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!

2,355 Puzzles Litzed During Litzstarter, Nancy Kavanaugh Wins ACPT Grand Prize, Mark Diehl Tops 4,000, New Litzer Extraordinaire Ralph Bunker, November Litzer of the Month C. G. Rishikesh, and In 1957

Litzstarter is now officially over, and it's been a tremendous success!  With an ambitious goal of reaching 13,000 on the litzing thermometer in just two months, we not only met that goal but surpassed it, hitting 13,363 by 11:59 p.m. PDT on October 31.  A total of 2,355 puzzles (counting 97 of my own, which weren't listed in the contest totals) were litzed—an astounding achievement!  Thanks so much again to everyone who participated—awesome job!

And many thanks again too to our generous sponsors:  the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT), American Values Club Crossword (AVCX), Crossword Nation, Fireball Crosswords, Puzzazz, Rex Parker Does the NY Times Crossword Puzzle, and XWord Info.  The awards were terrific incentives and helped make this the most successful Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project contest ever!

The winner of the Grand Prize drawing for free admission to the 2014 ACPT was Nancy Kavanaugh—congratulations, Nancy!  Contest litzers were assigned numbers between 1 and 2258 based on the number of puzzles they'd litzed during Litzstarter, and a random-number generator produced the winning number.

Now for a recap of Litzstarter's final six days:  Ralph Bunker got us off to a fast start on Saturday morning with 28 puzzles.  Late that night, Mark Diehl sent in 25 more.  Then Sunday morning, Ralph sent in another 28, putting us over 13,100 on the litzing thermometer (and his personal totals at more than 500!)!  Sunday night, Denny Baker sent in 7 puzzles, which were followed by 20 more from Mark.  Monday evening, Vic Fleming sent in 21 puzzles.  Then Tuesday afternoon, Brian Kulman sent in 7, which were followed by 28 more from Ralph that night, putting us over 13,200 on the litzing thermometer!  About half an hour later, Mark sent in 35 more puzzles (putting his contest total at more than 600!).  On Wednesday afternoon, Tracy Bennett sent in 7 puzzles, which were followed a little over an hour later by a mega-batch of 42 from Nancy Kavanaugh.  That night, Mark sent in 28 more puzzles, putting us over 13,300 on the litzing thermometer (and his contest total at 650 and regular total at more than 4,000!)!  Very early Thursday morning, Todd Gross sent in 11 more proofread puzzles, then later, Brian sent in 7 litzed puzzles.  Thursday night—the last night of the contest—Todd McClary sent in 7 more puzzles, which were followed by 24 more from Mark about an hour and a half before the midnight deadline.  And Howard Barkin sent in an additional 21 puzzles this week as well!  Great job, everyone—thanks so much again!

As I mentioned, Mark Diehl reached a major milestone this week in his regular total, which now comes to 4,036—nearly one-fourth of the total pre-Shortzian puzzles!  Congratulations, Mark, on this amazing achievement!

And many of you may have noticed the sudden appearance of new litzer extraordinaire Ralph Bunker, who first contacted me on September 14 (two weeks after Litzstarter had begun) about litzing and who has since litzed an astounding 539 puzzles—in just six weeks!  Ralph has written programs to speed up his litzing, and next week I'll be publishing a fascinating piece he wrote about that.  Thanks so much again, Ralph!

In other news, we have a new Litzer of the Month:  C. G. Rishikesh (Rishi)! Rishi lives in India and is a prolific constructor of cryptic puzzles.  His response to my question about which aspect of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project database he was most excited about was particularly eloquent:

To be able to go to old puzzles and see those old references.  To marvel at some things that are still fresh.  To mourn over things that have died a silent death.  To recall a half-forgotten quote, to be reminded of a movie that you saw years ago with a cousin who is no longer alive, to find an echo from a distant song. . . .  The possibilities are endless.

To read more about Rishi, click here or on the Litzer of the Month tab above.

With all this litzing, we've whizzed into another year:  1957.  This was a year of many major historical events, but in honor of the speed at which we've zipped through the litzing, I've decided to highlight the record-setting run by British race car driver Stirling Moss on August 23, 1957, in the MG EX181.  Reaching a speed of 245 mph—almost as fast as litzers!—Moss broke the class F world land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.  Here's a picture of the MG EX181:

Photo courtesy of Auto Heritage

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.

Progress Update, New Litzer of the Month, Pinterest, and Interview with Litzing Contest Champion Mark Diehl

I'm thrilled to report that even though the litzing contest has ended, litzers have continued to send in puzzles at a rapid clip!  We've now sent out the first few packets from 1979, which is very exciting!  I've already started noticing some fascinating trends in the puzzles from 1979 and early 1980.  For example, as we continue to litz back in time, we've started to convert puzzles by some of the other masters who stopped constructing puzzles around this time period, including Herb L. Risteen, Jordan S. Lasher, and Louise Earnest.  Pretty soon we'll be litzing some Jack Luzzatto puzzles!

November's Litzer of the Month is animal lover Nancy Kavanaugh!  In addition to being a professional dog groomer and New York Times crossword constructor, Nancy has also found time to litz an incredible 250 puzzles.  She only needs to litz one more batch to pass me—great job, Nancy!

In other news, the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project recently received some publicity on Pinterest, a website whose mission is "to connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting."  The blurb is currently on the far right of the top row, though it may move around a bit.

Finally, October litzing contest champion Mark Diehl has revealed the secret to his amazing litzing pace!  Below are his very inspiring answers to my interview questions:

You litzed 289 puzzles this month and have now litzed 1,327 puzzles total.  How do you do it?

By litzing a few puzzles every day.

Do you have a regular litzing schedule, or do you just litz whenever you have the time or inclination?

I try to litz at least one puzzle every morning before going to work.  It gets my mind limbered up to start the day (I've never been a coffee drinker).  After dinner and while watching TV, I'll litz some more—I find it a nice way to unwind from the hectic pace at work.  I try to average a week's worth every day.  On the weekends, I aim to average a bit more.

You've even litzed while traveling—how does that work?

I take my laptop with me and try to keep up the daily schedule, unless it conflicts with away time with family and friends.

What's the most unusual place you've ever litzed?

I've litzed a few puzzles while flying.  I'm not a fan of flying and litzing has been a nice way to distract me from running crash scenarios during the flight.

What motivates you to keep litzing so many puzzles?

There are still lots of puzzles to go, yet there is a definite end point.  As a community we're making good progress, and I will stick it out to the end.

You also did a great deal of work on The 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary with Kevin McCann, who said somewhere that the project would never have gotten finished if not for you.  Was that work similar in some ways to litzing, and did you get a similar sense of enjoyment or satisfaction from doing it?

The 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary was a huge data-crunching undertaking that required analyzing all the clues used during a multiple-year period from several major newspaper sources, looking for identical (or very similar) clues used to describe the same answer.  Each entry was typed into a database that eventually became the dictionary.  I set aside a few hours every day to slowly tackle the job, and after more than a year, it came to fruition.  The letter "S" took at least a month by itself!  The dictionary required more decision making than litzing (which is strictly copying like a scribe), but both are/were satisfying in a detailed, compulsive sort of way.

Do you have any tips for other litzers hoping to win or place in future litzing contests?

Litz several puzzles a day, every day, and your numbers will pile up just as quickly.


Thanks again, Mark—this is a great strategy not just for litzing, but for any other monumental goal that can seem daunting at times!  

Today I am featuring two puzzles whose themes relate to sports team names.  These puzzles were only published a year apart, though their executions are surprisingly different!  The first was constructed by A. J. Santora.  A. J. Santora published many brilliant pre-Shortzian and Shortz-era puzzles, almost all of which were jam-packed with theme entries and lively fill!  This puzzle, which originally appeared on April 8, 1981, and was recently litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick, is an exceptionally well-done Santora opus.  It features an incredible 10 symmetrical, interlocking theme entries, some of which are triple-stacked, in a standard 15 x 15 grid!  Each theme entry is a word or phrase that contains a member of a major sports team; also, the theme clues cleverly hint at the locations of the teams hidden in the theme entries.  For example, "Man in an L.A. shelter?" leads to TAX DODGER and "Minnesota cots?" leads to TWIN BEDS.  The nonthematic fill is fantastic as well—I love the entries SLOBBERED, WINE PRESS, and SEXY!  My only small complaint about the puzzle is that the theme entry DEEP REDS contains REDS in the plural, while all the other theme entries contain a singular team member.  Nevertheless, this is an outstanding pre-Shortzian puzzle!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

The second puzzle was originally published on June 25, 1982, and was recently litzed by Mark Diehl.  It was constructed Bert Rosenfield, another masterful pre-Shortzian constructor who published many puzzles with novel, interesting themes!  This puzzle also features 10 symmetrical, interlocking theme entries, though the sports team theme is much more subtle.  Each sports team in the puzzle is clued in a way that's not related to sports in all caps (probably to ensure that solvers don't miss the ingenious gimmick altogether!)—for example, BREWERS is clued as "COFFEE MACHINES," and BRAVES is clued as "STANDS UP TO."  This 74-word wonder also has some very nice entries in the nonthematic fill, such as UNMANLY and EYELASH.  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Both the Bert Rosenfield and A. J. Santora puzzles are exceptional—these puzzles' thematic similarity is a great example of how crossword constructors both think alike and think differently.  It will be very interesting to track the development and evolution of various themes over the years when the pre-Shortzian database is complete!

Today's featured clue originally appeared in the December 5, 1982, puzzle by Virginia P. Abelson, which was recently litzed by Barry Haldiman.  The clue for EMAIL was "Enamel."  I was really surprised to see the entry EMAIL appear in such an early puzzle—it must have been considered atrocious fill back in 1982!  In fact, according to Merriam-Webster, the term EMAIL as we know it was first introduced into our language in 1982.  Apparently, EMAIL means "enamel" in French . . . good thing we don't see that clue anymore!  According to the Ginsberg database, Maleska also used the clues "Bleu Louise" and "Blue-green color" around this time period.  In 1993, Maleska finally modernized and  used the clue "Telecommunicated messages."  Though this clue is a bit clunky, it was certainly progress!  Below is a picture of some blue French enamelry:

Image courtesy of Barbara Stroud.