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.

We're in 1991—Plus, a Litzing Tip!

Amazingly enough, we're already litzing puzzles in 1991!  Just last week, before I announced the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project, we were still in December 1992.  It's amazing how the crossword puzzle community has come together and made so much progress in such a short period of time.  At this rate, we'll be litzing the last few puzzles of 1942 in a few years!

Litzer Vic Fleming shared a very useful tip to speed up time and increase accuracy when entering the author, editor, and copyright into the information field.  He suggested saving the following template into Crossword Compiler (or other program) for litzing Maleska-edited puzzles:

Title: NY Times, Day, Mon no, 199_

Author: First last

Copyright © 199_, The New York Times.  Editor: Eugene T. Maleska.

Thanks for this great tip, Vic!

Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle was constructed by Timothy S. Lewis.  It was originally published on March 21, 1992, and was recently litzed by Mark Diehl.  Both Mark and I liked how BENJAMIN/DISRAELI symmetrically intersects with one of Disraeli's quotes.  This must have been a very lucky coincidence for Timothy S. Lewis—it's extraordinary that he was able to pull that off!  Plus, in addition to the quote and author, he also included the titles of two books that Benjamin Disraeli wrote:  Tancred and Lothair!  On top of all of this, the fill was relatively clean for a Maleska puzzle (with the exceptions of MINIE balls, the partial TRIAL BY, and SCYE).  The answer grid (with highlighted theme entries) can be seen below:

Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is SCISSEL.  According to the Ginsberg database, SCISSEL has never been reused in a Shortzian puzzle.  It originally appeared in the September 21, 1950, Margaret Farrar–edited puzzle, whose author we don't know yet.  The clue for SCISSEL was a real mouthful:  "Plates of metal with circular blanks after cutting for coinage."  Webster defines SCISSEL as "metal scrap clippings left over in various mechanical operations; esp. the remnants of fillets from which coin blanks have been punched."  Below is a picture of scissel:

Photo courtesy of the Canadian Numismatic Publishing Institute.

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.