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:

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.

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.