I am thrilled to announce that Jim Horne has generously agreed to donate all August XWord Info contributions to the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project! This is great news—I'm looking forward to using this money to buy more Margaret Farrar daily puzzle books, which will be used to continue matching up puzzles with their constructors, as well as for other project-related purposes. Jim also wrote an amazing blog post, which you can read here, about the project and August contributions!
Thanks so much, Jim!
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
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:
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.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Vic Fleming's Column on Litzing (Part 1)
I'm delighted to announce that the first column in Vic Fleming's series on litzing and the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project was published today in the Daily Record, and you can read it here. Thanks so much, Vic—this was a great piece, and I'll be posting the next installments as they're published!
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Back in the Maleska Era, Commenting, Sunday Puzzles, and an Interesting Article
I'm pleased to announce that we're now litzing puzzles in the Maleska era again, this time in 1990! We blasted through several months of Margaret Farrar puzzles, increasing the total number of litzed puzzles from just over 2,000 to just under 2,200. Keep up the great work, everyone—before we know it, we really will have only Margaret Farrar puzzles left to litz!
Also, feel free to leave comments on the blog posts! Since I moderate all comments, they may not display immediately, though. Please keep the comments positive and on the topic of crosswords, litzing, or the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project in general.
I've recently started including Sunday puzzles in PDF packets. So far I've seen some very cool pre-Shortzian Sundays, including a crossword/cryptogram combo constructed by Eugene T. Maleska and a puzzle with the letter A removed from every entry in the style of a vowelless variety puzzle!
A few days ago I discovered a very interesting New York Times article about pre-Shortzian constructors and editors, which you can see here. The article, originally published in 1988, discusses the style differences between traditionalist editors, such as Eugene T. Maleska and William Lutwiniak, and the so-called new wave editors, such as Will Shortz and Stan Newman. My favorite part of the article is the "Oreo War" paragraph. I'm so glad I no longer see the pre-Shortzian clues for OREO anymore! For those of you who are curious, below is a picture of an oreortyx.
Today's featured pre-Shortzian puzzle was constructed by Herbert Ettenson. It was originally published on May 29, 1954, and was recently litzed by Mark Diehl. Amazingly, this puzzle included eight symmetrical theme entries! Each theme entry was clued as "Nonsense." My favorite theme entries are FLAPDOODLE and GALIMATIAS because they sound so cool! In addition, the puzzle included the semi-theme entry YAKS, which was clued as "Talks nonsense: Slang." On top of all of this, the fill was remarkably clean. GODSPEED and MESS HALL are terrific entries!
Also, feel free to leave comments on the blog posts! Since I moderate all comments, they may not display immediately, though. Please keep the comments positive and on the topic of crosswords, litzing, or the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project in general.
I've recently started including Sunday puzzles in PDF packets. So far I've seen some very cool pre-Shortzian Sundays, including a crossword/cryptogram combo constructed by Eugene T. Maleska and a puzzle with the letter A removed from every entry in the style of a vowelless variety puzzle!
A few days ago I discovered a very interesting New York Times article about pre-Shortzian constructors and editors, which you can see here. The article, originally published in 1988, discusses the style differences between traditionalist editors, such as Eugene T. Maleska and William Lutwiniak, and the so-called new wave editors, such as Will Shortz and Stan Newman. My favorite part of the article is the "Oreo War" paragraph. I'm so glad I no longer see the pre-Shortzian clues for OREO anymore! For those of you who are curious, below is a picture of an oreortyx.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
Today's featured pre-Shortzian entry is CINCHONA. According to the Ginsberg database, CINCHONA has never been reused in a Shortzian puzzle. It originally appeared in the September 30, 1992, puzzle by Joy L. Wouk, which was litzed by Dan Schoenholz. The clue for CINCHONA was "Quinine-supplying tree." Webster lists two definitions of cinchona: "any of a genus (Cinchona) of South American trees and shrubs of the madder family" and "the dried bark of a cinchona (as C. Ledgeriana) containing alkaloids (as quinine) and formerly used as a specific in malaria." Cinchona comes from New Latin but more specifically from the name of a Peruvian viceroy's wife dubbed "The Countess of Chinchรณn." Below is a picture of a cinchona.
Image courtesy of Access Excellence.
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