116. ACPT Snapshots

A few random thoughts about the three finalists in this past weekend’s American Crossword Puzzle Tournament…

112. Puzzling Thoughts: Sunday Solving

Coming across this old, unpublished cartoon in my files, it struck me that those who solve the print version of the Sunday NY Times might enjoy it.

110. Mr. E. Writer

One of my favorite authors, Donald E. Westlake, died this past week at the age of 75. I didn’t know him and never met him. My memories consist only of reading his incredibly clever and funny mysteries — with one exception. In 2002 a crossword puzzle appeared in The New York Times with the byline Donald E. West. I wondered, Could it be yet another of his many pen names, especially since the missing “lake” was suspiciously planted in the bottom right corner of the grid?

104. The Simpsons Pop-up

On Sunday, November 16, episode #2006 of The Simpsons featured New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz and master constructor Merl Reagle. Here’s a pop-up image from the show.

Click on the image to enlarge:

92. Puzzling Thoughts…

…about the birth of crossword blogs. As far as I know, Curtis Yee was the first daily crossword blogger with THIS ENTRY on April 18, 2005 (scroll down to the bottom). Curtis gave it up later that year but went on to create some very nice puzzles for The New York Times and Los Angeles Times.

Also worth checking out is Curtis’s music on his homepage, kazoo and all. Once you go HERE, click on the “Music” link. My personal favorite is “Songs about Milk” toward the bottom of the list. I challenge you to listen to it without smiling.

89. Puzzling Thoughts…

…about the People Puzzler Book: Jumbo Edition — on newsstands April 14th! It’s got Harry Potter, Dirty Harry, Prince Harry, When Harry Met Sally, Deborah Harry, Harri-son Ford, and the Donald’s hair. Twenty “puzzlers” (13×13 crosswords) and twenty “jumbos” (17×17 crosswords) in the book are mine — but don’t let that stop you! The book has another 20 jumbos and 14 classic puzzlers from the past, plus profiles on Brad, Katie, Zac, Ben, Julia, Rihanna, Oprah, Catherine, Carrie, and George!

Have you read every issue of People and don’t know what to do with all that knowledge? Here’s the answer!

88. Puzzling Thoughts…

…about turnaround time. Today marks two contrasting crossword records for me: the longest and shortest waits between submission and publication.

Wednesday’s New York Times crossword was carefully aged for 3 years (3 years, 1 month, 2 days to be exact) while a March Madness crossword I created for Sports Illustrated is appearing only 3 days after being handed in (5 if you count from when it was assigned).

For all you solvers who can’t get enough sports clues in your crosswords, the Sports Illustrated puzzle is in the April 7th Final Four issue. It should be on newsstands today or tomorrow.

82. Puzzling Thoughts…

…about the 2008 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. I’ll have this week’s cartoon up at some point, but it’s much easier to string together a few random (spoiler-free) thoughts than think up a cartoon:

52. Clue Rules, updated

Post #17, the list of Crossword Clue Rules, has gotten a bit of massaging since it was first posted about two months ago. Part of this is thanks to a few behind the scene suggestions passed my way. One somewhat new way of looking at slang usage (for me anyway) is now included in rule #5: “there are three basic categories of words — standard, informal, and slang — and a clue can often move one category without further hint.”

34. Puzzling Thoughts…

…about Wink Martindale. I noticed answers.com has him listed as a spoken word artist. And it got me to thinking that crossword constructors could have a highfalutin title like that too. Word arrangement artist is nice, except that it leaves out the clue-writing part. How about word manipulation artist? Or am I overlooking something that’s even more magniloquent?

If you’d like to learn more about Wink, such as the fact that his real name is Winston C. Martindale, click on the photo above to go to Wink’s World. 

29. Puzzling Thoughts…

…about my first MAD magazine submission, which I made at the age of 14 (see below). It included a cover letter with a snappy “sell” line that my father suggested (top right). As you can see, it inspired an even snappier response from the MAD Editors.

My next submission came 20 years later. Unfortunately I had it delivered by messenger on the same day that someone tried to break into their offices. I got a phone call from the art director the next day (on speaker phone, with others listening) to question me as a suspect in the case!

I managed to elude capture and finally made my first sale six years later — a page of celebrity anagrams. I’ve included six of them below, which you can try your luck at deciphering (keep in mind they’re from the year 2000). Answers in the comments.

1. TRASH WONDER _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _
2. HAD ANTICS IN BRA _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
3. THE GLORIFIED FAKE _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ _ _
4. ODD IN MANNERS _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ _
5. LO-FAT CHICK/L.A. STAR _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
6. ERROR MADE—PLANS HALT [it's not a person]
_ _ _ . _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ _

25. Puzzling Thoughts…

…about The Partridge Family. It turns out I’m not the first person in my family to have a published crossword puzzle. My wife, Mary Dee, beat me out by about 25 years with this creation.

21. Puzzling Thoughts…

…about favorite clues. A couple of recent posts here got me thinking about my favorite crossword clue that I’ve written. Not the best or funniest or cleverest, just my favorite. This is the clue: Extinct Namibian shrub genus: Var.

Pretty bad, isn’t it? But there’s a reason for that. There are also a few interesting incidents surrounding the puzzle in which it appeared (NYT, January 15, 2004). You can try the puzzle if you’d like [CLICK HERE for a PDF] or just read on. Sorry, Across Lite won’t work for it.

19. Puzzling Thoughts…

…about coffee. Coffee is the world’s second favorite drink (after water) and the beverage of choice for many puzzle solvers. So what could be better than a palm-size, 320-page puzzle and trivia book about coffee?

COFFEE TIME debuts Friday, August 31st ($8.95), and I challenge you to read the book and not find 100 interesting things about coffee that you didn’t know before. Even better, the book is filled with an entertaining and amusing array of original crosswords, sudoku, word puzzles, brainteasers, word searches, acrostics, mazes, quizzes, and cryptograms. Here’s a sneak peek inside…

17. Puzzling Thoughts…

…about crossword clues. The subject of crossword clue rules, and the lack of a written list of them, recently came up on The New York Times crossword forum. There are a few places I know of that address the topic. Patrick Berry’s Crossword Puzzle Challenges for Dummies and Matt Gaffney’s The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Crossword Puzzles & Word Games have lots of information on writing clues. Also, there’s Sage Advice on cruciverb.com (some cluing discussion); The NYT Crosswords to Boost Your Brainpower (with solving and cluing tips from Will Shortz and Frank Longo); and Amy Reynaldo’s How to Conquer the NYT Crossword Puzzle (although it’s more about solving than cluing).

In an attempt to remedy this situation a bit, I wrote down the first 20 rules [updated to 23] of crossword cluing that came to mind. It’s certainly not the complete or final word on the topic, but I think it addresses most of the main issues.