Third Anniversary, All Puzzles Proofread, Missing Puzzles Update, ideacity News, Davidson Young Scholars Summit, and Mark Diehl Seven-Time Blast! Winner

Third Anniversary—All Puzzles Proofread

I'm delighted to announce that today is the third anniversary of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project, and all the proofread puzzles are now in!  Three years ago I started this blog and opened up the litzing, which I'd begun during my freshman year, to volunteers.  I had a great head start, thanks to the digitizing Barry Haldiman, Denny Baker, and others had already done of their favorite puzzles back in the day, and was able to systematize and massively expand the effort so that, one puzzle at a time, each of the available 16,225 puzzles would be tracked, litzed, and proofread.  And with the help of Jim Horne, creator of the incomparable XWord Info, these puzzles have gradually appeared online, year by year as we worked our way backwards through time, for everyone to enjoy.  Thanks so much again to everyone who's helped with this journey into crossword history!  Without each and every one of you, there's no way we would have come so far so quickly.  Though I still have to look through the remaining years of proofread puzzles before sending them off to XWord Info and do quite a bit of "cleanup" work with constructor names and previously posted puzzles, this is another huge milestone in the project!

Project Update

The final two batches of proofread puzzles came in over the past two weeks—the first on Thursday the 18th from Todd Gross, who sent 13 puzzles in which he'd found 89 mistakes.  (Todd also has a puzzle in today's New York Times, by the way, which he co-constructed with Andrea Carla Michaels and with which he's hit for the cycle—meaning he's now had a puzzle published on every day of the week!  Congratulations, Todd!)  And then on Friday the 26th Patsy Stewart sent in 12 more puzzles, marking the end of the proofreading—at least until the missing puzzles are found!  Thanks so much again, Todd and Patsy!

Missing Puzzles Update

Following up on my recent post about librarian Alan DerKazarian's missing puzzles research, I received two more e-mails from him with additional news.  In the first, he reported that he'd contacted the American Library in Paris and National Library of France about the 1953 New York Times strike papers and received this reply from the former:

Thank you for writing. We do have microfilm of the New York Times from those dates, but the run is quite unusual and prefaced with the following notice on the reel:

Notice: A strike affecting the major New York newspapers made it impossible to publish any editions of the New York Times during the first eight days of December, 1953. 

THE NEW YORK TIMES Book Review dated December 6, which was prepared and printed before the strike, was distributed with the Sunday, December 13th issue. 

At the beginning of this reel, you will find ten two-page papers dated November 29 through December 8. These were prepared day by day during the strike, but published after the strike and distributed as a special section of the Sunday, December 13, edition.

Since the microfilm reader at the American Library in Paris was unable to print and copy, the person who wrote back offered to photograph whatever Alan might want on the reel; Alan asked her if she could look through the two-page papers and send photos of any crosswords.  She found two and sent photos, but unfortunately, they were puzzles we already had.  Below are photos of the newspaper's notices:

Photos courtesy of the American Library in Paris.

Alan had not yet heard back from the National Library of France, and apparently the British libraries, although technically public, require an annual fee in order to use them or ask questions.  He did end up hearing from the National Library of France, though, and in a second e-mail wrote to me that the situation there was the same as at the American Library in Paris.

National Library of France response.

Courtesy of the National Library of France.

So, unfortunately, this is likely a dead end, at least with these nine days of missing puzzles.

I'm planning to be update the complete list of missing puzzles before I head off for Stanford (where, as a student, I may actually be able to access the British libraries), and when I do, I'll post it on this site.  Although we've struck out so far with this select group of missing puzzles, there are many others, some of which are missing not because of strikes but because of ProQuest's errors.  So I'm still hopeful that eventually some, if not all, of the puzzles will be found.  I'll also be putting out another call for those missing old crossword books—again, as soon as I've had a chance to update the list—which I think may be our best bet for locating the missing puzzles, even if we're never able to match up the dates definitively.  In the meantime, thanks so much again, Alan, for these valiant efforts!

Mark Diehl Seven-Time Blast! Winner!

Once more, the amazing Mark Diehl was the first to send in the correct answer to the Blast! challenge—making him a seven-time winner!  Congratulations, Mark!  Shortly after the second letter was revealed—at 8:43 a.m. on Sunday, June 14, to be exact!—Mark sent in the solution to this February 9, 1952, clue:  "Sales of this reached new high in 1951."  The answer:  POPCORN.  I'm not sure why popcorn sales exploded that year, but according to Wikipedia, "[d]uring World War II, sugar rations diminished candy production, and Americans compensated by eating three times as much popcorn as they had before."  So maybe they ramped up that habit even more after the war was over—or maybe the increase came with more people snacking while they watched TV in the 1950s!  Here's an ad from 1952 that links the two activities:

Image courtesy of pinterest.com.

Now that I'll be posting on a more occasional basis, I've decided to retire the Blast! feature, so the official champion is Mark Diehl—congratulations again, Mark!

ideacity News

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently gave an ideacity talk in Toronto about crosswords, and part of it was about the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project.  People really seemed to enjoy the speech—I probably had a couple of hundred people come up to me over the course of my amazing three days there asking me more about crosswords and the project, which was very gratifying!  While there I was also interviewed by a reporter from a Russian publication, and another reporter plans to interview me when I'm in Vancouver at the upcoming National Puzzlers' League convention, so I'm hoping to spread the word even further.  (Maybe I should just move to Canada!)  In any case, to see a video of the talk, click here.

Davidson Young Scholars Summit

Just a few days after returning from Toronto, I headed up to Reno, where I'd been invited to be a panelist at the Davidson Young Scholars Summit.  Since the Davidson award I received in 2013 was for the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project, that's what I was asked to discuss, and I spent quite a bit of time describing the initial stages of the project, how things had developed, challenges I'd encountered, the project's current status, and what the puzzles might show us in the future.  Having a chance to talk to so many interested students and parents was really gratifying, and I think they appreciated hearing about something as fun as crosswords!

Talking about the project.

Project's Second Anniversary: At 16,000, Jim Modney's Correspondence with Eugene T. Maleska, and an Interview with Jim Modney Himself

Two years ago I started the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project with the goal of litzing and proofreading all the New York Times crossword puzzles published before Will Shortz became editor.  Little did I imagine that 24 months later, more than 60 people in the crossword community would have stepped forward to help with this effort and that together we would have litzed 16,000 of the 16,225 puzzles, with all remaining, locatable puzzles assigned to litzers—and, to top it all off, that we would have proofread nearly 20 years of puzzles!  The response from the crossword community has been incredible, and I'm so grateful to everyone who has helped to make this happen!  The recognition from outside the crossword community, from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development and Quill and Scroll, has also been very gratifying, showing that this momentous undertaking has value not just to cruciverbalists but to the world at large.  Thanks so much again, everyone, on the second anniversary of this project—maybe by next year at this time, we'll have made it through most, if not all, of the proofreading and have everything up on XWord Info!  And many, many thanks to XWord Info creator Jim Horne for continuing to host the pre-Shortzian puzzles so that everyone can enjoy and learn from them!

I'm especially honored and pleased on this anniversary to be publishing what may well be the most revealing record in existence of Eugene T. Maleska as an editor.  Thanks to pre-Shortzian and now Shortz-era constructor Jim Modney, the entire correspondence between Jim and Gene is now available, and Jim has generously allowed me to post it on Scribd.  This is truly an invaluable document, showing a little-recognized side to Maleska as both an editor and a person.  I encourage everyone to read it, even if your interactions with Maleska were less than ideal.  Click here for more.

I'm also thrilled to present an interview with Jim Modney himself.  Jim's story is fascinating—he took a 30-year break from constructing, and it's great to be able to solve his Scrabbly constructions with clever themes once again!  To read Jim's interview, click here or on the Pre-Shortzian Constructor Interviews tab above.

Thanks so much again, Jim, for saving all your correspondence and making it and your interview available to the crossword world on the second anniversary of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project!

Although Jim Modney did an excellent job of describing all his puzzles, I'm still going to highlight one this week.  Today's featured Modney opus was published Saturday, September 12, 1981; edited by Eugene T. Maleska; and litzed by Mark Diehl.  It's a splendid pangrammatic 70-worder that even contains a minitheme!  The minitheme, which consists of QUARTERFINALIST and HALFHEARTEDNESS, is fractions contained in larger (15-letter, in this case) phrases.  Jim added multiple levels of consistency to his minitheme by placing the two fractions at the fronts of his theme entries and by ensuring that both theme entries are single words.  As for the nonthematic fill, Jim squeezed in tons of fresh, Scrabbly entries without having to use a large number of subpar ones, which is very impressive given that the grid is so wide open!  My favorite entries include EQUINOX, GUANACO (which gets far less attention than CAMEL or LLAMA), EXOTICISM, EJECTABLE, BENZENE, and JOKER!  I don't love GIRTS (clued as "Measures the circumference"), LATESTS ("Avant-garde styles"), or SYCES ("Indian attendants"), but all three of these entries were used in other pre-Shortzian puzzles (in the case of SYCES, in the singular).  The real trade-off with the fill is that the grid has a handful of cheater squares, but I think Jim made a good call in going for the cleaner fill rather than for the less chunky grid.  All in all, this is a fantastic pre-Shortzian puzzle with a strong minitheme and minimal junk in the fill!  The puzzle can be viewed or solved on XWord Info; also, as usual, the answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

In closing, here's a quick update on the past week.  Saturday morning Andrew Reynolds sent 4 litzed puzzles.  A few hours later, Todd Gross sent 12 proofread puzzles, and then that afternoon, Nancy Kavanaugh sent 24 litzed puzzles.  Sunday evening, Ed Sessa sent in 7 more, putting us at exactly 16,000 on the litzing thermometer!  Late Thursday night, Todd sent 15 proofread puzzles, which were followed Friday afternoon by 30 more from Larry Wasser.  Great job, everyone—thanks so much again!

PSPP's First Anniversary, Metapuzzle Contest, Bernice Gordon Collaboration, and Project Updates

Tomorrow, June 29, will be the first anniversary of the official start of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project!  I can hardly believe that this all began just twelve months ago when I wrote the first post and we were litzing puzzles from 1992.  Now I'm writing the 70th post and we're in 1966—and at 10,237 puzzles litzed, we're nearly two-thirds of the way done!  Awesome job, everybody—at this rate, there's an excellent chance that by next year at this time, all the litzing will be complete!

In celebration, I've created the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project's First Anniversary Metapuzzle Contest—Metaleska!  You'll be able to access this free 23 x 23 cranium crusher tomorrow at 12 noon Pacific Time on XWord Info, thanks to Jim Horne!  In a special minipost tomorrow, I'll link to the exact page; you'll also be able to link to the puzzle from XWord Info's home page.  There will be a file of detailed instructions and two different formats of the puzzle:  Across Lite, for those of you who prefer to solve that way, and PDF, if you'd rather print out the puzzle.  Metaleska is offered without charge to everyone—litzers, solvers, and fans of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project (though contributions to the project are always welcome!).  There will be crossword-friendly prizes for the first correct entry and for two random correct entries as follows:

First Prize:  Splickety Lit, a spoonerism-based trivia game from the Marbles brain store

Random Prize #1:  Word.: 144 Crosswords That Prove It's Hip to be Square, by Natan Last—a compendium of crosswords written by talented young constructors

Random Prize #2:  The New York Times Little Black (and White) Book of Crosswords, by Will Shortz—a lovely spiral-bound ana of Shortz-era New York Times crosswords

So sharpen your pencils (or limber up your typing fingers) and see if you can conquer Metaleska!  All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. (one minute before midnight) Pacific Time on Saturday, July 6.

In other news, some time ago I contacted pre-Shortzian and Shortz-era crossword legend Bernice Gordon about doing an interview for this blog.   Bernice is 99 and has been an active New York Times constructor since the Margaret Farrar days!  I published that interview on April 19, and you can read it by clicking here or on the Pre-Shortzian Constructor Interviews tab above and then scrolling down.

While I was corresponding with her about the interview, it occurred to me that a collaboration between us might be not only fun but historic.  At 99, Bernice is the oldest New York Times constructor; at 16, I am currently the youngest (though I wasn't the youngest ever to publish a crossword in the Times—pre-Shortzian constructors Artie Bennett and Mike Miller were both younger than I was—14 1/2—when my first puzzle was published, as was Shortz-era constructor Ben Pall).  Bernice was excited about the idea, so we began constructing the puzzle that appeared on June 26 in the Times.

Because of the 83-year age difference, our collaboration was very interesting.  Bernice knew many older things that I didn't, and she wasn't familiar with some modern terms I used.  Deb Amlen wrote up the puzzle and interviewed us about the collaboration for Wordplay; to read her piece, click here.  In addition, a reporter from The Philadelphia Inquirer contacted me and Bernice about the collaboration and wrote about it in an article, which you can read here.  I was very honored to collaborate with such a crossword legend, and getting to know Bernice has been delightful!  I'm hoping we'll be able to meet each other in person in the not too distant future.

Back to the project:  We've made a lot of progress this week!  On Tuesday, Martin Herbach sent in 35 puzzles, putting us over 10,200!  Then Wednesday, Denny Baker sent in 7, and a few hours later, Howard Barkin sent in 21.  Todd Gross finished proofreading another month of 1982 puzzles and sent in 10 more proofread puzzles from his final month of that year.  Thanks so much, everyone!  Although the 1982 puzzles will likely be completely proofread by the end of this month, I'm going to hold off on having them posted on XWord Info until Metaleska is over, just so no one gets confused (you'll see why when you read the instructions tomorrow!).

Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle, "For the Distaff Side," was constructed by Sidney Lambert.  It was originally published on March 26, 1967, and was recently litzed by Denny Baker.  This Margaret Farrar–edited puzzle doesn't have a particularly gimmicky theme, though it does contain nine solid theme entries and the reveal WOMAN'S WORK (cleverly clued as "It's never done").  Each theme entry, such as SCRUB TEAM, starts with a stereotypical chore women did during the time period in which this puzzle was published.  The puzzle struck me as being particularly sexist.  There were plenty of women, such as Margaret Farrar herself, who achieved great things back in the 60s—I don't see the entry CROSSWORD EDITOR anywhere in the grid!  Nevertheless, this puzzle is very interesting historically in that it shows how society viewed women.  The nonthematic fill looks nice on the whole.  On the positive side, the puzzle contains SWORDS crossing SHEARS, TEAR GAS, HORNET, and TWINGE.  Also, the clue "Pieces of music." (SONGS) is reused for GLEE, ALTOS, and NOELS, which I thought was a nice touch.  I do have a few BEEFS ("Complaints: Slang."), though.  The puzzle contains ANDIRON (the IRON part of which is distracting), the partial ARM IN ("___ arm") that repeats part of the answer in its clue, and the lesser-known goddesses SPES and HESPER (the latter of which is also a less-common poetic form).  In sum, this is a historically significant Sunday puzzle that feels like an accurate representation of the average Sunday puzzle from its time period.  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

I've been on the lookout for clever pre-Shortzian clues from the early Weng era.  In most puzzles, they're few and far between, but I noticed that Weng always managed to throw in at least one thought-provoking clue per puzzle.  Here are some of my favorites:

• 5/20/69 (constructor unknown, litzed by Martin Herbach)
• Places of no return (ONE-WAY STREETS)
• 7/7/69 (constructor unknown, litzed by Jeffrey Krasnick)
• Elevator of a sort (THE COST OF LIVING)
• 1/17/71 (constructed by Herb L. Risteen, litzed by Tom Pepper)
• His living depends on net income (MAN SHOT FROM A CANNON)
• 3/2/71 (constructor unknown, litzed by Barry Haldiman)
• They keep falling on heads (RAINDROPS)
• 3/3/71 (constructor unknown, litzed by Barry Haldiman)
• Story unsuitable for a bald man (HAIR-RAISING TALE)
• Opposite of summer in the country (SIMMER IN THE CITY)

The 1/17/71 clue is, in my opinion, the coolest clue/answer pair of the bunch!  Below is a picture of a person whose living would definitely depend on net income:

Image courtesy of the Daily Mail.