Mark Diehl's American Crossword Puzzle Academy Treasures—Plus Blast! Change and Another Proofreading Log

Mark Diehl's American Crossword Puzzle Academy Treasures

Now that the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is behind us—delightfully topped off by Puzzazz's free thank you gift for everyone, Bruce Leban's Jumping to Conclusions hangman riddles!—it's time to revisit the American Crossword Puzzle Academy and Hall of Fame.  As I mentioned last week, I have something more on this short-lived but historic enterprise, thanks to litzer and proofreader extraordinaire Mark Diehl!  After my November 21 post on the Crossword Puzzle Academy appeared, Mark wrote me that he was able to dig up the original membership solicitation flyer he'd received in 1989 from Robert Guilbert!  Mark continued:

I remember paying for the membership and signing a Charter Member placard for the proposed display wall.  I think the missing section of page 3 and 4 was the application form and it had a drawing of the proposed signature display wall.

I didn't attend the first and only meeting in 1990.  I vaguely remember talk of a commemorative book of puzzles with pic and bio of member-contributors as a fund raising project.  Don't know if this ever happened—I wasn't contacted to submit anything.  Perhaps Guilbert passed away and the book never saw the light of day.

I wonder if the signature wall was ever created or if the signature placards are still in existence—what a great collection of Pre-Shortziana that would be!

I've posted the four pages of the flyer on Scribd—you can see them by clicking here.  The first page mentions the May 11, 1988, meeting at the Harvard Club in New York, which was attended by Frances Hansen (who stood in for Maura Jacobson), William Lutwiniak, Eugene T. Maleska, Stanley Newman, Will Shortz, Mel Taub, and Will Weng.  Maura and the six male attendees became the "ad hoc Founding Board of Governors."  The second page mentions British constructor ("setter") Paul Henderson, who reportedly was in touch with Guilbert about the possibility of establishing a U.K. Academy and alludes to an upcoming meeting in Britain to discuss that, along with the idea of an International Academy and Hall of Fame.

This page also lists the following nominations for the Crossword Puzzle Academy Hall of Fame:   Arthur Wynne, Margaret Farrar, Prosper Buranelli, Gregory Hartswick, Jules Arensberg, Harold Bers, Jack Luzzatto, and Anne Fox.  It notes that Mervin Edward Griffin (of Wheel of Fortune fame!) was "elected for induction as a Fellow."

Membership in the Crossword Puzzle Academy was $10.00; here is what it included:

Then, a few days ago, Mark wrote me again, saying he'd found another stash of Crossword Puzzle Academy papers while searching for something else.  I've posted them all on Scribd—to see each one, click on its name below:

Nominating Ballot and other information
Proclamation of December 15, 1988
Report 1 (September 1989; contains the names of the original 82 members, plus 55 comments)
Report 2 (December 21, 1989; contains more comments, plus a demographic map)
Report 4 (July 1990; contains more comments)
Sketch of the wall (which you can see below in reduced form)

Report 4 also mentions the possibility of publishing a compendium of puzzles by members, which would also include a headshot and thumbnail bio of each constructor (like with the crosswords I edit for the Orange County Register's associated newspapers), to "acquaint puzzle fans with the real people behind the names as well as the identities of those who supply generic feature fare."  It goes on to say that individual members might also write "a brief essay on the nature of the craft and its historical genesis."

Thanks so much, Mark, for saving these amazing treasures from the past for all these years and sending them in—they really bring the American Crossword Puzzle Academy and Hall of Fame to life!  Robert Guilbert was clearly a visionary—perhaps someday his idea will be revived.

Blast! from the Past Change

Puzzazz's new hangman book gave me an idea for a change to the Blast! from the Past format.  Since figuring out the answers to the Blast! challenges has been a bit tough without any surrounding information of the sort that would be in crossword grids, I've decided to provide a new letter each day.  When the Blast! challenge first appears, you'll just see blank underscores for where the letters should be.  The next day, one letter will be filled in (in all the appropriate spots); the third day, a second letter will appear, and so on.  So the challenge will still be to see how fast you can solve it, but I'm hoping this format will make doing so easier!

Project Update, Plus More of Dave Phillips's Proofreading Log

It's been a busy week, and we're finally closing in on 1966—I'm just waiting for the last few proofread puzzles!  Saturday night Mark Diehl sent in 30 puzzles and then 31 more Sunday morning.  Sunday afternoon Denny Baker sent 31 more, which were followed by another 30 from Mark that night.  Monday night Dave Phillips sent in 30 puzzles, along with a continuation of his very interesting proofreading log from the October 10 post (reproduced in two parts below).  And then Thursday afternoon Todd Gross sent 11 puzzles, in which he found 16 mistakes.  Thanks so much again, everyone—we're making great progress!

Mark Diehl Wins Pre-Shortzian Proofreading Challenge!

I'm delighted to announce that litzer and proofreader Mark Diehl is the first-place winner in the Pre-Shortzian Proofreading Challenge (and that no ghost stepped in to take over his lead!)!  Late last night Mark sent 33 more puzzles with 51 mistakes, bringing his total number of found mistakes in September and October to an amazing 1,742!  (Just imagine if all those mistakes hadn't been caught—a frightful thought!).  Mark's prizes are a $25 Amazon gift card, a surprise pre-Shortzian artifact, and a Puzzazz e-book of his choice.

Howard Barkin came in second, with 345 total found mistakes, and wins a $25 Amazon gift card; Todd Gross, with 165, was third and wins a pre-Shortzian artifact; and Dave Phillips, with 46, was the random prize winner and receives a Puzzazz e-book.  (Numbers were assigned to contestants based on their rankings in the mistakes totals; the numbers were then put into a random number generator, which produced the number 5—Dave's position in the rankings.)

Thanks so much again to the winners and to everyone else who participated in the contest—and who didn't but still continued proofreading!  We've made a tremendous amount of progress in the past two months—so much so that I've decided to continue the proofreading totals if anyone wants to keep counting!  If you do, just continue sending in the total number of mistakes you find in your proofreading batch, and I'll post them elsewhere on this site.

Finally, many thanks again to Roy Leban for donating the Puzzazz e-book codes!  If you're a solver who isn't familiar with Puzzazz yet, be sure to check out their impressive selection of crossword, cryptic, and other puzzle books for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch by clicking here!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Almost at 13,800, Puzzazz Thanksgiving Weekend Black Friday Puzzle Sale, and PuzzleNation's Holiday Puzzly Gift Guide

I hope you all had a wonderful, puzzle-filled Thanksgiving!  This week the litzing machine has continued to chug along—I received more than 100 puzzles, and we're now almost at 13,800 on the litzing thermometer!  Just minutes after last week's blog post went live, Todd McClary sent in 7 puzzles.  Then late Friday night, Lynn Feigenbaum sent in her first batch of 7 puzzles—welcome, Lynn!  Sunday morning, Todd Gross sent in 10 proofread puzzles, followed by another 11 Tuesday morning.  Four minutes later, Ralph Bunker sent in 28 puzzles.  Wednesday morning, Ralph sent in 28 more puzzles (putting his total at more than 700!), which were followed by 31 proofread puzzles from Tracy Bennett that afternoon and 15 more litzed puzzles from Mark Diehl that night.  Mark sent in another 13 late Thursday night (putting his total at more than 4,100!), and this morning, Jeffrey Krasnick sent in 7 more.  Awesome job, everyone—we should definitely be over 13,800 by next Friday!

In other news this week, two very timely sales came to my attention:  the Puzzazz Thanksgiving Weekend Black Friday Puzzle Sale, which has great deals on puzzle e-books and apps and features two free Logic Crossword books by Roy Leban just for using the Puzzazz app any time between now and Monday; and PuzzleNation's Holiday Puzzly Gift Guide, which contains a list of many fun gift options for down time over the holidays not already taken up by litzing and proofreading!  Fluxx: The Board Game stood out to me the most.  Crossword constructor extraordinaire Mike Shenk introduced me to the card game Fluxx, whose rules get created differently each time the game is played, at the most recent National Puzzlers' League convention.  The game was loads of fun, and I'm sure the board game is a treat as well!  PuzzleNation also has a link to Dell's 100 Years of Crosswords, which of course includes puzzles by pre-Shortzian constructors!

Today's featured puzzle, "Thanksgiving Fare," was constructed and edited by Will Weng (who modestly used the byline W. W.), published on November 23, 1969, and litzed by Todd McClary.  In his Litzer of the Month interview from July, Todd cited this puzzle as the most memorable one he had litzed.  I wholeheartedly agree that this puzzle shines, not only because it's a quintessential Weng puzzle in terms of his style as a crossword constructor and editor but also because the theme is eccentric, fun, and even historically significant!  In this masterpiece, Weng dished up eight mostly symmetric, interlocking theme entries that take a dig at what was then considered a modern Thanksgiving meal:  PLASTIC TABLECLOTH (clued as "Holiday dining decor"), BISCUIT MIX ("Mom's baking standby"), PAPER NAPKIN ("Table decor"), FREEZE-DRIED COFFEE ("Repast topper"), INSTANT POTATOES ("Holiday menu item"), CANNED PEAS ("Vegetable for mom's table"), DEFROSTED TURKEY ("Crux of a holiday meal"), and BURNT BEANS ("Home-cooked item").  To me, the puzzle feels like a rueful homage to the old-fashioned Thanksgiving dinner when all the food items were fresh rather than artificial and pre-made.  It presents a bittersweet yet sardonic view on the evolution of an impatient, fast-paced modern society—a view that may have been reflective of his generation's take on the baby boomers as a whole.  (Just imagine how Weng might have felt about today's society!)  I am somewhat surprised that Weng didn't include an additional theme entry where SNOWMOBILE is, though the entry itself and its wacky clue ("Sleigh for today's grandma") could be considered thematic by a stretch and make up for the paucity of theme entries in that section of the grid.

The rest of the nonthematic fill has its ups and downs—I like the semi-thematic entry SALIVATE a lot, and entries like BOLOGNA, ROB ROY, ROMANTIC, SNIPING, and GIRAFFE give the fill a fresh and lively feel.  Also, although I've never heard of the word ERISTIC ("Controversial"), I feel it's an interesting word that's worthwhile knowing.  According to Webster, this rather unusual term can ultimately be traced back to the Greek eris, meaning "strife," which is also the name of the Greek goddess of discord.  The fill does, however, contain a sizable number of entries I'm not overwhelmingly fond of:  the partials THE DAY ("Officer of ___"), A DAY'S ("___ work," which also overlaps with THE DAY), and NOSE IN ("Stick one's ___"); the abbreviations RNWYS ("Airstrips: Abbr.") and OPR ("Girl with a headset: Abbr."); the hardcore crosswordese UINAL ("Mayan month"), ENTAD ("Inward: Anat."), and EDAR ("Biblical tower"); and the gallimaufry of prefixes and suffixes featuring ATOR ("Doer: Suffix"), ESCE ("Verb suffix"), AMIDO ("Of an acid"), IERS ("Comparative suffixes"), and OZON ("Oxygen prefix").  Also, SPOT-FREE ("Like a freshly-cleaned suit") feels a bit roll-your-own.  Many of the nonthematic clues, as in most Weng-constructed puzzles, have a lovely wry, clever twist to them.  My favorites are "Creators of jams" for AUTOS, "Social bore" for EGOIST, and the timely "1969 champs" for METS.  In all, despite a few setbacks in the nonthematic fill, this is a beautiful, meaningful construction and a harbinger of the brilliance and creativity that would flourish in the late Weng and early Maleska eras.  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Following up on the nostalgic note of the featured puzzle, I thought I'd close off this post with some clues that reflect the changing times in the '60s:

• March 31, 1964 (constructor unknown, litzed by Ed Sessa)
• Clue:  Memento of the trolley age.
• Answer:  CAR TRACKS
• October 18, 1966 (constructor unknown, litzed by Mike Buckley)
• Clue: Vanishing vehicle.
• Answer:  STREETCAR
• January 6, 1967 (constructed by Arthur Schulman, litzed by Mark Diehl)
• Clue:  Slogan of today's youth.
• Answer:  A-GO-GO
• February 22, 1967 (constructed by William Lutwiniak, litzed by Martin Herbach)
• Clue:  Movie stars of the good old days.
• Answer:  VAMPS
• May 16, 1969 (constructor unknown, litzed by Howard Barkin)
• Clue:  Anyone over 30, to the new breed.
• Answer:  OLDSTER
• And finally, my favorite, from July 18, 1967 (constructed by Helen Fasulo, litzed by Martin Herbach)
• Clue:  Ever-rising item.
• Answer:  HEMLINE

Below is a picture of some miniskirts from the '60s:

Image courtesy of Everything About Fashion.

Litzstarter . . . and Over 11,000!

Ready, set, . . . litz!  Well, not quite, but starting Sunday, September 1, the third litzing contest—dubbed Litzstarter—will begin!  I'm thrilled to announce that for this very special litzing contest, which will run through October 31, we have several great sponsors offering awesome prizes!  (You can navigate to the sponsors' home pages by clicking on their cool logos in the right-hand column.)

This contest's prize structure is loosely modeled after Kickstarter campaigns in that it features a variety of tiers, each of which offers a different reward for "backers" (aka litzers).  Like Kickstarter, we have a precisely defined goal:  to reach 13,000 on the litzing thermometer in two months.  That's approximately 2,000 more puzzles—a bit more than we litzed during the last two-month-long litzing contest, but definitely still achievable!  Unlike Kickstarter, however, Litzstarter's rewards won't be contingent upon our attaining the goal.  So even if we fall short, backer-litzers (or "blitzers"!) will still receive rewards.

Moreover, to encourage "between-tier" litzing, anyone who litzes 14 or more puzzles will receive one virtual raffle ticket for each puzzle litzed and be eligible for the Grand Prize drawing at the end of the contest.  This means that whether you litz 14 puzzles or 1,400, you have a chance of winning this prize.  But the more puzzles you litz, the greater your odds of winning!

Finally, if you qualify for a reward at one tier but would prefer the reward for a lower tier, you can level down and request that reward instead.  Rewards aren't cumulative, though, so each tier doesn't include the rewards of previous tiers.

And now for the rewards, listed in order by number of litzed puzzles:

14 or more:  Eligible for the Grand Prize drawing
25 or more:  Puzzazz e-book of your choice
50 or more:  XWord Info 1-year subscription/renewal
100 or more: American Values Club Crossword (AVCX) 1-year subscription/renewal
200 or more: Crossword Nation 1-year subscription/renewal
300 or more: Fireball Crosswords 1-year subscription/renewal
400 or more: Write a guest blog post for Rex Parker on a day of your choice
500 or more: Grab bag (well, box!) full of puzzly surprises, both old and new
Grand Prize:  Free admission to the 2014 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT; hotel and transportation fees not included)

Thanks so much to all the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project's generous sponsors!  If you haven't done so already, check out all the great Puzzazz e-books (which founder and CEO Roy Leban has made sure are jam-packed with terrific puzzles) and Rex Parker's [aka New York Times constructor Michael Sharp's] inimitable crossword blog!  And if you'd like to fill your life with all things crossword, be sure to subscribe to XWord Info, the massive database of New York Times crosswords created by former Wordplay blogger Jim Horne and now administered by New York Times constructor Jeff Chen—it's chock-full of invaluable statistical data, analytical tools, and useful commentary.

If you're looking for other great crossword subscriptions, don't miss the American Values Club Crossword (AVCX; cutting-edge weekly puzzles by master constructor Ben Tausig and AVCX leading-constructor crew members Francis Heaney, Tyler Hinman, Aimee Lucido, Caleb Madison, Brendan Emmett Quigley, Byron Walden, and Zoe Wheeler), Crossword Nation (beautiful weekly puzzles by legendary New York Times constructor Elizabeth Gorski), and Fireball Crosswords (45 sizzling-hard puzzles by renowned constructor Peter Gordon, former crossword editor of The New York Sun, and other top constructors)!

Finally, even if you don't win the Grand Prize drawing, do everything you can to attend the ACPT, New York Times crossword editor and puzzlemaster Will Shortz's totally awesome three-day crossword extravaganza of formidable puzzles, wonderful people, and a lifetime's worth of memories!

A few last words about the contest:  Litzstarter is open to everyone, including contest sponsors, though if you haven't litzed before, please contact me for detailed instructions.  You must use construction software or know how to litz in text files.  Contest totals will be updated as frequently as possible; to see them, click on the Contest Totals tab above.  Packets typically contain 7 puzzles, but some may have fewer; you may ask for more than one packet at a time (up to a maximum of 10), but please do not ask for more packets than you'll realistically be able to complete either by the end of the contest or shortly thereafter.  As you finish the packets, send them in and let me know if you'd like another (or several others).  Near the end of the contest, if you are only partway through a packet, simply send in the puzzles you've already litzed—they will count toward your total.  Remember, you must litz at least 14 puzzles to be eligible for the Grand Prize drawing for a free ACPT admission!  The Grand Prize drawing winner will be announced on November 1, 2013.

On to the project update:  Great news—we've passed another major milestone:  11,000 litzed puzzles!  Litzers seem to be flexing their muscles before the contest begins!  On Friday night, Jeffrey Krasnick sent in 7 puzzles.  Saturday morning, 10 more proofread puzzles came in from Todd Gross.  Saturday night, Mike Buckley sent in 7 more litzed puzzles, which were followed by 14 more puzzles from Mark Diehl on Monday morning.  Tuesday afternoon, Denny Baker sent in 7 more puzzles.  Thursday evening, Howard Barkin sent in 14 puzzles, which were followed a few hours later by 14 more from Mark, putting us over 11,000 on the litzing thermometer!  And then this morning, Todd sent in another 10 proofread puzzles.  Thanks so much, everybody—great job!  Now it's time to gear up for Litzstarter!

Today's featured puzzle was constructed by McElroy (whose first name is probably Hugh).  This bizarre Maleska-edited crossword was originally published on August 2, 1977, and was litzed by Joe Cabrera.  Like the featured puzzle from two weeks ago, this puzzle is another unusual tribute to the alphabet.  The puzzle's three amusing theme entries are AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (clued as "Electric-typewriter overtouch"), BBBBBBBBBBBBBBB ("Ms. Stonefinger strikes again"), and CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC ("Heavens!  Why isn't she a riveter?").  In addition, the constructor included ABCS ("Basics") at 1-Across, which isn't clued as a theme entry but serves as a reveal of sorts.  I wonder if the constructor intended for DEFI to be a part of the theme, since it has the next three consecutive letters after ABC.  Either way, I love the theme's eccentricity, and the theme clues are hilarious!  I'm a little surprised that Maleska published this theme, though, since it feels much more in the style of Weng.  Perhaps this was one of the leftover puzzles that Weng had already accepted before passing the baton.  In any case, the fill is also extraordinarily clean considering how many consecutive Bs and Cs the constructor had to work with.  I especially like the entries APLOMB, BALZAC, CHARITABLE (clued as "Eleemosynary," a former entry of the week), and the old-fashioned BABY FROCKS!  In fact, the whole middle section of the puzzle with all the Bs feels particularly elegant; also, I like that the grid includes two long nonthematic down entries, a trend that didn't become a regular feature of thematic puzzles until much later on.  The only two entries that really give me pause are the not-so-great abbreviation RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) and DEFI (assuming it doesn't function as part of the theme and is simply the French for "challenge").  Canadian litzers Jeffrey Krasnick and Martin Ashwood-Smith may disagree with me on the former, though.  In all, this is a stupendous pre-Shortzian puzzle!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry, USQUEBAUGH, originally appeared in the October 10, 1967, puzzle, which was constructed by William Lutwiniak, litzed by Mark Diehl, and edited by Margaret Farrar.  According to the Ginsberg clue database, this unusual word has yet to appear in a Shortz-era puzzle.  The original clue for USQUEBAUGH was "Whisky, Gaelic style."; Webster simply defines usquebaugh as "Whiskey," though it does include the Irish & Scottish dialect tag.  Webster goes on to mention that usquebaugh comes from the Irish uisce beatha (water of life) and was first introduced into our language in 1581.  We also get the word whiskey itself from this Irish phrase and from its Gaelic cognate uisge beatha.  When I'm 21, it would be fun to walk into a bar and order some usquebaugh just to see the confused look on the bartender's face!  For now, here's a picture of some homemade usquebaugh:

Image courtesy of Feu de Vie.

Over 10,600, OCR with Martin Herbach, Puzzazz Solving App, and Funny Typos

Great news—we've now litzed more than 10,600 puzzles!  Here's a recap of the week:  On Friday afternoon, Nancy Kavanaugh started us off by sending in 14 puzzles; that evening, Howard Barkin sent in another 14, putting us over 10,500!  The grand finale for the day was Mark Diehl sending in 14 more puzzles.  Then on Saturday, Denny Baker sent in 7 puzzles, which were followed by 7 more from Joe Cabrera.  Sunday morning, Joe sent in another 5, and that night, Mark sent in 35 more puzzles!  Early Monday morning, Jeffrey Krasnick sent in 7 puzzles, which were followed by 10 proofread puzzles from Todd Gross.  Monday evening, Howard sent in 7 more puzzles, and Tuesday night, Mark sent in another 21 puzzles, putting us over 10,600!  Then Thursday evening, Mark sent in another 5 puzzles—and a short while later, 5 more!  Awesome job, everyone!

As I've mentioned, I'm currently up at Stanford taking an artificial intelligence course.  Before it started, I had the pleasure of visiting with litzer Martin Herbach in Saratoga, which is about half an hour south of Stanford.  He and his wife, Elaine, are terrific cooks and made a delicious salmon meal, after which Martin demonstrated how he litzes puzzles using OCR technology.  Although I'd read his description of the process before, actually seeing it in action was fascinating!  The script that tidies up the file was particularly cool; I also hadn't realized that he litzes the grids manually.  Here are a couple of photos:

Martin Herbach demonstrating OCR litzing 

Clues litzed using OCR

Last week litzer/proofreader Todd Gross and I published a puzzle in The New York Times that many solvers had difficulty with, in part because of glitches in their solving apps.  [Spoiler alert for the 7/18/13 puzzle if you haven't already solved it.]  After the puzzle appeared, I received an e-mail from Roy Leban, who informed me that the Puzzazz app had supported this unusual puzzle properly:  The 23 was in the right place, the apostrophe worked correctly, and the diamond was highlighted in gray.  In addition, clicking on 23-Across highlighted the entire diamond and allowed solvers to write or type the whole title in order.  This software is a remarkable achievement and might just be the solving app of choice, not only for today's puzzles but for some of the trickier pre-Shortzian ones as well!  Here's a photo of what this puzzle looked like on an iPad:

Photo courtesy of Puzzazz

Thanks again for letting me know about this, Roy!

In other news, the 1981 proofreading has continued to progress—with just a few more months to go, our indefatigable proofreaders are working hard to finish up the year.  The funny typos list mushroomed when proofreaders began looking over puzzles from the first litzing contest!  In one of these contest puzzles, Todd Gross found one of the funniest typos of all time.  Here are some typical clue typos, followed by some "variety typos," followed by Todd's pièce de résistance:

• Entry:  TRACER
• Wrong:  Kind of ballet
• Right:  Kind of bullet
• Entry:  ASSET
• Wrong:  Brians or beauty
• Right:  Brains or beauty (though I'm sure litzer Brian Tyler would prefer the first one!)
• Entry:  NAIVE
• Wrong:  Ingenious
• Right:  Ingenuous
• Entry:  HOMER
• Wrong:  Slugger's request
• Right:  Slugger's quest
• Entry:  EGO
• Wrong:  Kind of trap
• Right:  Kind of trip
• Double typo:  Entry:  ELS
• Wrong:  Chi. loop loppers
• Right:  Chi. Loop loopers
• OCR mistake caught by Joe Cabrera:  Entry:  OLAN
• Wrong:  Pearl suck heroine
• Right:  Pearl Buck heroine
• Copyright Field
• Wrong:  © 1971, The New York Times.  Editor: Will Went.
• Right:  © 1971, The New York Times.  Editor: Will Weng.
• Copyright Field
• Wrong:  © 1969, The New York Times.  Editor: Margaret Farrah.
• Right:  © 1969, The New York Times.  Editor: Margaret Farrar.
• Ultimate typo:  Entry: DAMAGED
• Wrong:  Married
• Right:  Marred

Great typos—LOL!

Contest Results, 186 More Litzed Puzzles, and Laurence Perrine

The winner of last week's "A Challenge from the Army" contest was litzer Doug Peterson!  Doug correctly solved the puzzle and will receive a free Puzzazz e-book of his choice—congratulations, Doug!  There were six other correct entries submitted, along with some incorrect or incomplete ones, and everyone seemed to enjoy this pre-Shortzian challenge.  Thanks again to Jim Horne for hosting the puzzle on XWord Info and to Roy Leban for donating the Puzzazz e-book!

An interesting note about this puzzle is that there was an error in the Times's published solution to the grid.  The incorrect entries were DEEIDE/SEAT, which I changed to DECIDE/SCAT.  All submitted contest entries contained DECIDE/SCAT—the correct solution appears below:

Also, Jim Horne wondered whether it might be possible to track down Privates Laurence D. Perrine and Henry F. Holbrook after all these years.  Although I wasn't able to find anything about Henry F. Holbrook, I did find a Wikipedia page about a Laurence Perrine (1915–1995), who was a professor of English Literature at Southern Methodist University and, according to Wikipedia, "the basis for the fictitious poetry textbook author J. Evans Pritchard in the movie Dead Poets Society."  He was also known for his books of limericks.  I don't know whether this was the same Laurence Perrine, but he may well have been.

On the litzing front, we had a phenomenal week—186 more puzzles came in!  Last Friday, right after the post went up, Mark Diehl sent in 19, putting his litzed total at more than 2,600!  Then on Saturday, Denny Baker sent in 7 puzzles, followed on Sunday by 7 from Todd McClary and 35 from Martin Herbach, who put us over 9,500!  On Monday, Mark sent in 34 more puzzles, and Denny sent in 7 more.  Then on Tuesday, Martin sent in 35 more, followed by 7 on Wednesday from Todd Gross and 7 from Jeffrey Krasnick.  Thursday Joe Cabrera sent in 7, putting us over 9,600!  Finally, Thursday night Mark sent in another 21!  This is certainly way up there with the totals during litzing contests—awesome job, everybody!  It won't be long before we're at 10,000!

Today's featured puzzle, whose constructor is unknown, was originally published on October 31, 1972.  It was edited by Will Weng and was recently litzed by Mike Buckley.  This tour de force is relatively light on theme entries, but the ingenuity of the theme and the wide-open grid certainly make up for it.  The two main theme entries are APPLE TURNOVERS and UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE—the catch is that both these entries are INVERTED and read from top to bottom!  Reversing the direction of particular grid entries is a theme that has grown and developed throughout the pre-Shortzian and Shortz eras (such as in this puzzle featured a few months ago).  I have yet to see an earlier example of theme-entry reversal.  Anyway, this puzzle's mild theme density allowed the constructor to include many fresh and lively entries in the nonthematic fill—some of my favorites include TRES BIEN, TAKES ON, EXEMPTS, and CATER TO!  I'm not as fond of the four six-letter-plus partials (SAIL ON O, A RAGE TO, AUTO DA, and A SENSE); nevertheless, I'm sure solvers enjoyed this tricky treat on Halloween 1972 just as much as I did on May 17, 2013!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is PHANTASMAGORIAL, which, according to the Ginsberg database, has never been reused in a Shortz-era puzzle.  PHANTASMAGORIAL originally appeared in the March 24, 1971, puzzle (constructor unknown), which was edited by Will Weng and recently litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick.  The clue for PHANTASMAGORIAL was "Like some dreams"; Webster's online dictionary does not contain a definition for this word.  It seems that The New York Times might have been in error—accepted forms of the adjective are limited to phantasmagoric and phantasmagorical.  My Webster word list in Crossword Compiler contains phantasmagorial; regardless, the clue for this entry should have at least contained a variant tag.  In any case, the primary definition of a phantasmagoria is "an exhibition of optical effects and illusions."  Its derivation can be traced back to the French roots fantasme and agorie.  Webster mentions that agorie might come from the Greek agora, a repeater in both pre-Shortzian and Shortz-era crosswords!  Below is a picture of a phantasmagori(c)al fractal:

Image courtesy of Tech Tips 4 Educators.

Over 9,400, Funny Typos, and a Challenge from the Army

We made great progress this week!  On Sunday, Todd McClary and Denny Baker each sent in batches of 7 puzzles.  Then on Monday, Martin Herbach sent in five batches totaling 35 puzzles and putting us over the 9,400 mark, followed by Mark Diehl with another 21!  On Tuesday, Nancy Kavanaugh sent in 14 more, bringing the grand total for the week to 84 puzzles!  I'm hoping this week we'll reach 9,500, even though it's a very busy time for many of us.  Thanks so much, everyone!

It's been a while since I've posted funny litzing typos, though I've certainly had plenty to add to the list!  Here are ten recent typos:

• Entry:  CORK
• Right:  Party popper
• Wrong:  Party pooper
• Entry:  SALE
• Right:  Yard or garage event
• Wrong:  Yard or garbage event
• Entry:  PRETENSE
• Right:  Affectation
• Wrong:  Affection
• Entry:  MOODS
• Right:  Indicative and subjunctive
• Wrong:  Indicative and subjective
• Entry:  ANCIENT MARINER
• Right:  Albatross slayer
• Wrong:  Albatross slaver
• Entry:  NOLL
• Right:  Steelers' coach
• Wrong:  Steelers' couch
• Entry:  SPRAWLED
• Right:  Lounged clumsily
• Wrong:  Lunged clumsily
• Entry:  TKOS
• Right:  Part of Ali's rec.
• Wrong:  Art of Ali's rec.
• Entry:  AS IS
• Right:  Sale condition
• Wrong:  Sale conditioner
• Copyright Field
• Right:  © 1971, The New York Times.  Editor: Will Weng.
• Wrong:  © 1871, The New York Times.  Editor: Will Weng. [Will Weng wasn't even born yet in 1871!]

Today's featured puzzle (constructor unknown) was published on December 10, 1971, edited by Will Weng, and litzed by Nancy Kavanaugh.  This bizarre masterpiece features four interlocking 15-letter entries that relate to rainbows:  8-Down (RED ORANGE YELLOW) and 19-Across (GREEN BLUE VIOLET) list the colors of the rainbow in order, 46-Across is REFRACTED COLORS, and 4-Down is AFTER 40 DAYS RAIN (clued as "When Noah might have seen a rainbow").  I'm amazed that the constructor thought of four theme entries that intersect each other so elegantly; also, I'm impressed by how seamlessly the constructor got the numbers to fit in with the nonthematic fill.  As we continue back into 1971, I'm seeing fewer and fewer puzzles with such elegant gimmicks; this one has a theme that's far ahead of its time!  The nonthematic fill is nice on the whole as well—I especially like the entries SEE NO/EVIL, HAVOC, and 1040 (how often do you get to see this entry show up in a crossword?)!  I'm not as fond of DROGHER ("Fish-smoking ship"), CUGATS ("Xavier and family"), or TIED AND ("___ dyed (did a coloring job)"), but nevertheless, this is a phenomenal pre-Shortzian puzzle!  I hope to see at least a few more unusual themes like this one as we head into the mostly themeless Farrar era.  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

While I was litzing some 1942 Sundays, I came across a variety crossword titled "A Challenge from the Army."  What makes this puzzle stand out is that its two constructors were actual soldiers in W.W. II!  The byline read as follows:

By Privates Laurence D. Perrine and Henry F. Holbrook
Battery B, Sixth Battalion.  Fort Eustis, Virginia

I'm not sure what category to place this puzzle in—it feels like a cross between a straight crossword, a Puns and Anagrams, and a cryptic!  Since this puzzle is so unique, I've decided to make it a contest.  One randomly selected solver who e-mails a screen capture or the Across Lite of the correct solution to preshortzianpuzzleproject at gmail dot com (using standard formatting) by 6 p.m. Pacific time on Friday, May 17, will win a complimentary e-book courtesy of Puzzazz!  To download the puzzle, which Jim Horne has generously agreed to host on XWord Info and which does not include the solution, click here.

Mel Rosen Interview, Periods after Clues, Over 9,200, Mark Diehl Litzes 2,500 Puzzles, Martin Herbach's Litzing Script, Marbles Tournament, and Puzzazz Year of Puzzles

This week I'm thrilled to present a wonderful interview with pre-Shortzian constructor and author Mel Rosen!  Mel has published hundreds of puzzles, and according to my (still incomplete) records, 26 of his crosswords appeared in The New York Times during the pre-Shortz era and 10 under Will Shortz's editorship.  He is also the author (with Stan Kurzban) of The Compleat Cruciverbalist, which was later revised and became the classic Random House Puzzlermaker's Handbook.  To read my interview with Mel Rosen, click here or on the Pre-Shortzian Constructor Interviews tab above.

There's lots of news this week!  First, we're now almost in the Margaret Farrar era.  Many Will Weng–edited puzzles being sent out now for litzing continued Margaret's style of putting periods at the ends of clues.  Although adding in the periods makes litzing a bit trickier—to my knowledge, no one has discovered a way to automate this process in Crossword Compiler—it quickly becomes habitual.  The periods after clues will continue all the way back to 1942, so we have lots of time to get used to them!

We've now litzed more than 9,200 puzzles!  This was an amazing week in litzed-puzzle submissions, starting off with a batch of 21 puzzles from Mark Diehl on Saturday.  On Sunday, Martin Herbach sent in 35 puzzles, which put us over 9,100, and then Mark sent in another 14.  Finally, on Wednesday Martin sent in another 35 puzzles, putting us over 9,200!  In between these large batches, other litzers continued sending in packets of 7, which all added up to a huge increase from our total at the end of last week—almost as if we were running another litzing contest (which, by the way, will be coming this summer!).  Thanks so much, everybody—great, great job!

Mark Diehl also reached an amazing milestone this week in his personal litzing total, having digitized more than 2,500 puzzles!  That's also more than 15 percent of the entire pre-Shortzian puzzle canon!  Congratulations and thanks again, Mark—maybe this will eventually go down in the Guinness World Records!

This week Martin Herbach also sent me an e-mail about a litzing script he wrote for use with .txt files.  Here's his description of it—if you'd like more details, please contact him (or me, and I'll forward your e-mail):

I don't know how many people give you Across Lite source (.txt) files, but I just wrote a script that automates a bit of the work.  Editing the clues is still the labor-intensive step, but I build the clue file in Notepad (which automatically deals with smart quotes), including clue numbers and the script scans a directory for clue files of the form nytyymmddclues.txt and turns each one into nytyymmdd.txt, stripping the clue numbers and adding the rest of the tempate.  It uses the date from the filename for the template header, including correct day of week.

It's not very user friendly but if you think anyone would want to use it, I'll provide further info. 

A couple of other announcements:  Last weekend, Marbles:  The Brain Store's 5th Annual Crossword Tournament took place at various locations around the country, and litzer Doug Peterson and I were judges at the one in Sherman Oaks, California.  It was a lot of fun, with great puzzles and plenty of yummy popcorn, and litzer Todd Gross was one of the contestants!  Here's a picture of Doug, Todd, and me at the tournament:

Finally, the Puzzazz Year of Puzzles has begun, and litzer Parker Lewis built the very first one, which came out last week.  I took a break from studying for AP tests to do his double spiral puzzle and had a blast!  There'll be a metapuzzle to solve at the end, and I'm already looking forward to the next installment, which will be by Patrick Berry!  To find out more about the Puzzazz Year of Puzzles, click here.

Today's featured puzzle, "Fuller Explanations," was constructed by Mel Rosen and edited by Will Weng.  It was originally published on July 13, 1975, and was recently litzed by Howard Barkin.  In this "reversed-out" puzzle, a piece of pre-Shortzian  crosswordese is used as a clue and its typical definition as an answer for each of the twelve theme entries!  For example, the clue "Orts" leads to TABLE SCRAPS, and the clue "Amah" leads to ORIENTAL NURSE.  I'm amazed that Mel was able to get all these definitions to interlock so nicely with (drumroll, please) so little crosswordese in the nonthematic fill!  Instead, he used lots of fun pieces of fill, such as GONDOLA, GOES FAR, and PREENED.  On top of all that, Mel even managed to sneak his own name into the grid at 18-Down (clued as "Allen or Brooks" rather than "Allen or Rosen").  All in all, this is a very innovative pre-Shortzian puzzle with an interesting, original, and humorous theme!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is LOXODROMIC.  LOXODROMIC originally appeared in the Will Weng–edited July 29, 1972, puzzle (constructor unknown), which was recently litzed by Mark Diehl.  Not surprisingly, the Ginsberg database shows that LOXODROMIC has never been reused in a Shortz-era puzzle!  The original clue for LOXODROMIC was "Of map-projection lines"; Webster defines it as "Relating to a rhumb line or to sailing on rhumb lines."  It defines a rhumb line as "a line on the surface of the Earth that follows a single compass bearing and makes oblique angles with all meridians."  In my book, both loxodrome and rhumb line are a mouthful—then again, I doubt I'll be using either of these terms anytime soon!  Below is a picture of some loxodromes/rhumb lines:

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Second Litzing Contest Winners, March Litzer of the Month, in 1971, Poll Update, and More Crossword Compiler Tips

The second litzing contest is now over, and I'm thrilled to report that we not only litzed 2,127 more puzzles in just two months, bringing us to 8,325 puzzles total, but we also passed the halfway point!  Awesome job, everyone—we're over the hump!

I'm also delighted to announce the contest's winners, with the number of puzzles they litzed in parentheses:

1.  Mark Diehl (625), who persevered to an amazing victory of man over machine!
2.  Howard Barkin (503), who has perfected the art of using OCR for litzing!
3.  Jeffrey Krasnick (204), who kept going despite needing to prepare for next week's ACPT!
4.  Barry Haldiman (32), who started it all and, appropriately enough, won the random drawing!

To see all the contest totals, click on the Contest Totals tab above.

Thanks so much again to Jim Horne, who provided year-long XWord Info subscriptions (or renewals) to the winners, and to Roy Leban, who gave Puzzazz e-books!

Howard Barkin, who performed prodigiously in this litzing contest, is the March Litzer of the Month!  To read more about Howard, click on the Meet the Litzers tab above or his photo in the righthand column.

I'm now sending out puzzles from 1971 to be litzed, and since we're approaching the legendary Sixties, I thought I'd start posting representative photos from the years we're in as we work our way backwards in time.  The photos will remind us of the times in which the pre-Shortzian constructors were building their puzzles!  Appropriately, the photo below is of the Intel 4004, the world's first commercially available single-chip microprocessor, which was introduced in November 1971:

Image courtesy of About.com.

Last week's poll asked whether you'd already known about Crossword Compiler's Insert Character window.  Apparently most people did:  66% said yes, and 33% said no.  Still, that's a sizable minority of constructors (including me!) who weren't familiar with this very useful feature.  In my post, I also asked readers to send in any other Crossword Compiler tips, and a couple of people did.

Mark Diehl wrote the following:

The insert character page shortcut (ctrl-S) doesn't seem to work from
the Review/edit clues page, which is where I do my clue entry Litzing.
 It does work from within the Edit clue page (as shown in your post).
I can move from the Review/edit page to the Edit page by hitting
Enter, but I find it is easier (for me) to enter the ALT code for
umlauts, etc., from within Review/edit.

One major shortcut I did discover a while ago is that you can make
acute accented vowels with the combination control and apostrophe and
then the particular vowel.  Control and grave (on my keyboard, up in the
left corner, sharing a key with ~) and the particular vowel will
produce grave accented vowels.  The majority of accented vowels in
clues are either acute or grave, so this short cut has worked very well
for me.

And Barry Haldiman noted:

BTW, I knew about the insert character in CC; I normally use “right-click,”
which brings up several options, including insert character.

I tried this, and when you do it, you get a whole menu of useful options, such as Character Map..., Insert Symbol, and Insert Character.  Thanks so much for these Crossword Compiler shortcuts, Mark and Barry!

Today's featured puzzle, "Literal Approach," was constructed by Bill Hartman.  According to my (still incomplete) records, Bill Hartman constructed just two pre-Shortzian puzzles, both of which were very high quality Sundays.  I'm featuring my favorite of the two.

The puzzle was originally published on September 21, 1975, and was recently litzed by Denny Baker.  This is definitely one of the most imaginative, innovative pre-Shortzian puzzles I've seen.  It features eight symmetrically interlocking theme entries that must be interpreted literally from their clues or placement in the grid.  For example, THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE (clued as "Observation on the ad era") is placed across the center of the puzzle.  Some of my other favorites include "(Sic)" (leading to CLUELESS ENTRY) and FOURTH DOWN (clued as "Last chance for the Jets" and literally placed at 4-Down).  What makes this puzzle particularly ahead of its time, however, is 64-Down.  The clue "Conspicuous" leads to the entry LIKE A SORE THUMB—this entry actually extends a square below the grid, so it literally sticks out like a sore thumb.  Wow!

Admittedly, PAINTED COLUMN, which is simply a vertical entry, isn't quite as strong as the other theme entries, and HUNDRED TEN ACROSS would be much better as ONE HUNDRED TEN ACROSS (or even A HUNDRED TEN ACROSS).  Nevertheless, the theme is exceptionally clever!  The nonthematic fill looks pretty nice as well—I especially like the entries AMBASSADOR, LEAD ASTRAY, and SHOWBOAT!  In the "meh" category, the first handful of Across entries alone includes FABA ("Bean, to Vergil"),  HADE ("Rock-vein angle"), TULE ("Bulrush"), LNG ("Coat part: Abbr."), and OXA ("Chem. prefix").  All in all, this is a phenomenal pre-Shortzian puzzle!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

                                               [B]

From hippies to rock and roll, the 1970s were known for being a drug-filled time.  So far I've come across two drug-related entries/clues in Will Weng–edited crosswords.  In the June 3, 1975, puzzle, which was constructed by Butler (first name unknown) and litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick, the entry MARIJUANA was clued as "Hemp with a wallop."  In the September 26, 1974, puzzle, which was constructed by Anthony B. Canning and litzed by Howard Barkin, the entry WEEDHEAD was clued as "Pot addict, familiarly."  I'm surprised that Weng was willing to push the envelope so much—I'm guessing Maleska never would have allowed these entries!  Below is a picture of the more legal type of weed.

Image courtesy of Whyteferret's Blog.

Contest Standings, Almost at 6,900, More Publicity, Politically Incorrect Terms

We're making terrific progress in the second litzing contest!  Currently Mark Diehl is leading the pack with a total of 130 litzed puzzles, Howard Barkin is hot on his heels with 123 litzed puzzles, and Jeffrey Krasnick holds a solid third place with 87 litzed puzzles.  On Thursday, Jeffrey put us over 6,800 on the litzing thermometer, and we're now almost at 6,900—well on our way to the halfway-point goal of 8,113 litzed puzzles by the end of February.  Every litzed puzzle helps, so thanks and great job, everybody!

The Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project received some more publicity recently, first in Tyler Hinman's article "Touch of Genius:  Puzzazz Brings Puzzles to Your Touchscreens" in Wired, in which he interviews Puzzazz founder Roy Leban, who mentions the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project.  Then, in Amy Reynaldo's Diary of a Crossword Fiend, the project was lauded by T Campbell for The Honorary Orcas award for best work in crossword scholarship.  Thanks, Roy and T!

Recently I've received numerous comments from litzers about politically incorrect terms that found their way into Weng-edited crosswords.  One litzer noted a puzzle that contained the entries MORON (clued as "One of low I.Q."), MANIC ("___-depressive"), and HOLO ("Prefix for caust")!  In the same batch, the litzer found a puzzle with its entire theme based on negativism, as well as a puzzle that contained the entry COOLIES.  Another litzer commented that he'd litzed Weng-edited puzzles with references to the Nazis, the KKK, and even fill-in-the-blank clues for racial slurs.  I took a look through Maleska's clues on XWord Info for potentially offensive terms and found that he bent over backwards to avoid cluing them like Weng did—he only clued MORON in reference to an Andalusian city, HOLO as the combining form for complete, and MANIC as a synonym for frenzied.  It should be interesting to see how Margaret Farrar approached clues for such entries—I'm a little leery, though, since I've already seen that she referred to the Japanese as Japs.  But that seems to have been common back then; in general, the clues and entries seem to have become more politically correct over time, no doubt reflecting changes in our society as a whole.

Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle was constructed by Jordan S. Lasher.  It was originally published on November 29, 1975, and was recently litzed by Todd Gross.  On the surface, this puzzle looks like a pretty typical Lasher opus—the grid is very open, the theme is concise, and the fill is better than average.  When I looked more closely, however, I realized that there was much more going on in this one—in addition to the theme entries WEIGHTLIFTER, PAUL ANDERSON (who, as Todd pointed out, once lifted more than three tons on his back!), and BARBELL, the blocks in the center of the grid are shaped like a weight!  This ingenious construction is a surprisingly early example of grid art in a standard 15 x 15!  The complexity of this puzzle's theme blows me away—Lasher seems to have been decades ahead of his time.  As I mentioned above, the nonthematic fill is admirable—I especially like the entries CHASSIS, HAIRCUT, RUN AMOK, and GATLING (a type of gun one of my teachers described to our class in lurid detail).  All in all, this is a groundbreaking pre-Shortzian puzzle—I hope to see many more Weng-edited crosswords that are this innovative!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

I was recently looking through some Margaret Farrar–edited puzzles from the 1950s and came across the historically significant clue "Cause of chaos in the entertainment world" in the December 9, 1950, puzzle.  The answer?  COLOR TELEVISION!  Wikipedia notes that back when color television was first being developed in 1950, there were many technical glitches and inaccurate color reproductions; also, at one point, just one hour of color television was shown per day!  On top of all this, the prototype color receivers were only available in the New York area.  I can definitely see why color television might have caused a lot of chaos back then.  Nowadays we'd laugh at a clue like this!  Below is a picture of an early color television set:

Image courtesy of CT-TV Vintage Television.

Mel Taub Interview, Litzing Contest, Over 6,300, Will Weng Era, Books Donation, Litzer of the Month, More Publicity, and Contribute Link

Happy New Year—there's lots of great news to report since 2012!  First, I'm thrilled to present an in-depth interview with Mel Taub, the pre-Shortzian and Shortz-era constructor who served as interim crossword editor of The New York Times for more than 2½ months after Maleska's death before Will Shortz took over.  Mel's thoughts and experiences are fascinating—to read the interview, click on the link above or here.

In other news, the second litzing contest is now under way and will run through the end of February.  New litzers are welcome, and anyone who litzes at least one week's worth of puzzles will be eligible for a drawing to win a year's subscription (or renewal) to XWord Info!  There are other prizes as well, including e-books from Puzzazz—to read more about the contest, click here or on the Contest Totals tab above.

I'm hoping that by the end of February, we'll have reached the halfway point—8,113 puzzles!  We started at 6,198 puzzles and, just four days later, have litzed 138 puzzles, bringing the total as I write this to 6,336!

I'm also happy to announce that we're now litzing puzzles from the Will Weng era—we'll have eight more years of those before reaching the first pre-Shortzian editor, Margaret Farrar!

A couple of weeks ago I was thrilled to receive an e-mail from Maureen Hathaway, a daily New York Times crossword solver who was the second-place Division E winner at the 2007 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.  Maureen offered to send me some of her old pre-Shortzian puzzle books, suggesting that if I already had copies of these books, I could sell them and use the money to help support the project.  The books arrived on December 31; it turned out that I did indeed already have six of them, which Stan Newman had generously given me last year.  Since the duplicates are in excellent condition, though, I'm planning to sell them and use the proceeds to buy other pre-Shortzian puzzle books that could help identify the still-missing authors of many puzzles.  The seventh book Maureen sent was new to me and is very cool:  It's called The New York Times Crossword Puzzles of the 1950's and is actually a pad of paper!  There's one puzzle on each sheet, with the solution on the back of the sheet, and the pad also includes a removable copy of the very first New York Times crossword!  Thanks so much again, Maureen!

Our first Litzer of the Month for 2013 is Robert Warren Jones, a prolific litzer who litzed more than 200 puzzles in just two months!  Though he's been busy with other things lately, he plans to get back into litzing again soon.  To read more about Bob, click here or on the Litzer of the Month tab above.

I'm happy to report, too, that the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project has received some more publicity lately, this time on Jim Horne's XWord Info blog.  Liz Gorski has also linked to the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project website from her Crossword Nation blog.  Thanks so much, Jim and Liz!

I've received a couple of inquiries lately from people wanting to contribute financially to the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project.  Donations are always welcome and will be used to help offset the project's expenses and further its goals.  I've created a new Contribute page, which provides information on how to donate to the project.  You can reach it by clicking on the Contribute tab above or on the PayPal button in the righthand column, which links to the Contribute page instead of to PayPal directly.

Today's featured puzzle, "Tom Swifties Redivivus," was constructed by Mel Taub.  "Tom Swifties Redivivus" was originally published on December 11, 1988, and was recently litzed by Mark Diehl.  It features a mind-blowing 16 symmetrically interlocking theme entries (and 2 additional asymmetrical bonus theme entries) in a 21x grid that are clued Tom Swifties–style.  For example, BUT IS IT ART is clued as "'____,' Tom said abstractly" and FIND AN APARTMENT is clued as "'___,' Tom said flatly."  When I was a Cub Scout briefly back in elementary school, I received Boys' Life (the Boy Scouts magazine) and remember that the only part that interested me was the page devoted to jokes and Tom Swifties.  Since then, I've come across several Tom Swifties puzzles in the Shortz era but never one with this many theme entries interlocking so elegantly!  In his interview, Mel is quite modest about this crossword construction feat, stating that he merely sorted out the theme entries and came up with a suitable diagram.  Amazing!  And Mel sure did fill his suitable diagram very nicely—I especially like the colloquial LATISH; other nice entries in the nonthematic fill include FLIRTY, IN THE ACT, BULKY, and IMPINGED.  I'm surprised that neither BULKY nor FLIRTY has been reused in the Shortz era—even though their letter patterns are tricky, you'd think they would have appeared at least once.  All in all, this is an exceptional Maleska-edited Sunday puzzle and a paradigm of interlocking theme entries.  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below; the complete puzzle can be seen on XWord Info.

Today's featured pre-Shortzian clue appeared in the February 26, 1978, puzzle by Kenneth Haxton, titled "Fire and Ice," which was litzed recently by Mark Diehl.  The 1-Across clue read "Rid of ice."  The answer?  DEICE!  This has to be one of the worst clues I've seen so far in a pre-Shortzian puzzle—most of the answer itself is repeated in the clue!  The puzzle (which is quite well constructed) has good cluing everywhere else—it's a mystery to me why Maleska chose one of the worst clues possible to open such a fine Sunday puzzle.  I did notice, however, that Maleska didn't reuse that clue (at least in the puzzles we've litzed so far) for DEICE—in more recent puzzles, he generally stuck to "Apply antifreeze" or "Free from frost," both of which are clever, alliterative clues.  I'm guessing he got a lot of mail about the "Rid of ice" clue!  Below is a picture of a plane being deiced:

Image courtesy of UCAR.