Arthur Schulman Interview, New Record, Over 8,800, 1984 Puzzles on XWord Info, and More Publicity

Last week's review by Rex Parker and Matt Gaffney of a pre-Shortzian puzzle was a big hit!  Thanks again, Rex and Matt, and thanks to everyone who stopped by (and especially to those of you who left comments)!

This week I'm thrilled to present a fascinating interview with Arthur Schulman, a prolific pre-Shortzian constructor and cognitive psychologist who (according to still-incomplete records) published 80 New York Times puzzles in the pre-Shortz era and 1 under Will Shortz's editorship.  To read the interview, click here or on the Pre-Shortzian Constructor Interviews tab above; to read "The Art of the Puzzler," the very interesting book chapter he mentions in the interview, click here.

During the course of this interview, I learned that Arthur's first published puzzle in The New York Times appeared when he was 18.  I wrote to Jim Horne about this discovery so he could update the teenage constructors page on XWord Info, and he contacted Will Shortz, who originally began tracking these data.  So we now have a new entry for the record books:  Arthur Schulman was the 21st-youngest constructor to publish a crossword in The New York Times!

In other news, on Sunday veteran litzer Denny Baker sent in a packet that put us over 8,800 on the litzing thermometer, and we've received so many packets this week from other litzers that we're now almost at 8,900!

Also, the proofread 1984 puzzles are now up on Xword Info—that makes 10 years of pre-Shortzian puzzles that are now available on Jim Horne's wonderful site!

The Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project received some more publicity this past week connected with the review by Rex Parker and Matt Gaffney:  Rex wrote about it here on Rex Parker Does the NY Times Crossword Puzzle, Matt mentioned it here on Facebook, and T Campbell discussed it here on Amy Reynaldo's Diary of a Crossword Fiend.  Several people tweeted about it as well, including Jeffrey Krasnick, Brendan Emmett Quigley, and Ben Tausig.  Thanks, everybody!

Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle was constructed by . . . (drumroll, please) . . . Arthur Schulman!  It was originally published on March 29, 1975, and was recently litzed by Howard Barkin.  This impressive 74-word themeless features a host of zippy entries such as SQUEEGEE, JAVA MAN, and METHANOL.  Oh , and I forgot to mention that the puzzle is a pangram—wow!  I've seen many fine William Lutwiniak pangrams from around this time period, but they've all had relatively closed-off grids with 76 or 78 words.  Another noteworthy feature of this puzzle is its relative absence of obscurity and crosswordese.  The crossing of HAKIM (clued as "Moslem judge") and KOP (clued as "African hill" instead of as "Keystone Kop") would've left me 41-Down, but the rest of the puzzle is very clean.  All in all, this is an exceptional Will Weng–edited themeless—I very much look forward to seeing the remainder of Arthur Schulman's puzzles as they get litzed!  The answer grid can be seen below:

On March 22, the entry of the week was the Norwegian town HAMMERFEST, which I thought sounded awesome but probably wouldn't be showing up a New York Times crossword again anytime soon.  Imagine my surprise when I was solving Julian Lim's Wednesday puzzle this week and saw the clue "Hammerfest's locale: Abbr." for NOR!  I wonder if this clue was written by the constructor or by Will Shortz himself—either way, I was delighted and had no trouble filling it in!

So this week I'm featuring another amazing-sounding city, HÄMEENLINNA.  HÄMEENLINNA was originally used in the January 13, 1973, puzzle (author unknown), which was recently litzed by Mark Diehl.  It was clued as "City in Finland"; Britannica mentions that Hämeenlinna's name was derived from the Häme castle and became the northernmost terminus of Finland's first railroad in 1862.  I look forward to seeing if "Hämeenlinna's locale: Abbr." shows up as a clue for FIN in the near future—that would be awesome!  For now, below is a picture of the Häme castle:

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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

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

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

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

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

dip  (dp)

v. dipped, dip·ping, dips

v.tr.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. Slang To pick the pockets of.

v.intr.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9.

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

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

10. Slang To steal by picking pockets.

n.

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

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

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

4. An amount taken up by dipping.

5. A container for dipping.

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

7. A downward slope; a decline.

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

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

10.

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

b. Poetry The unstressed portion of a metrical foot.

11. Magnetic dip.

12. A hollow or depression.

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

14. Slang A pickpocket.

15. Slang A foolish or stupid person.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dip

Very interesting—thanks again, Martin!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image courtesy of Iowa State University.

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.

1992 Puzzles on XWord Info, 2,600 Litzed Puzzles, and More Publicity

Great news:  Jim Horne has just posted all the proofread 1992 puzzles on XWord Info!  He's still trying to fix up a couple of tricky puzzles, but the rest are ready to go.  Jim has also created a separate section of links for the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project, which now has its very own FAQ page and a link to this website.  You can view the pre-Shortzian puzzles here and solve them here.  Thanks so much, Jim!

Needless to say, this certainly couldn't have happened so quickly without the help of all our litzers!  Thank you, everyone!  Together we've now reached 2,600 litzed puzzles!

We've also received some more publicity:  T Campbell posted a wonderful write-up of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project on Amy Reynaldo's Diary of a Crossword Fiend blog, which you can read here!

Today I am featuring two puzzles with very outdated but historically interesting themes.  The first was constructed by Bernice Gordon, who, incredibly, is still publishing crosswords at 98!  This puzzle originally appeared on January 23, 1955, and was litzed by Barry Haldiman (or one of his former litzers).  The title for the puzzle is "Household Words."  It features four appliances that were considered novelties back in the day but that are so commonplace now that we don't even think about them.  My favorite theme clue is "Work of a modern kitchen appliance" for GARBAGE DISPOSAL—it made me laugh out loud!  The nonthematic fill was very clean for the 1950s—I especially like SQUEEZING, NEW YORK, and CYNICAL!  The answer grid with highlighted theme entries appears below:

The second puzzle was constructed by Jules Arensberg.  It was originally published on July 11, 1953, and was recently litzed by Nancy Kavanaugh.  This puzzle was published before Hawaii became a state (ironically the fiftieth, not the forty-ninth) in 1959.  Its main theme entries are FORTY NINTH STATE (clued as "Subject of pending legislation.") and HAWAIIAN ISLANDS (brilliantly clued as "Star on the flag?").  The puzzle also included the bonus theme entry MAUNA LOA and had a very nice nonthematic fill.  My favorite nonthematic entries are OPERA HAT and SLAVE ANT.  The answer grid with highlighted theme entries can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is KAKAS.  According to the Ginsberg database, KAKAS has never been reused in a Shortzian puzzle, though KAKA appeared in a Shortzian BEQ puzzle (clued as the soccer star).  KAKAS originally appeared in the October 7, 1989, puzzle by Bernard Meren, which was recently litzed by Todd Gross.  The clue for KAKAS was "New Zealand parrots."  I've disliked parrot clues ever since I got naticked at the Silicon Valley Puzzle Fest because I didn't know KEAS!  (And recently I came across an entire 1993 Maleska puzzle with a parrot theme!  The puzzle, which can be seen here, even included KEA—gasp!—as one of its theme entries!)  In any case, Webster defines a kaka as "an olive-brown New Zealand parrot (Nestor meridionalis) with gray and red markings."  Kaka comes from Maori and was first introduced into our language in 1774.  Below is a picture of a kaka:

Image courtesy of New-Zealand-Holidays.