still possess remarkable aesthetic value.  I hope generations of crossword puzzle fans explore and learn from these pre-Shortzian puzzles as much as I have!  As Maleska traditionally signed off, "Pax, amor et felicitas" (Peace, love and luck).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

With the conclusion of the Metaleska contest, this seems like a particularly apt time to comment on Jim Horne's news this past week that his wonderful site, XWord Info, will be winding down in its current form.  For me, XWord Info has always been there, a treasure trove of puzzles, statistics, charts, observations, and analytic tools—everything anyone could possibly want in a New York Times crossword site.  It's hard to imagine a crossword world without XWord Info, and I hope that someday it will ramp back up again.  My dream has always been to have all the New York Times crosswords—Shortz-era and pre-Shortzian—available on one site.  Thanks so much for creating XWord Info, Jim, and keeping it going for the pre-Shortzian puzzles.  It is truly a masterpiece and will be deeply missed by many.  

Metapuzzle Coming to a Close, July Litzer of the Month Todd McClary, Project Update, and Summer at the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project

Metaleska, the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project's first anniversary metapuzzle, is coming to a close—be sure to submit your entry by tomorrow at 11:59 p.m. (right before midnight) Pacific Time to be eligible to win an awesome prize!  I'll be posting the results, as well as an explanation of the puzzle, on Sunday, so check back again then for that update.

The July Litzer of the Month is Autofill Project creator and blogger Todd McClary, who has also been constructing crosswords for more than 25 years!  To read more about Todd, click here or on the Litzer of the Month tab above.

This week almost 50 more puzzles were litzed!  Friday night, Mark Diehl sent in 14, then late Monday afternoon, Mike Buckley sent in 7.  Wednesday night, Mark sent in another 28 puzzles, putting his personal total at more than 2,900 litzed puzzles—congratulations, Mark!

And the proofreading is progressing as well!  The 1982 puzzles were sent off to XWord Info, where they'll be fully posted after the Metaleska contest is over.  (Thanks again, Jim!)  In addition to finishing off the last month of the 1982 puzzles he was proofreading, Todd Gross also started in on 1981 and sent a batch from that year.  In addition, Tracy Bennett sent in her first month of 1981 puzzles and is now at work on her second.  Thanks so much, everyone!

As you can see, even though it's summer, the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project continues apace!  This coming week I'll be flying to Austin for the National Puzzlers' League convention and immediately thereafter heading to Stanford, where I'll spend three weeks taking a course on artificial intelligence.  I'm really excited about this opportunity and hoping to learn a lot more about how machines like Dr. Fill "think"!  The litzing, proofreading, and packet-sending will continue without interruption, and I'll be posting here as time permits.

Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle, "Having the Last Word," was constructed by Will Weng, edited by Margaret Farrar, and litzed by lightning-fast litzer Martin Herbach (a dazzling trio indeed!).  Will Weng constructed many hilarious and brilliant pre-Shortzian puzzles for Margaret Farrar—just imagine how many interesting and unusual pre-Shortzian puzzles would have been published if Weng had been an editor.  Oh, wait—I've already had the pleasure of reviewing almost every single crossword from the Weng era!  All joking aside, this rather macabre Weng puzzle, which was published on November 10, 1968, features nine interlocking (albeit not quite symmetrical) theme entries that are clued as different working professionals' famous last words.  All nine of the theme entries are chuckle-inducing—two of my favorites are LET'S PICK OUR OWN MUSHROOMS (clued as "Gourmets' last words") and IT'S LIKE MONEY IN THE BANK ("Horseplayer's last words")!  I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS LOADED ("Famous last words") is pretty good also, though it's a bit dark for my taste.  The nonthematic fill is quite nice on the whole—I especially like the entries KERCHOO, SADDLEBAG, LANDLINES, TWEEZES, DOODAD, and DAGWOODS ("Big sandwiches"), the last of which makes my mouth water!  I also find it quite elegant that Weng managed to squeeze the semithematic entry DEATH into the grid, which he cleverly disguised in the clue "Bored to ___."  Some of the nonthematic clues are also brilliant and further exemplify Weng's sense of humor, such as "Punch's advice to those about to marry" for DON'T.  Not-so-great clues/entries include the longish partials A HAND ON, LIKES AND, A TOTAL, LOST IN, and TOASTS OF; the abbreviations EVNGS (evenings) and STP (stamp); AMN'T ("Relative of ain't"); and the contrived phrase PAR IT ("Advice to golfer starting a hole").  In sum, this is a very interesting and unusual Weng puzzle that I consider a harbinger of all the great puzzles he edited!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

As we've continued back into the Farrar era, when many more of the puzzles were themeless, I've noticed an increasing number of unusual-yet-awesome-sounding entries.  Here's a trio of wacky ones from Farrar-edited puzzles:

• HARQUEBUS
• Date:  October 10, 1968
• Constructor:  Unknown
• Litzer:  Denny Baker
• Clue:  Old firearm.
• Webster:  [A] matchlock gun invented in the 15th century which was portable but heavy and was usually fired from a support
• Etymology:  From the Middle French harquebuse, which comes from the Dutch hakebusse (hake, meaning "hook" + busse, meaning "tube; box; gun"), which ultimately is derived from the Late Latin buxis, meaning "box"
• OUBLIETTE
• Date:  October 15, 1968
• Constructor:  Unknown
• Litzer:  Denny Baker
• Clue:  Type of dungeon.
• Webster:  [A] dungeon with an opening only at the top
• Etymology:  From the Middle French oublier, meaning "to forget," which can ultimately be traced back to the deponent Latin verb oblivisci, also meaning "to forget"
• JUNGFRAU
• Date:  December 30, 1968
• Constructor:  Unknown
• Litzer:  Mark Diehl
• Clue:  View from Interlaken.
• Webster:  [M]ountain 13,642 (4158 m) SW cen Switzerland in Berner Alpen between Bern & Valais cantons
• Etymology:  Not listed

HARQUEBUS is my personal favorite of these three—here's an awesome illustration of a harquebusier:

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Metaleska Is Live!

Metaleska, the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project's First Anniversary Metapuzzle Contest, is now live!  To download this free puzzle and its instructions on XWord Info, click here.  Have fun and good luck, everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image courtesy of the Daily Mail.