Updated List of Missing Puzzles, Plus an Olio of Todd Gross Pre-Shortzian Constructor Research

Project Update

After sorting through the pre-Shortzian constructor names and posting the remaining PS Notes on XWord Info recently, I went through my records and put together an updated list of the missing puzzles, whose 143 dates are listed below.  A few other dates not included below were problematic, and some puzzles (such as, but not restricted to, 10/11–10/18/65) have PDFs in ProQuest, but the PDFs aren't of the puzzles that should have run—they show repeats of puzzles that appeared earlier.

If anyone wants to help search for these puzzles, be sure to read the previous posts about the missing puzzles first.  I still think the only places we might find them at this point is in old books of the daily Times crosswords (best bet) or in the Times's International or Los Angeles editions, both of which published the puzzles concurrently.  Unfortunately, now that "everything" has been put on ProQuest, locating actual copies of these old editions, even in microfilm form, may not be possible through traditional channels.  It's always possible, though, that someone somewhere kept copies of all the old International or Los Angeles papers, though after all these years their condition probably wouldn't be good.

1953 (9):  11/30, 12/1–12/8
1958 (17):  12/12–12/28
1962 (4):  12/15, 12/16, 12/23, 12/30
1963 (13):  1/6, 1/13, 1/20, 1/27, 2/3, 2/10, 2/17, 2/24, 3/3, 3/10, 3/17, 3/24, 3/31
1965 (13):  9/18, 9/25, 9/26, 10/2, 10/3, 10/10, 10/11, 10/13, 10/14–10/18
1978 (87):  8/10–8/12, 8/14–11/5

Olio of Todd Gross Pre-Shortzian Constructor Research

Litzer, proofreader, and historian Todd Gross recently sent me the results of some more of his research on pre-Shortzian constructors—here's an olio of those findings, with constructors listed alphabetically in the order of their last names.  (Puzzle totals listed may be less than the actual puzzle totals, since many puzzles lacked bylines.)

Emory Cain

Todd discovered this obituary of Emory Cain, who began his lifelong newspaper career at age 12 and published 10 puzzles in the Maleska era.

William Canine

Todd also found a puzzle published in The Lethbridge Herald [Alberta, Canada] in September 1941 by a William Canine.  The puzzle appeared 40 years before "the" William Canine's first New York Times puzzle, which was published on October 16, 1981, so whether or not this is the same person is unclear, though it seems likely.  William Canine published 65 puzzles in the Maleska era and 2 during Will Shortz's editorship.

Part of 1941 puzzle by William Canine.

Walter Covell

Photo courtesy of Conservatory Craftsmen.

Todd also discovered this obituary for Walter Covell, an entertainer who published 33 puzzles in the Maleska era and 1 in the Shortz era.  Googling a bit, I discovered that Walter also has a brief bio on IMDb, which mentions his 1985 Clue VCR Mystery Game credit (as Colonel Mustard).

Chester (Chet) Currier

Photo courtesy of AHBJ.org.

Todd found quite a bit on Chester (Chet) Currier, who published 12 puzzles in the Weng and Maleska eras and 6 in the Shortz era.  Here's an excerpt from Todd's e-mail about Chet:

He worked for the Associated Press, and while he did compose many crossword puzzles for them, his main beat was business.  In fact, he worked for Bloomberg after the AP.  Though a native New Yorker, Chet moved . . . [to] Manhattan Beach [California] in 2005 . . . but, alas, didn't get to live there long, having passed away in 2007. . . . Chet wrote crosswords for the AP as well as business articles.  At least once, he wrote an AP article about crosswords. . . .

Here's that article, which appeared in the March 5, 1979, Schenectady Gazette and is about that year's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament:

Image courtesy of Google news.

Todd also directed me to Chet's Wikipedia page, as well as to an obituary of him in the American History of Business Journalism, at AHBJ.org.

Betty Jorgensen

Although he wasn't sure he'd found the correct person, Todd told me about some research he'd done on Betty Jorgensen, who published 69 puzzles in the Maleska era (and under Mel Taub), as well as 8 in the Shortz era.  Here's Todd's report:

An S&S puzzle of hers mentions Oregon, so I used that to try and find her. . . . Well, I found a Betty Jorgensen in Portland, born in 1919 and passed away 2008.  I was able to find her obituary on the Oregonian web site. . . . Alas, the obit made no mention of crosswords, which is odd considering how many she published.  So I can't be sure I have the right person.  I've found other Betty Jorgensens, but they aren't in Oregon and don't seem to be good candidates.  I have found out a fair amount about this Betty Jorgensen . . . but, again, nothing tying her to crosswords.  But she wrote poetry, which seems fitting.

Hopefully we'll be able to identify Betty definitively at some point in the future.

Bob Lubbers

Photo courtesy of Wikia.

Following up on his research on Louise Earnest, Todd discovered some information about Bob Lubbers (who, he noted, is likely the second-oldest living New York Times constructor after Louise).  Bob, a cartoonist, published 1 puzzle under Weng and 4 in the Shortz era.  Todd found this article that, despite the byline at the top, appears to be by Bob Lubbers.  Following up on Todd's lead, I discovered that Bob has his own very extensive Wikipedia page that mentions his crossword activities!  It's a fascinating overview of Bob's creative activities and also links to the National Cartoonists Society Web site, where I found this "bio" in the Members Directory:

Image courtesy of the National Cartoonists Society.

Marjorie (Lamont) Pedersen

Photo courtesy of Medford High School.

Todd also discovered an obituary of Marjorie Pedersen, who published 12 puzzles in the Weng and Maleska eras, as well as a long document about her from the archives of Tufts University, from which she received her B.A. and where she was chairman of the Department of Shorthand and Typewriting.  Here's something that appeared toward the end of the document:

Originally published at Tufts University.

Todd wrote:

I'd never heard of this, so I asked Will about it.  He hadn't heard of it either (though he pointed out such an event wouldn't have been the first ever such meeting, he'd arrange something similar in Fairfield Co., CT in 1977).

He also found more information on someone he thinks was her:

I found a few pictures of a Marjorie Lamont, all of whom look like the same person.  But one is a high school picture from 1939, when she would have [been] 21.  So I'm enclosing a picture from a different (but not far away) high school, when she would have been 17 (almost 18).

I'm pretty sure she was born Marjorie Louise Lamont on 8 Jun 1917 somewhere in the Boston area.  In the 1940 Census she was living with her parents in Medford, MA working as a teacher in a secretarial school.

Here's what appeared next to her photo in the Medford High School 1935 yearbook:

Image courtesy of Medford High School.

Joy L. Wouk

Finally, Todd discovered that a special edition of Random House's Sunday crossword series (volume 25) mentioned that Joy was the "sister of noted novelist Herman Wouk."  Apparently, though, she was actually Herman's sister-in-law—her husband, Victor, was Herman's brother.  Joy, who published 124 puzzles in the Maleska era (and under Mel Taub) and 9 in the Shortz era, passed away in 2008, as documented in this brief Times obituary.

Thanks so much again, Todd, for all your great research and leads!  It's especially nice, too, to finally have photos of some of these constructors!

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.

40 Years of Puzzles Up, Alan DerKazarian's Missing Puzzles Research, Spreading the Word at ideacity, Upcoming Changes, and Mark Diehl Six-Time Blast! Winner

Project Update

This week we hit another milestone when I sent the proofread 1954 puzzles to XWord Info—there are now 40 years of puzzles up for everyone to enjoy!  Thanks again to Jim Horne for hosting them and making sure they're displayed as well as they can be!

The proofread puzzles have been coming in at a more relaxed pace over the past two weeks, in part because there's not much proofreading left!  The evening of Saturday, May 30, Denny Baker sent in 13 puzzles, after which I e-mailed him the very last batch for proofreading—all the way back to February 15, 1942!  Sunday morning he sent in those 11 puzzles, and then Monday afternoon Dave Phillips sent 6 more.  Tuesday afternoon, May 2, Mark Diehl sent in 13 puzzles from a ship on his way to Tallinn, and then about an hour later another 9.  There are only a few more puzzles out there, and I'm hoping to have those back within the next two weeks.  After that, there won't be any more litzing or proofreading until we're able to track down some of those missing puzzles!  Great job, everyone—thanks so much again!

Alan DerKazarian's Missing Puzzles Research

A couple of months ago I received an e-mail from Alan DerKazarian, a librarian at the Cambridge [Massachusetts] Public Library.  Since there's a New England edition of The New York Times, Alan wondered whether the Boston Public Library might have microfilms of the missing puzzles and volunteered to check.  Unfortunately, he wasn't able to find anything there; he did discover, though, that in 1948 the Times introduced an international edition, which was produced in New York and airmailed to Paris for publication a day later.  "Starting in 1960," Alan reported, "it was set by teletype for same-day publication."  Apparently in 1967 the Times discontinued its international edition and joined with the owners of the defunct Herald Tribune and The Washington Post to publish The International Herald Tribune in Paris.

Image courtesy of andrewcusack.com.

"So the international edition of the Times was never produced in Europe," he concluded, "meaning the paper strikes likely affected production of these issues as well."  Alan recommended contacting either the New York Public Library or the Times (which, I told him, someone else had already tried).  Alan had originally suggested I try traveling to Europe—a suggestion I liked a lot, by the way!  But since it will be a while before I'm able to do that, if any readers in Great Britain or France would like to look into this some more, I'd be most grateful!

Despite Alan's discouraging findings, I still do have hope that we'll locate at least some of the puzzles.  Margaret Farrar wrote the following in her introduction to Crosswords from the Daily Times–Series 9:

The crosswords that appear daily on the book page of The New York Times have been published concurrently in Paris and in Los Angeles since the inauguration of the International and the Western editions, in 1960 and 1962, respectively.  When newspaper publication in New York was suspended, in December 1962, the crosswords kept on going, flying east and west, until the twain met again in New York on April 1, 1963.

Those 100 puzzles appeared in this book and have already been litzed, but there are still many more missing puzzles from other strikes and because of ProQuest mistakes.  Hopefully we'll eventually find them; in the meantime, thanks so much again, Alan, for your great research!

Mark Diehl Six-Time Blast! Winner

On Monday, June 1 at 2:28 p.m.—just three days after I posted the May 29 Blast! challenge, with only three letters revealed, and while traveling between Copenhagen and Tallinn—Mark Diehl sent in the correct answer and became the first six-time winner!  Congratulations again, Mark!   The clue from the March 20, 1952, puzzle was "Reluctant new taxpayer."  The answer:  BOOKMAKER.  I'll bet there were plenty of objections to that change!

Image courtesy of sportsbookreview.com.

The new Blast! challenge is up in the sidebar, and it's a doozy—good luck!

Spreading the Word at ideacity

On Monday I'm heading off to Toronto, where I'll be giving an ideacity talk about crosswords.  Part of my speech will focus on The Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project—I'm looking forward to spreading the word about our amazing progress in such a (relatively!) short period of time!

Upcoming Changes

Right after I get back from Canada, I'll be leaving to be part of a panel discussion in Nevada, so the next blog post will appear after I return, on Monday, June 29, instead of Friday the 26th.  And then I'll be heading up to Vancouver for the National Puzzlers' League convention—and a couple of weeks later, to Northern California.  With all this traveling, my schedule will be pretty busy and irregular, so instead of posting each week on Friday, I'll be writing as time permits when there's news or a feature to present.  Now that the proofreading is almost done, there won't be weekly updates to report, but I'll still be posting when the puzzles go off to XWord Info and when (not if!) there's new information about the missing puzzles.

Featured Puzzle

Today's featured puzzle was constructed by Roberta Morse; published September 6, 1954; edited by Margaret Farrar; litzed by yours truly; and proofread by Mark Diehl.  The puzzle has been uploaded to XWord Info, so you can solve it before reading the write-up.  This crossword's theme is centered around a nifty little number rebus.  I especially like that the 1, 2, 3, and 4 squares appear in order in the grid, even though they're not placed symmetrically.  I also appreciate that 1-Down is literally 1 DOWN—and, by extension, that the 1 is in square one.  I find it slightly off-putting that the FIVE in FIVE STAR ADMIRAL is spelled out, but I appreciate the effort to make the central 15-letter entry thematic.  I personally would have preferred a reveal entry in that position, but given that this is likely the first published rebus crossword, I'm more awestruck by the innovation than annoyed by the minor inconsistency!  By bringing the word count up to 80, the constructor was able to keep the fill smooth and incorporate a handful of lively entries into the nonthematic fill.  My favorites are BARRACUDA, OVERTHROW, TEETOTALER, THUNDERS, BARNYARD, and ENDEARMENT—that's a lot of zip for a themed puzzle, let alone a rebus!  Conversely, the constructor was stuck with the awkward partial LAK A (as in "Mighty Lak a Rose"), CIRO (clued as "Well-known Paris restaurateur."), JURA ("Franco-Swiss mountain range."), and SAROS ("Gulf of the Aegean Sea.").  I also wasn't thrilled to see TEN STONE in the grid, since it contains a number that's not part of the sequence.  This is a remarkably small number of liabilities given all the assets, though!  So even with its drawbacks, this puzzle is definitely one of my favorites from 1954.  I am, however, a bit surprised that Margaret Farrar chose to run it on a Monday—usually she saved puzzles that were extra-tricky for Saturdays.  Then again, the fill was pretty clean, and I remember reading somewhere that Margaret's philosophy about difficulty was that higher word counts led to easier solves.  This raises an interesting point:  Was Margaret right?  My first instinct would be to disagree, since any puzzle can be made easier or more challenging via the clues.  Also, many ambitious stunt puzzles (such as bidirectional rebuses) require grids with higher word counts to pull off.  That said, puzzles with higher word counts also tend to have more shorter entries, and there are only so many 3-, 4-, and 5-letter entries that show up in crosswords.  Often, these common short entries are difficult to disguise, even if their clues are tough.  Take ENERO in my New York Times crossword that was published today.  The clue was "Part of summer in Latinoamerica," which is definitely not as straightforward as "January, to Juan," but I would still instantly fill in ENERO since . . . what else could it be?  Perhaps the difference between average and expert solvers is that experts have a predetermined list of common entries subconsciously at the fronts of their brains—when they see a new clue, they automatically run through this list and frequently land on the correct answer instantaneously.  In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed looking through this Roberta Morse crossword.  The solution grid (with highlighted theme entries) appears below; the puzzle can also be accessed and analyzed on XWord Info here.

Interview with Charles M. Deber, New Litzer of the Month John Farmer, Susan O'Brien's Research, Howard Barkin's Crossword Compiler 9 Tip, and More Publicity

Today I'm delighted to present a fascinating interview with pre-Shortzian and Shortz-era constructor Charles M. Deber!  Charles is a research scientist in Toronto who has published 37 puzzles in The New York Times (35 of them Sundays!) and still builds his puzzles by hand.  To read his interview, click here or on the Pre-Shortzian Constructor Interviews tab above.

We also have a new Litzer of the Month:  John Farmer!  John is a New York Times constructor with many interests who runs more than 100 miles a month.  To read more about him, click here or on the Litzer of the Month tab above.

Shortly after last week's post came up, John sent in 8 puzzles.  Then Friday evening, I litzed a reassigned Sunday puzzle and put us at 15,900 on the litzing thermometer!  Saturday afternoon, new litzer George Barany sent in 1 puzzle.  Sunday afternoon, Todd Gross sent in 11 proofread puzzles, which were followed that evening by 3 litzed puzzles from Mike Buckley.  Monday morning, new litzer Jon Delfin sent 1 puzzle, which was followed by 2 more from Lynn Feigenbaum that afternoon.  Then Thursday morning, Tracy Bennett sent in another month of proofread puzzles, and late that night, Mark Diehl sent in 12 more litzed puzzles.  And this week Howard Barkin sent in two more months of proofread puzzles!  Thanks so much again, everybody—we're now at 15,919 on the litzing thermometer!

Great news:  Two more litzers decided to try proofreading this week and received their first packets:  Jeffrey Krasnick and Lynn Feigenbaum!  We have thousands of puzzles that need proofreading, so please let me know if you'd like to try the fun but diabolical proofreading self-test!

This week some new bios came in for the Meet the Litzers page—the following people now appear there:  Stephen Edward Anderson, George Barany, Tracy Bennett, Peter Broda, Ralph Bunker, Jeff Chen, Mark Diehl, Vic Fleming, Mangesh Ghogre, Todd Gross, Barry Haldiman, Angela Halsted, Garrett Hildebrand, Nancy Kavanaugh, Roy Leban, Matthew Mitchell (Braze), Adam Nicolle, Doug Peterson, me, Alex Vratsanos, Larry Wasser, and Brad Wilber.  Some litzers and proofreaders who don't have bios on the Meet the Litzers page have appeared on the Litzer of the Month page or in articles elsewhere on the site.  If you're a litzer or proofreader who hasn't yet sent in a bio and photo specifically for the Meet the Litzers page and would like to, please e-mail them to me.  (Also, if you'd like to update your current bio, please send me the new information, and I'll make the changes.)

This week I received an e-mail from litzer Susan O'Brien, who decided to research the missing pre-Shortzian puzzles by querying the New York Public Library to see whether it had the International edition of The New York Times.  Unfortunately, she received this response:

"The New York Public Library only subscribes to the Late City edition. Even the microfilm collection of The New York Times is that of the Late City edition, as is the various database platforms (such as, the "ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2010) with Index (1851-1993)."

Even though this was a dead end, it was still very helpful, because it's one potential avenue we can cross off our list.  Thanks so much again for checking this out, Susan!  I'll be doing some more research myself this summer on the missing puzzles, and I'm hoping to have better news to report at a later date.

I also received an e-mail from litzer (and now proofreader!) Howard Barkin this week in which he shared the following very timely tip about Crossword Compiler 9:

A helpful note, grid mistakes can be corrected (In Crossword Compiler 9, at least) without further clue issues by enabling the option in Options->Preferences, Clue Editing tab, "Changing grid does not delete clue".

I don't know how many times I've found a grid mistake while proofreading, then corrected it (which deletes the affected clues), and then had to retype in the clues!  This is a great tip, Howard—thanks so much again!

The Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project got some more publicity yesterday!  It was part of an article Kasey Dallman wrote about the Davidson Fellows for Amazing Kids! Magazine—to read it, click here and scroll down.

Today's featured puzzle, "Playing the Angles," which can be solved on XWord Info, was constructed by Charles M. Deber, published April 4, 1982, and litzed by Barry Haldiman (or one of his former team of litzers).  This brilliant, complex construction, which was Charles's New York Times debut, features ten in-the-language, symmetrically arranged theme entries that relate to directions, bending around corners, or overcrowding, such as UP AGAINST THE WALL, AROUND THE HORN, and MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY.  The catch is that each of these entries turns 90 degrees midway through the entry and continues in a different direction!  I've seen puzzles with entries that twist and turn in more recent years, but I believe this puzzle is the earliest example of such a clever gimmick.  What's even more amazing is that this puzzle was constructed entirely by hand—it must have been a real challenge to produce a grid that accommodated for both the vertical and horizontal components of each theme entry!

Deber not only produced such a grid but also was able to make the fill largely junk-free!  I don't love the partials MILE A, AT EIGHT, or TO HER, and UME, RIE, RESCH, and GLOSSIC seem a bit tough, but these entries are a small price to pay for the groundbreaking theme and fun entries like HOT SPOT, TOUCANS, and PULSATES.  I also find it funny that 1-Across starts with a C and 5-Across is DEBAR (sort of like C. Deber!)—I wonder if this was intentional!  And although I'm not familiar with BOUFFES (clued as "Comic operas"), it's a lot of fun to say and looks really cool in the grid!  Merriam-Webster notes that BOUFFE is short for opéra bouffe, which means "a satirical comic opera" and ultimately derives from the Italian opera buffa.  The etymology of the word TRULL ("Strumpet"), an old-fashioned term for a woman of loose morals, is also fascinating—it ultimately derives from the Old French troller, which meant "to hunt for game without a scent or path."  At some point in the 1500s, someone must have interpreted the aimless hunter as the woman with loose morals and the game as the men she interacted with!  In all, this is a thematically exceptional pre-Shortzian puzzle that added several new words to my vocabulary.  The puzzle can be viewed and analyzed on XWord Info, where Jim Horne made this unusual gimmick look awesome!  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can also be seen below, although the grid is numbered slightly differently in the PDF (and XWord Info) versions.

Litzing Contest Poll Results, Over 15,000, List of Missing Puzzles, and Another Stan Newman Book Treasure

The results of last week's poll are in!  There were only seven votes, which leads me to think that most people didn't feel strongly one way or the other.  Of those seven, though, one person was in favor of running the contest and finishing the litzing, one didn't want the contest because of training for the ACPT, three didn't want the contest because they preferred that we take our time, and two weren't sure and said either way would be fine.  So since more than half the votes were against running the contest, we'll just proceed as usual rather than embarking on a World War II–era crossword "litzkrieg"!

We passed another milestone this week:  15,000 litzed puzzles!  Great job, everyone!  The week started off with 7 puzzles from Vic Fleming on Saturday afternoon.  Early Sunday morning, Jeffrey Krasnick sent in 16 puzzles, bringing his total to 1,000 litzed puzzles—congratulations, Jeffrey!  That afternoon, Lynn Feigenbaum sent 7 more puzzles, then that night, Denny Baker sent in 7 puzzles.  Monday evening, Todd McClary sent 5 puzzles, putting us over 15,000 on the litzing thermometer!  Tuesday evening, Vic sent 6 more puzzles, then 10 minutes later sent 7 more!  Wednesday morning, Lynn sent in 7 more puzzles, which were followed by 7 from Barry Haldiman that afternoon.  Friday morning, Barry sent in another 7, which were followed by 7 from Lynn that afternoon.  And Howard Barkin sent in 21 puzzles this week.  Thanks so much again, everybody—we're at 15,065 and in the home stretch!

Some time ago I mentioned that as we got closer to the end, I'd post a list of the missing puzzles.  I've grouped them below into those that were missing because of newspaper strikes and those that were missing for some other reason.  None of these missing puzzles and/or solutions could be found on ProQuest.  When I searched for some of them on microfilm, they weren't there either.  Though if necessary we can try solving the puzzles that are just missing solutions, I think the best bet with the newspaper strike puzzles is to search for them in papers that ran the puzzles concurrently.  Margaret Farrar, in her foreword to Crosswords from the Daily Times, Series 9, said that during the strike between December 1962 and April 1963, the daily puzzles were published concurrently in the International and Los Angeles editions of The New York Times.  This book contains those daily puzzles from that period, so we already have them.  But we're still missing Sunday puzzles from that time, as well as many daily and Sunday puzzles from other strikes.  I'm planning to continue trying to find these puzzles when I have more time this summer, but if anyone wants to try now, that would be great!  If you do find anything, please send me the PDFs, and I'll update this list.

Newspaper strike:  129 missing puzzles (and their solutions)
11/30–12/8/53 (9 puzzles; 12/6 is Sunday)
12/12–12/28/58 (17 puzzles; 12/14, 12/21, & 12/28 are Sundays)
12/16, 12/23, 12/30/62 (3 Sundays)
1/6, 1/13, 1/20, 1/27/63 (4 Sundays)
2/3, 2/10, 2/17, 2/24/63 (4 Sundays)
3/3, 3/10, 3/17, 3/24, 3/31/63 (5 Sundays)
8/10–8/12/78 (3 puzzles)
8/14–11/5/78 (84 puzzles; 8/20, 8/27, 9/3, 9/10, 9/17, 9/24, 10/1, 10/8, 10/15, 10/22, 10/29, & 11/5 are Sundays)

Others:  10
9/18, 9/25, & 10/2/65 (3 Saturday puzzles—Sunday-like puzzles appeared instead)
10/9, 10/11, 10/13, 10/14, 10/15, 10/16 (solutions for these 6 daily puzzles were incorrect and actually were for earlier puzzles—correct solutions for these 6 dates were never printed)
9/19/65 (solution to this Sunday puzzle missing)

Today's featured puzzle, whose constructor is unknown, was originally published on May 22, 1965; edited by Margaret Farrar; and litzed by Todd McClary.  This puzzle's 14 music-related theme entries aren't arranged symmetrically and are rather inconsistent in that some are legitimate musical terms (such as BARREL ORGAN), while others are unrelated entries with a musical term in them (such as STRING BEAN).  Nonetheless, the theme density and theme entry interlock are jaw-dropping!  Even better, many of the theme entries have humorous and clever clues, which give the puzzle a unique, Weng-like feel.  My favorites of the wackier, less plausible theme entry/clue pairs include ROUND STEAK ("Food for certain singers."), CONTRABAND ("Loot, apparently in opposition to the orchestra."), BASS ("Fish for F clef readers."), and RAG ("Duster liked by jazz men.").  BUGLE BEADS ("Trimmings for brass instruments."), TRUMPETWEED ("Shrubby plant for brass."), and WIND DRIFT ("Average breeze direction for a brass instrumentalist.") feel less familiar as words/phrases than do the other theme entries; still, I'm impressed that the constructor was able to find any theme entries for those spots, especially given how many other theme entries they had to cross and that there were no computerized word lists to search through back in 1965.  The nonthematic fill is also impressively clean, which I think justifies the use of 45 blocks—I'd much rather see a puzzle with too many words and/or too many blocks than a puzzle with a whole slew of partials and obscurities.  That said, there are a few small entries that feel weak, particularly ORF ("A fish, the yellow ide.") and DKS ("Ship levels: Abbr."); also, I wasn't familiar with BALCONETS ("Railings outside windows.").  While I was hunting for a definition of balconet, I discovered that the term also refers to a bra style that came into fashion in the 1950s.  I'm definitely not surprised that Margaret Farrar defined BALCONETS as the railings!  Speaking of defining, this puzzle had quite a few more interesting clues than usual.  AOK was clued Space Age–style as "Astronaut's 'all's well.'," IBM had the fascinating precomputer clue "Type of ballistic missile.," BUG was defined colloquially as "Hidden mike: Slang.," and LAURA had the semithematic clue "Lady of classic lyrics."  In sum, although this puzzle is a bit crazy, I think it's very cool and a nice example of how Margaret Farrar was willing to bend the rules once in a while.  Here's the answer grid (with highlighted theme entries):

I was looking through the collection of crossword books Stan Newman sent me last year and discovered six volumes of Bible crosswords that date back to the 1920s and 1930s.  Two of these books were published in 1925, though neither one has more specific publication specs; I'm guessing the older of the two (and the oldest in my collection) is Bible Cross-Word Puzzle Book, by Reverend Paul J. Hoh.

The back cover notes that the author was a pastor at the Lutheran Church of the Ascension in Mt. Airy, Pennsylvania, and states that the Bible Cross-Word Puzzle Book was the first of its kind.  The back cover also implies that the book was written as supplementary material for religious education, noting that a "[p]amphlet containing solutions will be sent upon receipt of fifteen cents."  I find it fascinating that the author chose to leave out the solutions, especially since errata in crossword books are almost inevitable.  I have noticed that many of the earliest crossword puzzle books didn't include solutions, but since this is a book of crosswords intended for religious schools, I have to wonder whether the author intentionally left out the solutions to discourage students from cheating (which he may have considered sinful).  Luckily, Stan also happened to have the detached solutions pamphlet for this book, which contains a date stamp reading FEB 21 1925, a slip of paper reading "Deaccessioned from the NYPL after microfilming" (!), and a foreword not found in the book itself that reflects crossword solvers' attitudes in the earliest days of the checkered pastime's popularity.  The fascinating anecdotal middle paragraph reads as follows:

A teacher recently entered a Sunday school room and found four of the older boys absorbed in the solution of a Cross-Word Puzzle in a daily paper.  He helped them over some hard places, and was struck by the fact that when he supplied an unusual word the boys invariably asked its meaning.  That is the value of the "Bible Cross-Word Puzzle Book."  It concentrates attention upon the Bible.  Instead of Webster's the solver must use the Bible or Bible Dictionary or Concordance, and naturally he will want to know something about the names and unusual words he finds.  He cannot fail to increase his Bible knowledge.

What really makes this paragraph interesting to me is how solvers in the early days were so open to learning about and researching unfamiliar words and phrases.  If a handful of obscure biblical references were used in a crossword today, crossword bloggers and commenters would likely throw their virtual hands up in frustration and see the puzzle in a very negative light.  So what has happened to crossword solvers over the course of nearly a century?  My impression is that everyone in general has become more impatient.  People no longer care for crossword puzzles that simply build vocabulary or knowledge—nowadays, in order to be well received, themed crosswords must be fantastically twisty and filled with common words to the greatest degree possible.  It's interesting that the way in which puzzles provide entertainment has completely changed.

Anyway, on to the Bible crosswords themselves.  Although the puzzles have a sizable number of two-letter words, unchecked squares, and disconnected regions, they're jam-packed with theme entries.  Almost all the biblical clues read in the style of "A city of Shinar. (Gen. 10.)" [for ERECH]; when the constructor got stuck pluralizing a biblical term, it received a clue like "An Eastern Country. Poss. (II Kg. 16.)" [KIR'S].  I was a bit disappointed to discover that the author used a single clue each time an entry appeared (CANA was clued as "Where Jesus performed first miracle." in puzzle 1 and puzzle 2).  I assume the constructor didn't vary the clues because he wanted his solvers to feel like they had learned something that could then immediately be applied to a subsequent puzzle, though seeing the same definitions over and over again makes one's solving experience rather dull.  One aspect of puzzle construction in which the author was exceptionally creative was grid design.  At 9 x 9 and 11 x 11, the Bible crosswords' grids were smaller than those of most contemporary crosswords; however, the constructor still found ways to make them resemble religious items ranging from a candelabra (puzzle 12) to a church (puzzle 28).

PUZZLE No. 12 

PUZZLE No. 28

Puzzle 30 goes so far as to make the grid look like a pyramid!  The constructor accomplished some of these wacky grid designs by using black and white circles and triangles in conjunction with the traditional black and white squares.

PUZZLE No. 30

One puzzle in this book (15) stands out to me as being truly brilliant and nearly a century ahead of its time!  The grid is shaped like a compass rose, and the clue headings read AROUND THE CENTER and TOWARD CENTER rather than the traditional HORIZONTAL and VERTICAL.  The entries NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, and WEST are pre-entered into the grid, and solvers are required to rotate the book to enter answers into the grid.  Seeing such creativity in a crossword puzzle from 1925 is awesome!

PUZZLE No. 15

All in all, I very much enjoyed looking through Paul J. Hoh's Bible Cross-Word Puzzle Book!  Thanks again to Stan Newman for sending me part of his collection of old crossword books, and I look forward to seeing what other interesting puzzles crop up in the other books I have from that time period!