Interview with Eileen Bush Pazos, June Litzer of the Month Brian Kulman, and Update on Todd Gross's Research

This week I'm delighted to present an interview with pre-Shortzian (and now Shortz-era!) constructor Eileen Bush Pazos!  On June 22, 1969, Eileen published the amazing "Space Madness" puzzle (which I featured on September 6, 2013) commemorating man's landing on the moon.  Her second submission was rejected by Will Weng, and she began making crosswords for corporations and her hometown newspapers.  Recently, after a 10-year hiatus from constructing, she built another puzzle and submitted it to The New York Times.  Although the puzzle wasn't accepted, Will Shortz thought I might be interested in talking to Eileen.  I definitely was, and her story is fascinating!  To read the interview, click here or on the Pre-Shortzian Constructor Interviews tab above.  Thanks so much again, Eileen and Will!

We're now into June, and we have a new Litzer of the Month:  Brian Kulman!  Brian is a solver and rock climber who has made an intriguing analogy between crossword solving and bouldering!  To read more about Brian, click here or on the Litzer of the Month tab above.

The proofreading is now going full-steam ahead!  On Saturday afternoon, Mark Diehl sent in 17 proofread puzzles, then 25 more that night, then another 24 later on!  Sunday morning, he sent 15 more, which were followed by 6 from Todd Gross; late that night, Mark sent 30 more.  On Monday morning, Barry Haldiman sent in 2 litzed puzzles.  Tuesday morning, Todd sent 10 more proofread puzzles.  Wednesday afternoon, he sent 10 more, which were followed by 31 more from Mark and then 11 more from Todd that night.  Thursday night, Mark sent 31 more puzzles, and Todd sent 10 more.  And this week Howard Barkin sent in 30 proofread puzzles too.  Great job, everyone—thanks so much again!  (If anyone else is interested in joining the proofreading effort, please contact me for the proofreading self-test—we have many more puzzles to go!) 

This past week researcher, litzer, and proofreader Todd Gross made several more exciting discoveries!  He learned that pre-Shortzian constructor Threba Johnson, whom he knew from previous searching was born in 1912 and passed away in 2000 in Norwalk, Connecticut, and had lived in New Canaan, Connecticut, was born Threbe Daneje Leveque in Beverly, Massachusetts.  Todd writes:

Her family lived in a town called Wenham, MA where her father worked as an "inventor" at a machine shop.  "Inventor" is the best I could make out, but he was salaried, so not just an apprentice or low-level worker.  Her father Bernard immigrated to the US from Canada in 1891, her mother Bertha also came from Canada, about 1890.  The were naturalized in 1916.  I know she married David Johnson, who died before her, but not much else there.

More interesting, I have two passenger records for her.  One in 1932 (when she was 19) sailing from LA to NYC.  She was traveling alone.  A second one in 1935 from Boulogne, France to NYC, also traveling alone.  Both were under Leveque, so she hadn't married yet.

Todd also found more information on pre-Shortzian constructor Hume R. Craft, whose full name was Hume Richter Craft.  Hume R. Craft was born in Watertown, New York, in 1912 and died in Aurora, Colorado, in 1981.  He is buried in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  Todd writes:

I have a WW II draft card for him, at that time (1940) he was living in Hickory, NC, where he was a teacher at Claremont Central High.  The school actually has its own Wikipedia page. . . .

I'm not sure exactly how he came to work at Oak Ridge as a "health physicist," but you have to remember Oak Ridge was a top secret facility in WW II. . . . I found a family tree at Ancestry.com that includes him, and shows he had two sons. . . .

Todd also found a New York Times obituary for pre-Shortzian constructor Anne Fox.  He notes:

[A]las, the story pretty much ends there.  I don't even know if Fox is her married name or maiden name.  Nevertheless, I can tell you she was born 9 Jul 1911.

Todd found more information on pre-Shortzian and Shortz-era constructor Tap (Stafford P.) Osborn as well:

[H]e was born Stafford Palmer Osborn 13 May 1923 in Nice, France to American parents.  He served in the military during WW II (at the time he enlisted he was manufacturing autos), after the war he went into the silversmith business near Boston.  With this, and some luck, I found his obituary.  It's only a preview, the original is from the Boston Globe . . . and behind a paywall. . . .

Even better, I managed to find another article about him . . . from 1957!  With a picture!!

According to Bramesco & Lasher, he didn't get into crossword constructing until 1972, then became rather obsessed with it and gained rapid success.  So it's pretty neat to have an article about him from 15 years before that all happened.

Todd also made a very interesting discovery about pre-Shortzian constructor Alvin Ashby:

I know Alvin Ashby has had at least 1 puzzle in the NYT (11 Oct 1942).  I also knew he was from Utah because it was mentioned in the S&S 75th anniversary volume.  I also found a couple of articles online mentioning math games by an Alvin Ashby of Bountiful, which is in Utah.  Those were in 1956.  I found several of his puzzles online, starting in 1932 and going until 1973.

Well, Ancestry[.com] points to one person named Alvin Jordan Ashby who was born in Taylorsville, UT in 1901 and died in Bountiful in 1979.  I found records of him in the 1910, 20, 30, and 40 census.  I found other information in sources about where he lived and what he did.

And with some nice sleuthing and more than a bit of luck, I found an obituary for this man.  There's just one little problem: not a bit of this biographical info mentions anything about crosswords or puzzles, which seems very odd given how many Mr. Ashby created and for how long.

I only found 1 other person with a similar name in this locale, and I'm pretty sure it isn't him.  This guy fits in terms of dates, but his main occupation was a farmer.  But he was also a high priest and secretary of the local ward, and the picture of him sports glasses.

Alvin Ashby

I think this is our man . . . but it's frustrating that I can't make the connection.  Possibly I could find someone who knew him (he married but appears to have had no children).

Further research turned up another article on Alvin Ashby, making that connection between the farmer and the crossword constructor.

Thanks again for all this great research on pre-Shortzian constructors, Todd!

Todd Gross's Research on Pre-Shortzian Constructors—Plus, Solve His Litzed Copy of "The Toughest Crossword Puzzle Ever," by Jordan S. Lasher!

It's been another very busy week on the proofreading front!  Late Friday night, Mark Diehl sent in 31 puzzles, then Saturday night, Todd Gross sent in 8.  Sunday night, Mark sent 30 more, and Monday night, Todd sent another 7!  Tuesday evening, new litzer Spencer Pasero sent in 1 puzzle, which was followed by 31 more proofread puzzles from Mark.  Thursday night, Mark sent another 31 puzzles, and Friday morning, Larry Wasser sent in 7 more.  And this week Howard Barkin sent 31 proofread puzzles too.  Terrific job, everybody—we'll be done with 1975 very soon!

On the litzing front, there are still many puzzles out with litzers, so even though the thermometer hasn't gone up much recently, it will eventually—my hope is that we'll have all these puzzles in by the end of the summer!

Information about many pre-Shortzian constructors' lives has been lost to the sands of time, but litzer and proofreader Todd Gross has done a tremendous job recently of unearthing new details about some of the more prolific early New York Times constructors!  He also found a copy of Crossword Puzzle Compendium by Norton Bramesco and Jordan S. Lasher, about which he wrote the following:

It's actually really good.  The content is similar to other crossword books, talking about the history and format of crosswords, how to construct and how to solve, and giving bios on editors and constructors.  What separates this book is how good the content is.  They didn't just repeat what's out there, they did their own investigation.  They didn't just give their opinions of top constructors (including the aforementioned Hume R. Craft), they got quotes from many/most of them.

Maybe best of all, there are lots of puzzles in here.  Most of them by Jordan Lasher, but also one from each of the constructors profiled, also I believe one each by Maleska (first Stepquote puzzle!), Weng, and Margaret Farrar (!).

I've ordered a copy of Crossword Puzzle Compendium myself, and I'm hoping to post constructor bios from it on Scribd this summer.  (I have constructor bios from several other books and publications as well that I plan to post there too—I'll announce them here as they appear.)

Todd noted that the final puzzle in Crossword Puzzle Compendium was Jordan S. Lasher's "The Toughest Crossword Puzzle Ever."  He decided to litz it and look up every entry, adding notes to the CCW file.  He wrote:

The puzzle is 25x25 with 208 entries (Jordan specifically wanted it to be at least 200).  Over half of these have never appeared in a Shortzian NYT crossword.  When I do an analysis using XWord Info, almost the entire grid is red!  The Freshness Factor is I believe 86.2 (that's the factor, not the percentage).  I've found a few small errors in the clues, but so far there's only 1 or 2 I haven't been able to verify online.  It's an amazing construction, especially given how he's trying very hard not to use the sort of bread and butter entries crosswords then and now are filled with.

Here's a piece Todd put together about the puzzle when he was finished:

This puzzle was created by Jordan Lasher for the First World Class Crossword Puzzle Marathon, held over 24 hours on 15–16 Sep 1978.  The puzzle was commissioned by a bookstore in Beachwood, OH, and intended to be so difficult that no one would submit a correct answer, even with 24 hours in a 30,000 volume bookstore.  Some competitors even went to a local library to do further research . . . something Mr. Lasher himself did in constructing this puzzle, on top of the 50 reference works he borrowed from said bookstore.

The puzzle, at 25x25 with 208 entries, lived up to expectations.  Out of 186 entrants, no one submitted a fully correct solution.  The winner (Michael Donner, former editor of GAMES magazine) was 88% correct.  Only 32 even submitted anything, and some of those had negative scores [meaning they got more answers incorrect than correct]!

Before litzing the puzzle (and looking up all the obscure entries online, notes on which are included in the CCW file), I decided to try my hand at this monster of a puzzle.  I gave myself one hour, with no research, books or otherwise.  So, how did I do?  Remember, there are pretty good solvers who got a negative score with 24 hours and a bookstore to research in.  I don't know what their scoring system was, but I had 16 correct entries (7.7%), with 3 incorrect entries, which really amazed me.

But more amazing was how Jordan created this puzzle by hand, trying his darndest to squeeze in as many obscure (but findable) entries as he could.  About half of the entries have never appeared (to date) in a New York Times crossword, with about 2 dozen more appearing only in Pre-Shortzian puzzles.  It must have been tough avoiding using standard tricks and entries, working with rarely-if-ever seen letter combinations.  All in all, I'd say he did a superb job.

My advice to anyone who tries to solve this: using Google isn't just OK, it's strongly encouraged.  Also, many of these entries use variant (or older) spellings, and you don't always get told about them in the clues.  And finally, enjoy!

If you'd like to try doing the litzed puzzle, you can access it in either Crossword Compiler (complete with Todd's comments) or Across Lite on the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project Google Drive by clicking on one of the links below.:

Crossword Compiler version

Across Lite version

Awesome job, Todd—thanks so much for making this classic puzzle available with all your notes!

While researching, Todd also found several obituaries for pre-Shortzian constructors.  One (behind a paywall) was for Josephine Felker—likely our current "J. A. Felker"—confirming that she was a New York Times crossword constructor.  Another was for Jay Spry, whose wife apparently created puzzles too.  And a third was for the legendary Ernst Theimer.  Todd noted that Theimer passed away in 1994—the same year his Shortz-era puzzle was published.  Todd also found an Associated Press article about a Tap Osborn crossword puzzle on a T-shirt.

In addition, Todd's research suggests that the constructor we have listed as "Higgins" is actually Anne Higgins Petz, who wrote a book of Bible crossword puzzles.  Todd notes that her August 6, 1976, puzzle has some Christian references and that her Web site indicates that she constructed New York Times crosswords.  I've written to her, and I'm hoping to confirm this information.

Todd also found the Web site of pre-Shortzian constructor and chemist Mary Virginia Orna, who wrote a fascinating chapter, "Always a Cross(ed) Word," in A Festival of Chemistry Entertainments.  I had hoped to post this chapter on Scribd, but unfortunately that wouldn't be allowed by the American Chemical Society.  I've linked to the abstract, though, and you can either purchase the full text or see if your library has access to it.  Todd also found the following quote from Orna's college magazine:  "If you crossword fans were wondering, this is also the Mary Virginia Orna who teased your brains for years with the puzzles she authored for The New York Times.  But even now, with more time to spend outside the classroom, she's just too busy to get back down (and across) to that old pastime."

Finally, Todd found an excerpt from a great article from the September 1981 Attenzione magazine (an Italian-American publication) that discussed the process of creating crosswords and included quotes from Jack Luzzatto and Alfio Micci.  I'll try to get a copy of the full article to post on Scribd.

Outstanding research, Todd—thanks so much again!

Thanksgiving Thoughts, Progress Update, More Publicity, Funny Typos

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!  I'm especially thankful for all the litzing, proofreading, downloading, and other help I've received.  Without it, the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project would never have been able to move forward so quickly.  Thanks again, everyone!

I'm also very happy to report that nearly 5,700 puzzles have now been litzed!  Soon we'll be at 6,000, another major milestone.  We've also whizzed through 1979 and are now almost halfway through 1978, a relatively short year because of a long newspaper strike.

In other news, the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project received some more publicity this week on a new blog, MetaRex, which will comment on Rex Parker's blog and which is written by pre-Shortzian constructor Wayne Eastman (who contributed puzzles under the name Wayne Hall-Eastman).  Thanks, Wayne!

Before getting to the puzzle of the day, here are some more humorous typos our proofreaders have caught as we continue to move through 1987:

• A clue for ARTE should have read "Commedia dell'___" instead of "Cornmedia dell'___"
• A clue for DEAD was typed as "Another kin of duck" instead of "Another kind of duck"
• A clue for ERE was entered as "Prior, to Pope" rather than "Prior, to Poe"
• In a copyright field, Eugene T. Maleska was accidentally typed as Eugent T. Maleska (the litzer obviously thought very highly of Mr. Maleska!)
• During the October litzing contest, a litzer in a hurry typed the entry RUSHED as RUSEHD

Today's featured puzzle was constructed by Tap Osborn.  It was originally published on February 12, 1979, and was recently litzed by Denny Baker.  This puzzle is certainly one of the most elegant pre-Shortzian Monday puzzles I've seen so far.  It features five symmetrical 15-letter dog breeds perfectly interlocked with the 15-letter reveal WESTMINSTER SHOW, which runs right down the center.  Just imagine all the hours of research Tap must have put into this puzzle to get it to work so neatly!  That said, some of the fill feels a bit tough for a Monday—I could do without EAR-ROT (clued as "Corn disease"), AAC (clued as "In the year before Christ: Abbr."), and YNE (clued as "Chemical suffix").  Nevertheless, it's amazing that Tap was able to pull off this brilliant Monday puzzle without any computer software!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

As the litzing has progressed, I've come across a number of not-so-great abbreviations that pre-Shortzian constructors were forced to use when stuck in a particular section of a grid.  Of all these abbreviations, here are a few worth calling out:

ABN (clued as "Carried by air: Abbr.")
BGHT (clued as "Opp. of sold")
TTS (clued as "Nondrinkers: Abbr.")

My least favorite of these three is definitely TTS, which doesn't even appear in the dictionary!  ABN isn't great either, but at least it's legitimate.  Please comment if you've encountered other questionable pre-Shortzian abbreviations either while litzing or while looking at pre-Shortzian puzzles on XWord Info—maybe there will be enough for a recap next week!  In the meantime, below is a picture that TTS would appreciate:

Image courtesy of Sisters Running the Kitchen.

1990 Puzzles All Proofread, Nearly 4,000 Litzed Puzzles, and BAC Fill

Great news:  All the 1990 puzzles have now been proofread and will soon be posted on XWord Info!  Thanks to everyone who litzed and proofread for making this happen—and, of course, to Jim Horne.  In addition, nearly 4,000 puzzles have been litzed!  We're well on our way to being a quarter done with the entire project and are now litzing puzzles from 1983—more than ten years' worth of pre-Shortzian New York Times puzzles have been litzed!

Last weekend I was out of town at the Fifth Annual Bay Area Crossword Puzzle Tournament, aka BAC Fill, which was in Oakland this year.  BAC Fill was a super fun event, organized once again by our very own Andrew Laurence.  It was great being able to get together with so many puzzle people, quite a few of whom were litzers!  What made this event even more special, though, was the surprise guest:  Manny Nosowsky!  I've always wanted to meet Manny, a constructor who has had 254 New York Times puzzles published in the Shortz and Maleska eras.  It was truly an honor, and Elissa Grossman, director of Crosswords LA, was kind enough to take this photo of fellow constructor Andrea Carla Michaels and me with Manny:

After the tournament, I went to Berkeley for a few hours.  At a local bookstore I happened to find a copy of a Margaret Petherbridge–edited pocket book of daily puzzles printed in April 1943!  Though the book won't be useful for the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project, because the puzzles weren't reprinted from The New York Times, the book is still fascinating!  The clue headers read Horizontal and Vertical rather than Across and Down.  In addition, the book has a very interesting note at the beginning:  "In order to cooperate with the government's war effort, this book has been made in strict conformity with WPB [War Production Board, an organization established by Roosevelt in 1942] restricting the use of certain materials."  But perhaps the biggest surprise of all was discovering an asymmetrical double tri-stack from this early in crossword history!  The puzzle, constructed by Norton Curtis, is filled with obscurity and two-letter words but is nevertheless way ahead of its time.  The answer grid (which I litzed) can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian New York Times puzzle was constructed by Ernst Theimer.  It was originally published on January 12, 1990, and was recently litzed by Alex Vratsanos.  This ingenious construction contains six symmetrically placed theme entries in which the second half of a word or phrase beginning with the word TURN is reversed.  In addition, the puzzle has a witty cluing twist:  TURN TURTLE, for example, is clued as "How to make a tortoise capsize," and TURNCOAT is clued as "How to make a jacket for a traitor."  The nonthematic fill is very solid—I especially like the entries SPANGLES and SECRETS.  I'm not particularly fond of ORNERIER, though it's certainly a legitimate entry.  Overall, this is another beautiful Ernst Theimer puzzle that goes above and beyond the traditional Maleska-era construction.  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) appears below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is MOLL-BUZZER.  According to the Ginsberg database, MOLL-BUZZER has never been reused in a Shortzian puzzle.  MOLL-BUZZER originally appeared in the August 16, 1984, puzzle by Tap Osborn, which was recently litzed by Mark Diehl.  The original clue for MOLL-BUZZER was "Certain pickpocket."  Webster defines a moll-buzzer as slang for "a pickpocket whose victims are women."  I doubt moll-buzzer is used much today—I didn't even know there was a word for a pickpocket who targets women!  Below is a picture of an avian moll-buzzer:

Image courtesy of An American Living and Traveling in the Philippines.

We're over 2,300, Plus Matching Up Old Books

I'm excited to announce that more than 2,300 puzzles have now been litzed!  The addition of Sunday puzzles to the PDF packets has not slowed us down very much—we're still making great progress!  Later today or tomorrow we'll be in 1989!

Also, for the past few months, I've been working on matching up Margaret Farrar–era daily puzzle authors with their puzzles.  Since Margaret Farrar didn't print the names of daily puzzle authors and since any payment records she may have kept have been lost, the only way to identify these authors is by using books of Margaret Farrar puzzles.  Stan Newman generously loaned me his collection of rare Margaret Farrar daily puzzle books, which has helped tremendously!

The matching process itself is quite complicated.  First, the 1-Across and 1-Down entries of every Margaret Farrar daily puzzle PDF available are put into an Excel spreadsheet.  Then, for each puzzle in a book, the 1-Across answer is looked at and the puzzle's 1-Across entry is searched for in the spreadsheet.  If the 1-Down entry matches too, the author's name is entered in the spreadsheet next to its corresponding date.  This system usually works well.  Sometimes, though, Margaret Farrar edited the puzzles' original fill (and often the clues!) before reprinting the puzzles in her books.  Every once in a while, she changed the 1-Across and/or 1-Down entry!  Usually, though, they are only different by one letter and can still be matched up—in part because Margaret Farrar selected most puzzles from each book from a very narrow time period (two or three months from the same year, say).

Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle was constructed by Stan Newman, one of our editorial advisors!  It was originally published on May 27, 1989, and was litzed by Barry Haldiman (or one of his former litzers).  This is certainly one of the best pre-Shortzian themelesses I have come across so far—it's jam-packed with interesting fill, such as FLEA CIRCUS, SAN FRANCISCANS, and CLOSE SHAVE.  There is a minimal amount of crosswordese, even in the more challenging sections to fill.  Also, the grid is very elegant—I've never seen a puzzle, Shortzian or pre-Shortzian, with a 14/15/14 stack in the center!  Today, Stan Newman continues to construct and edit high-quality crosswords, many of which can be solved here.  Below is the answer grid.

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is ATLEE.  According to the Ginsberg database, ATLEE has never been reused in a Shortzian puzzle.  It originally appeared in the September 26, 1992, puzzle by Tap Osborn, which was recently litzed by Mangesh Ghogre.  The clue for ATLEE was "Salt tree: Var."  Webster lists the primary spelling, atle, as a variant of the athel tree!  Webster defines an athel tree as "a small, drought-resistant evergreen tree (Tamarix aphylla) native to Southern and Western Asia but now widely planted as an ornamental or shelter-belt tree in warm dry regions (as of the southwestern U.S. and Australia); broadly: any of several other trees or shrubs of the genus Tamarix."  Wow, that's a mouthful!  Below is a picture of an atlee/atle/athel tree:

Image courtesy of EnviroControl.

Project Publicity, New Litzers, and a Funny Story

Recently the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project got two nice doses of publicity!  First, litzer Peter Broda announced the project on his blog, The Cross Nerd (http://thecrossnerd.blogspot.com/).  Then Tyler Hinman posted a tweet about the project (https://twitter.com/thatpuzzleguy).  Thanks so much, Peter and Tyler!  

Also, this week we had two more litzers join the crew!  There are now 18 litzers working on this project.  Litzers, keep sending in those mini-biographies and photos!  We now have six mini-biographies and photos posted on the Meet the Litzers page.

And now, here's a funny story about the website.  A few days ago, litzer Barry Haldiman told me that his workplace had blocked it for "potentially damaging content."  He then joked that I must be a "budding hacker"!  I replied that Barry's workplace must have considered the picture of the worker with a shaduf "overly revealing."

Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle was constructed by Alfio Micci.  It was originally published on May 8, 1992, and was recently litzed by Brad Wilber.  The theme entry GO DOWN ONE SIDE read in the down direction, and the theme entry AND UP THE OTHER read in the up direction!  This sprinkling of thematic material allowed for many lively entries, such as PANACHE, SHREWISH, EGGPLANT, and FLOODGATE.  I like how Alfio Micci thought outside the box when constructing this one!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is SKATOLES.  According to the Ginsberg database, SKATOLES has never been reused in a Shortzian puzzle.  It originally appeared in the September 12, 1992, puzzle by Tap Osborn, which was litzed by Angela Halsted.  The clue for SKATOLES was "Perfume fixatives."  Webster defines a skatole as "a foul-smelling compound C9H9N found in the intestines and feces, in civet, and in several plants or made synthetically and used in perfumes as a fixative."  I don't think I'm ever going to think of perfume in the same way after reading this definition!  Below is a representation of a skatole's molecular structure.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Litzer Totals and Pre-Shortzian Editors

I've added a couple of new pages to the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project website over the past few days.  The first is Litzer Totals, which contains the total number of puzzles each litzer has litzed.  I'll try to update it as frequently as I can.  Thanks, everyone, for all your work!  If each constructor in the crossword community litzed just one puzzle, we could probably finish litzing two years' worth of puzzles in just a few days!  Each and every puzzle counts—not everyone has the time to do more than a puzzle or two, which is just fine!

The second new page on our website is Pre-Shortzian Editors, which has short blurbs about Margaret Petherbridge Farrar, Will Weng, Eugene T. Maleska, and Mel Taub (the interim editor before Will Shortz).

Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle was constructed by Eugene T. Maleska.  It was originally published on November 29, 1991, and was recently litzed by Andrew Feist.  The puzzle had two clever theme entries (MCE MCE MCE and TRN TRN TRN).  The clues for them were "THREE BLIND MICE [the MCEs represent mice with no Is—thus, phonetically, they are blind]" and "NO U TURNS [the TRNs represent turns with no Us—thus, they are no-u turns]."  There was also some nice nonthematic fill, such as WEAK SISTER and DIETICIAN.  Finally, I really liked all the Vs in the central section of the puzzle.  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is KIMURA.  According to the Ginsberg database, KIMURA has never been reused in a Shortzian puzzle.  It originally appeared in the April 25, 1992, puzzle by Tap Osborn, which was litzed by Doug Peterson.  The clue for KIMURA was "Japanese astronomer."  KIMURA refers to the Japanese astronomer Hisashi Kimura, who lived from 1870 to 1943.  Wikipedia says that Kimura studied and measured variations in latitude.  In 1936, he won the prestigious Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.  A crater on the moon and an asteroid were named in his honor.  Below is a photo of Kimura on a Japanese stamp:

Photo courtesy of the Tokyo Stamp Company.

Off to a Great Start!

Happy Fourth of July!  As the post title says, we're off to an excellent start on the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project!  Between this post and the previous one, 73 more puzzles have been litzed (or are about to be litzed).  Several litzer biographies and pictures, as well as July's Litzer of the Month interview with Barry Haldiman, now appear on this website.

Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle was constructed by Tap Osborn.  It was originally published on March 27, 1992, and was recently litzed by Nancy Kavanaugh.  I find this puzzle particularly interesting because it had ten mostly symmetrical theme entries, several of which interlock.  This is amazing for a 1992 puzzle—and still would be by today's standards.  In case you're wondering, each theme entry is a movie that won an Oscar.  The fill was somewhat compromised by the high theme density (OESE, clued as "Bacteriologist's wire," is bad), but I hope to see many more puzzles like this one!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is SHADUF.  SHADUF, according to the Ginsberg database, has never been reused in a Shortzian puzzle.  It originally appeared in the May 2, 1992, puzzle by Jesse Roarke, which was litzed by Vic Fleming.  The clue for SHADUF was:  "Irrigation device: Var."  Webster defines a shadoof (the primary spelling) as "a counterbalanced sweep used since ancient times especially in Egypt for raising water (as for irrigation)."  Below is a picture of a worker using a shadoof:

Picture courtesy of  FAO Corporate Document Repository.