Summary | Quotes | References

Summary

• Puzzles provide opportunities for
• fun and joy -- perhaps already (or after you're finished this class)?
• wordplay and humor
• creativity
• focus and flow
• surprise
• distraction

Quotes

• "In the 1980s, a new group of puzzlemakers saw that crosswords
  were starting to remind them of their worst teachers from grade school...
  Wouldn't it be more fun and attract more solvers if puzzles were a little more playful?
  Just a smidge trickier and a lot wittier? ~NYT obit: Merl Reagle
• "I like to see the crossword puzzle as... half-full.
  The solid black squares were the only ones I could figure out,
  so that's something."
• I woke up the other day with a puzzled look on my face...
  I had fallen asleep on my crossword.
• I suspect there will never be an edible version of a crossword...
  but if there is, I'll eat my words.
• I just tried to present my crossword app as... a boarding pass,
  so today is going well."
• Yes, crosswords are a lot like life...
  they're only boring if you don't have sense of adventure." ~Mary in All About Steve
• "Puzzles are like songs --... A good puzzle can give you all the pleasure of being
  duped that a mystery story can. It has surface innocence, surprise, the revelation
  of a concealed meaning, and the catharsis of solution." ~Stephen Sondheim
• "Total absorption in a task ('flow') is a state... that some artists experience
  in their creative moments and that many other people achieve when enthralled
  by a film, a book, or a crossword puzzle: interruptions are not welcome"
  ~Thinking, Fast and Slow; Daniel Kahneman

• 
  

  [If your job title is] "'long-range planner' or 'lieutenant governor,'...
  you are pretty much free to lounge around and do crossword
  puzzles until retirement." ~Dave Barry; How to Attend a Meeting

• "Why did Will Shortz... go to the therapist?
  What kind of necklace was Will Shortz wearing?
  What kind of pillow did Will Shortz sleep on?"
  ~Natasha Lyonne Cracks a Few Crossword Jokes;
  video: 0:34; 7/26/2018
• "What's a nine-letter word for 'fun'?...
  C r _ _ _ _ _ _ _" ~dictionary.com
• "Life is Shortz." ~NYT Crossword in Gothic
• "puzzle-head: someone who's crazy about crosswords"
• "If I have to choose between cleaning and doing a crossword,...
  it would have to be the crossword every time."
  ~The Crossword Lady in How Clean Is Your House #1 [video; 7:56]
• "I'm a games and theory kind of guy. I love puzzles,...
  so it was fun dissecting Shakespeare's prose." ~Neil Patrick Harris
• "In the course of shooting of Pillow Talk, Doris Day... adopted Rock Hudson's
  habit of doing crossword puzzles during downtime on the set."
• "Her life would be a giddy crossword,... working
  down from some clues and across from others." ~Leif Enger

References

• topics: architecture, art, clothing, comic strips, government bans,
  happiness, humor, improv comedy, joy, love of language, poetry
• National Word Nerd Day: Jan 19th
• NYT: Crossword Gifts
  drawing a blank about what to get the crossword puzzle fanatic in your life?
  These puzzle-themed gifts are sure to bring joy (down and) across the board!
  Puzzles & Games assortment of jigsaw, crossword, 3-D puzzles
  to test readers while commemorating history
  Crossword Puzzle Reprint $150.00; signed
• Crossword: Improv Comedy Game Night Seattle Theatre Sports:
  "at the beginning of this fun improv show, a crossword puzzle form is presented to the audience.
  Each scene of the show is a clue to a word that is filled in by the audience.
  None of the clues, words, games or scenes are prepared, and the puzzle and
  contents are all improvised. At the end, the audience decides the theme
  based on looking at the words in the whole puzzle;" performed by
  Unexpected Productions' resident narrative improv troupe
• Essential Gear for Waiting Hours in Line: Crossword, anyone? paper or digital; NYT; 7/7/2023
• Why I Craved Crosswords in Prison 5/3/2023
• A Puzzle Is a Journey: Wyna Liu, a NYT Crossword editor, examines a nontraditional puzzle
  Hoang-Kim Vu’s beautiful narrative puzzle, "The Long Way Home," first published on Sept. 8, 2021, in AVCX
  It's challenging to tell a story with a crossword; NYT; 3/31/2023

• 
  

  Love of crosswords started in a courtroom 5/24/2022

• My one consistent source of joy is the jingle at the end of the NYT crossword 4/1/2022
• Crosswords Helped Me With My Fear of Flying NYT; 11/24/2021
• Queen carries a penknife in her handbag
  -- and a crossword in case she gets bored Mirror; 8/9/2021
• Crossword Constructor David Kwong to Present
  New Virtual Theater Piece 'Inside the Box' 9/4/2020
• Crochet Crossword Puzzle Lovers Afghan Pattern 5/11/2020
• 'New York Times' Pledges To Cover Biden
  Sexual Assault Allegations In Upcoming Crossword Onion; 4/10/2020
• Solver Stories: Bringing Order to Chaos In Italy, a country ravaged by the effects of coronavirus,
  a man finds some solace and peace by focusing on crossword puzzles; NYT; 4/6/2020
• 'The Crossword Show With Zach Sherwin' Gets Down, and Across, at ArtsRiot 3/4/2020
• Curiosity: Crosswords & crossroads play; 3/3/2020
• The Art and Politics of Crosswords joys and addiction; NYr; 6/21/2019
• How Zach Sherwin fills in his crossword-themed comedy game show 6/14/2019
• Will Shortz Frustrated That Police Yet To Crack Taunting Puzzles Revealing Locations
  Of 40 Years Of Murder Victims ;-) Onion; 5/28/2019
• 35 Hilarious Tweets For People Who Love Crossword Puzzles HuffPo; 2/20/2019
• Doing Crosswords at Home: The Artistic Way #31 Kiefernstrasse, Dusseldorf, Germany; 5/2/2017
• Crossword Quilt Tutorial 5/26/2016
• No Joke: China's Broadcasting Authority Bans Puns And Wordplay 12/2/2014
• Get that tune out of your head scientists claim to have found a way to help anyone plagued by "earworms"
  -- those annoying tunes that lodge themselves inside our heads and repeat on an endless loop; puzzles; 3/24/2013
• How to Ride Public Transportation Without Losing Your Mind puzzles; LH; 9/11/2012
• Modern Crossword Humor 8/16/2012
• Libyans Agree To Come Up With Something For Qaddafi To Do All Day
  In Exchange For Him Leaving Onion; 3/11/2011
• Creative and Cool Crossword Inspired Designs and Products
  Lvov wall; coasters; bib; umbrella; sneakers; pajamas; pillow; TP; wallet; cup; tanktop;
  frame; mat; hoodie; bag; dress; scarf; vase; earrings; journal; 1/19/2011
• Why Do Crosswords? 9/21/2010
• Rapid Thinking Makes People Happy
  "Activities that promote fast thinking, such as whipping through an easy crossword puzzle
  or brain-storming quickly about an idea, can boost energy and mood...They further suggest
  that slow, varied thinking [SW: harder puzzles?] leads to the kind of calm, peaceful happiness
  associated with mindfulness meditation"; 1/27/2009
• Whence the Joy in Crosswords? NYT: The Crossword Puzzle Moment; NYT; 1/18/2009

• 
  

  Crossword poems poems composed with words found in a single crossword puzzle.
  The "across" section of the poem uses words from the across clues.
  The "down" section uses words from the down clues. The "answers" section are words
  from the answer grid. The title uses words from any section; 4/2002

• Crossword cravings: A passion for puzzles plus a love of language equals a lifelong hobby 6/1/1999
• Crossword Art I [video: 1:31]; abstract paintings
• crosswordmug.com "Don't Just Do the Puzzle OVER a Cup of Coffee -- Do It ON Your Cup of Coffee" [on right];
  "With a crossword, we're challenging ourselves to create order our of chaos" ~Will Shortz
• cartoons: 'Ashen & Noir' by Patrick Merrell

Summary | Quotes: General | Literature/Poetry | Music | Science | Theater |
References: General | Art

Summary

• Crosswords present us with complex, multi-layered patterns
  -- problems to solve, boxes to fill, pieces to connect.
• They've been used as an "intelligence" test and recruiting tool
  by code-breaking agencies, e.g., Bletchley Park [UK], NSA.
• A uniquely human pursuit (so far);
  AI programs, e.g., Dr. Fill, have started to recognize the ambiguity,
  word play and exceptions in crosswords.

Quotes

• "As human beings, we have... a natural compulsion to fill empty spaces." ~Will Shortz
• "If you've ever picked up a crossword puzzle and said to yourself,
  'I am not smart enough'... or 'I don’t have a big enough vocabulary for this,'
  please allow us to let you in on a little secret:
  
  A crossword puzzle is not a test of intelligence, and solving is not really
  about the size of your vocabulary. Becoming a good solver is about
  understanding what the clues are asking you to do." ~Will Shortz
• "A study found that even children perceive crossword puzzle solvers as...
  more intelligent" ~'Knows what is Good and Bad,' ‘Can teach you things,'
  ‘Does lots of crosswords': Children's knowledge about wisdom
• "December flurries --
  in the airplane magazine
  a half-finished crossword." ~Urban haiku
• "Making synaptic connections that have lain dormant for years causes... something deep
  in the pleasure center to squeeze out a juicy shot of chemical goodness." ~Jim Horne
• "Finding enjoyment in problem solving... seems like a uniquely human trait." ~Patrick Berry
• "Solving crossword puzzles is... part science of deduction, part mother wit, part erudition."
  ~Margaret Petherbridge Farrar, 1st NYT Crossword editor
• "I was a keen observer and listener. I picked up on clues... I figured things out logically,
  and I enjoyed puzzles. I loved the clear, focused feeling that came
  when I concentrated on solving a problem and everything else faded out."
  ~Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court Justice
• "What I love about cooking is... that after a hard day, there is something comforting about the fact
  that if you melt butter and add flour and then hot stock, it will get thick! It's a sure thing!
  It's a sure thing in a world where nothing is sure; it has a mathematical certainty in a world
  where those of us who long for some kind of certainty are forced to settle for crossword puzzles."
  ~Nora Ephron
• "Children are the most desirable opponents at Scrabble...
  as they are both easy to beat and fun to cheat." ~Fran Lebowitz
• "Watching 'CSI: Miami' is like doing the crossword puzzle...
  in 'People' magazine or watching 'Teen Jeopardy!'.
  It makes you feel smart even when you're not." ~Willie Geist
• "Just as dogs love to chew bones,... the mind loves to get its teeth into problems.
  That's why it does crossword puzzles and builds atom bombs." ~Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

Literature / Poetry

• I decided that there was a Big Mind and a Little Mind...
  And the Big Mind would allow you to consider deep thoughts,
  but the Little Mind would occupy you, so you could not be distracted.
  It would work crossword puzzles, while the Big Mind would delve deep
  into the subjects I wanted to write about. ~Maya Angelou: How I Write, DB; 7/11/2017
• "My mind rebels at stagnation.... Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram,
  or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. But I abhor the dull routine of existence.
  I crave for mental exaltation." ~Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of Four
• "The Sunday crossword...
  with one entry done
  left on the park bench . . .
  the scent of spring's
  first lilac blossoms" ~Sunday crossword: tanka 24 syllable poem, similar to haiku
• "I'm drawn to a certain level of ambiguous storytelling that requires hard thought and work...
  in the same way that the 'New York Times' crossword puzzle does:
  Sometimes you just want to put it down or throw it out the window,
  but there's a real rewarding sense if you feel like you've cracked it." ~Damon Lindelof

Music

• "The piercing sound of Jimmy Reed's harmonica... won his attention;
  Bishop would later liken it to a crossword puzzle that he had to figure out.
  What was this music? Who made it? What was it all about?";
  quote about Elvin Bishop
• "Writing songs and lyrics is not that different from...
  doing the 'Times' crossword every morning.
  They both give you a good mental workout." ~Leslie Bricusse
• Solving your own crossword puzzle: Jason Isbell
  I start with a melody...it scans, and it sings, and it rhymes, and it works.
  A crossword puzzle you made yourself... You're solving your own crossword puzzle; 1/25/2022
• "You're never quite sure where the song is going,... because
  you might not find the word to rhyme with the end of the line.
  You have to find associative meaning to get you there.
  So it's rather like doing a crossword puzzle backwards.
  A kind of strange, three-dimensional, abstract crossword puzzle." ~Annie Lennox
• "Every time I write a song,... it's different.
  I'm all about the rhythm of the words and the melody.
  Musically, you gotta have a throbbing pulse going.
  But as far as what it's all about, there's a million ways to go.
  You have to invent a new code for every song. Then you have to break it.
  It's like Scrabble or a crossword puzzle on steriods.
  I could talk about the process for days.
  But it's never dull and there's no one way in." ~Dan Bern
• "There's this moment sometimes,... when you do a crossword puzzle
  and you have the one really long word. And once you get that,
  the whole thing kind of comes into focus. Sometimes it's just working
  things over in your mind and then finding that one line that kind of ties
  the song together, and now it works. It's a puzzle of sorts." ~Craig Finn

Science

• "Similarly to solving a crossword puzzle, solving puzzles in science is...
  an accumulation of many pieces of independent, yet interlocking, lines of evidence."
  ~An Easy & Fun Way to Teach about How Science 'Works':
  Popularizing Haack's Crossword-Puzzle Analogy; The American Biology Teacher; 8/2013
• "[How to put astronauts on the surface of Mars] is... the first thing I think of
  when I wake up after having some breakfast and doing the crossword."
  ~Bush Still Working On Manned Mission To Mars Quietly In Spare Time The Onion; 9/27/2010

Theater

• A friend was in a theatre production about crossword puns...
  It was a play on words.
• "I’ve enjoyed every second of... [deciphering a difficult verse from William Shakespeare’s play Edward III].
  It taps into the part of my brain that likes puzzles. I’m decoding something really intricate and special.
  The process has revealed Shakespeare’s craft as a writer. I’m getting into Shakespeare’s head,
  like when I try to think like Will Shortz so I can solve New York Times crosswords." ~Octavio Solis, 2017
• More confounding than any maze,...
  With dead ends at every turn,
  It always demands a word or phrase
  That you have yet to learn.
  
  
  Across and Down almost never align,
  Dooming puzzlers oh so smart.
  Devious, perverse, and malign
  Is the Constructor of the human heart.
  ~NYT: Poem: The Unsolvable Puzzle

References

• subsection: Art
• topics: AI, NSA, Sudoku
• National Puzzle Day 1/29: celebration / reflection on those puzzles, games
  and even challenges in life that we embrace every day but sometimes take for granted;
  unofficial; unclear when started -- different from Nat. Crossword Day: 12/21
• How to Tell If Your Brain Needs a Break
  taking a few minutes to do a puzzle can allow you to return to work sharper and more creative;
  "In a 2013 Daily Beast article, Maya Angelou referred to her work process as switching between her
  “big mind and her little mind.” Her big mind did the heavy lifting, crafting the poems she became famous for.
  Her little mind, which she used in between writing sessions, loved doing crossword puzzles"; NYT; 2/3/2023
• What It’s Like to Compete at a Crossword Puzzle Tournament NYT; 4/11/2022
• What's Your Wordplay Resolution? NYT; 12/31/2021
• Research like a crossword: The further down the wrong road you go,
  the harder to turn back 10/26/2021
• John Cleese on why 'advertising is like a very good crossword'
  it takes two days of your life but it's awfully interesting; 7/2/2021
• 3 Reasons Your Child Will Benefit By Doing A Crossword Puzzle
  Crosswords For Kids Improve Memory & Cognition;
  Works On Developing Social & Emotional Competence
  Develops Real-Life Problem-Solving Skills; 1/28/2021
• What Climbing and Crosswords Have in Common
  what does solving a boulder problem have to do with solving a crossword? Outside; 1/27/2021
• Crossword puzzles are a gift to the spirit, imagination and the mind of solvers
  Conversations That Matter; 12/18/2020
• The King/Kimes NY Times' Crossword Challenge You Never Knew You Needed
  In advance of Dec. 21's National Crossword Puzzle Day, two of ESPN's more "puzzling" wordsmiths
  square off in completing a Friday NYT crossword; 12/21/2019
• Filling in the Blanks When life does not provide the answers, a woman finds certainty in crossword puzzles; NYT; 3/13/2019
• Captive Octopuses Get Bored Unless You Give Them Puzzles Giz; 10/26/2015
• A Million Little Boxes ACPT 2005; Dan Feyer; 538; 4/17/2015
• The Psychology of Flow: What Game Design Reveals about the Deliberate Tensions of Great Writing
  "Books of sudoku and crossword puzzles are often labeled easy, medium, or hard because few people will pay
  for a book of puzzles they can’t do, and not many more will spend time with puzzles that are too simple"; 12/5/2014
• Can You Solve 'The Hardest Logic Puzzle In The World'? Giz; 10/5/2014
• Thinking Outside the Grid: What crossword puzzles tell us about how reasoning and memory work
  “In problem solving, we tend to assume that we have found the solution, and once we do, that it’s the
  only solution to be found. Typically, we don’t think further about the problem and discover that there
  may be other solutions.” ~Raymond Nickerson; 7/19/2012
• In Crosswords, It's Man Over Machine, for Now NYT; 3/18/2012
• The Computer's Next Conquest: Crosswords ("Dr. Fill" at ACPT 2012); NYT; 3/17/2012
• 'Knows what is Good and Bad,' ‘Can teach you things,' ‘Does lots of crosswords':
  Children's knowledge about wisdom the study found that even children perceive crossword puzzle solvers
  as more intelligent; Judith Glück, Belinda Bischof, Linda Siebenhüner; European Journal of Developmental
  Psychology 9, no. 5 (2012): 582 -- 598, DOI: 10.1080/17405629.2011.631376.

• 
  

  NYT: Tracing the Spark of Creative Problem-Solving NYT; 12/7/2010

• NYT: Enigma: Asking the Mind to Jump Through Hoops Teller; NYT; 12/7/2010
• NYT: The Rush of the 'Crossword Puzzle Moment' NYT; 12/7/2010
• NYT: An 11-Letter Word for Perfectionist? Starts With C
  'constructor'; NYT; 12/7/2010
• NYT: Across and Down, the Wizard (Dan Feyer) Who Is Fastest of All
  ACPT 2010; NYT; 12/7/2010
• NYT: A Puzzle Solver Moves On to Life's Riddles NYT; 12/7/2010
• Puzzling The World (video)??:
  Few puzzles have swept the world and created such passionate devotees as Sudoku and crosswords.
  While crosswords require specific linguistic capability, Sudoku players only need to understand basic numbers,
  a feature that makes Sudoku particularly transnational and global. Maki Kaji, godfather of Sudoku and President
  of Nikoli Company and Will Shortz, Crossword Puzzle Editor, The New York Times, discuss the similarities and
  differences of crossword puzzles and Sudoku as well as trends and themes driving the popularity of puzzles around
  the world today.; excerpts [video; 4:36]; Will Shortz: editing, solving puzzles: empowerment, mental aerobics; 10/23/2008
• BarelyBad: Why to play, and why not
• The Most Frustrating Crossword Puzzle of All Time; The Easiest Crossword; etc. College Humor
• Sudoku: the end of the crossword as we know it?

Art

• The Art of Crosswords -- a short post/essay by Steve
• Behind the scenes of Knives Out sequel Glass Onion: 'It’s a rollercoaster ride not a crossword puzzle'
  "I think the trick to these movies is to make sure that there’s a narrative engine that is not a puzzle, that is a ride";12/19/2022
• On Crosswords and Crime Fiction
  What is it about puzzles and crosswords that lend themselves so well to a good crime novel? 8/25/2022
• THE CROSSWORD PLAY (or Ezmeranda's Gift) by Donna Hoke
  in THE CROSSWORD PLAY we join an expert level crossword puzzlemaker in a puzzle-making workshop, where she guides us
  through the conventions, strictures and rules of crossword puzzle creation -- until things get a bit unruly; 2021
• Review: What’s ‘Inside the Box’? A Rewarding (Rewording) Time
  in a new show by David Kwong, the noted cruciverbalist offers a collection of games
  built for Zoom that let the audience be part of the puzzle; NYT; 10/14/2020
• Review: Crossword master David Kwong tries to turn puzzles into theater.
  It’s not easy Geffen Playhouse's Stayhouse: Inside the Box; LAT; 10/8/2020
• The Real Work Although poems cannot be truly 'solved' like crosswords,
  reading poems draws on some of the same skills as working crossword puzzles. These include:
  - Proceeding line by line through the puzzle/poem.
  - Answering what you know.
  - Guessing at what you think you know but don’t know for sure,
  hoping later info proves you right.
  - Bracketing what you don’t know.
  - Using what you know, or come to know, including the theme of the puzzle/poem,
  to help you figure out what you didn’t know or didn’t know for sure.
  - As with words in a crossword puzzle, parts of a poem often systematically fit together
  and you can use one part of a poem to help you figure out another,
  just as you can use one word in a crossword puzzle to help you decipher another; 5/1/2020
• The Crossword Mentality in Modern Literature and Culture by Adrienne Raphel;
  .pdf; Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences; 2018;
  e.g., Chapter 2. Crosswords and Literature, pp. 105-

• 
  

  5 Works of Art Inspired by Crosswords
  1. Crossword Puzzle by Max Ferguson
  The scene is of a man in a pub in London, whom the artist chanced upon while traveling
  through the city in 2004. By the look of it, the solver is battling a particularly fiendish cryptic.
  2. Crossword Puzzle with Lady in Black Coat by Paulina Olowska (2009)
  A crossword person will no doubt notice the unorthodox checking and clue slot numbering of the grid.
  Perhaps it represents a puzzle that's not meant to be solved?
  3. Dad's Crossword by Duane Keiser (2013)
  "I don't think he [Dad] even reads the news anymore in the paper
  -- he pulls out the crossword and throws the rest away."
  4. Crossword Tools by Sarah Lytle
  "[Mom] must have her glasses, her morning coffee and her pen. I can see her sitting
  at the breakfast table or curled up in the chair, glasses perched on her nose,
  newspaper folded in half to the puzzle, working away. It makes me smile thinking about it."
  5. Red Tomatoes on Crossword Puzzle by Carolyn Watson
  "I loved the way the red of the tomatoes was reflected into the shadows and
  how the black of the newsprint was darker in the shadow."
  These tomatoes eclipse the clues too, in making the grid fills: VINE, RIPE, HOME, GROWN, TOMATO
  -- and the US-style grid gives neat placeholders for the words on the left hand side.
  Also: Red Peppers on Crossword; 5/26/2015

Summary | Quotes | References: General, Other Lang.

Summary

• Word puzzles can exercise your vocabulary -- in multiple languages.
• Textbooks and course websites often include crosswords
  to test vocabulary and subject knowledge,
  e.g., Be Safer on the Internet: Web Browsing
• Well-designed crosswords are more than a collection of words
  (esp. weird 'crosswordese'), and obvious clues
  -- they force us to think outside (and inside) the box.

Quotes

• "Thoughtful working of cross word puzzles can not fail to...
  make the average American a more careful and fluent user of good English."
  ~Frederick (Maryland) Daily News, 1924
• The influence on the American vocabulary was audible.
  "Anybody you met on the street... could tell you the name of the Egyptian sun-god
  or provide you with the two-letter word which meant a printer’s measure."
  ~Frederick Lewis Allen, in Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s
• The main interest among fans in the 1920s was in the puzzle as an aid to language development...
  The literary intelligentsia including Franklin P. Adams, Heywood Broun, and Ruth Hale,
  took up the puzzle and fed this interest. Arthur Maurice, former editor of The Bookman,
  claimed to have found 40 words* which had grown unfamiliar through general mental
  laziness but were now resurrected due to the crossword puzzle craze -- suddenly popping
  up in everyday conversation. Maurice: "The constructive work of the cross-word puzzle
  lies in the awakening of the mind and tongue to the thousand and one words that have
  so long been dormant. It is the subtle restoration of these words, a direct result of the
  crossword puzzle, that is galvanizing casual talk into a new and healthy flexibility.
  A cathedral, for example, is no longer a blur of vague images. The picture has cleared
  with the rescued understanding of 'apse' and 'nave.'"
  
  *the 40 words (mostly short and heavy on vowels, many of them are still very much with us):
  Abet, acute, adapt, amend, ape (as a verb), apt, aroma, asset, aver; Ban and bare (as verbs);
  Carp (as a verb), cite, curt, curtail; Eke, elan, elate, emit, eon, etch, err; Foment; Goad;
  Inert, ire; Leer (as a verb); Maim, mar; Nee; Ooze, omit; Pry; Retard; Sate, seer, sever,
  smudge (as a verb); Terse; Vat. ~The Literary Digest of June 6, 1925
• "In their own way, crossword puzzles are an important language art...
  This makes constructors, editors, and publishers artists of a sort
  and supporters of the arts." ~The Muse Of Language Arts; Electricka
• "Crossword puzzles, like dictionaries, often feel like linguistic authorities. [But]...
  rather than sacred scrolls, crosswords and dictionaries are mirrors held up to language
  that reflect how people are talking and writing at a given moment in history.
  The advantage crosswords have over dictionaries is that they can change much more rapidly."
  ~Smithsonian
• "crosswordese:... words frequently found in crossword puzzles
  but seldom found in everyday conversation" ~Wikipedia
• "Crosswords appear in every language in the world. Chinese crosswords... are especially hard." ~Will Shortz
• "To be able to solve a crossword puzzle in a second language...
  shows a high degree of skill and knowledge therein." ~Britannica 2000 CD
• "In North America, crossword puzzle editors use what has come to be known as
  'The Breakfast Test'... when deciding whether an entry is appropriate or not.
  If you can talk about it at the breakfast table then it can appear in a crossword.
  Taboo subjects are death, disease, depressing news and scatological humor.
  As one editor famously quipped, 'People get enough of that in the rest of the newspaper.
  They don't need it in their crossword.'
  
  However, today one encounters famous brand names, movie and song titles and
  famous people which is a relatively recent development. Nowadays, there is more
  and more cheese and less crosswordese, those stale entries which probably will
  never disappear completely. Lively fill is what editors and solvers want.
  More jackals and zebras and fewer ernes and gnus." ~about.com
• "I can't remember a single thing I learned. Except for... Latin, and that's only because
  the nuns literally beat it into us and I use it sometimes for the crossword." ~Peter Cameron
• "Words are, of course,... the most powerful drug used by mankind." ~Rudyard Kipling
• "We try to do a Shakespeare play every year, because... I feel that it provides the
  best tool for actor training. It's challenging in performance and language, physicality,
  analytical skills, and this particular one is along the serious lines, which seemed to fit
  the bill in terms of the kind of genre we wanted to explore. I call this the
  Sunday 'Times' Crossword Puzzle for actors." ~Jack Cirillo
• "I love words. If I get a puppy... and I paper train him and if all of a sudden
  I'd open the paper and there's a crossword puzzle --
  'No, no, you can't go on that, honey.'" ~Betty White
• "My being a writer and playing Scrabble are connected...
  If I have a good writing day, I'll take a break and play online Scrabble.
  My favorite word as a child was 'carrion,' before I knew what it meant.
  I later created crossword puzzles, which was a lot about puns, and
  how words would create these strange, strange things." ~Meg Wolitzer

References

• topics: crosswordese, dictionaries, languages, vocabulary
• Electricka (Exploring the Arts Foundation) for / about crossword constructors, editors, publishers
• ESL Games
• Rearrangements: Can Crosswords Be More Inclusive?
  The puzzles spread from the United States across the globe, but the American crossword
  today doesn’t always reflect the linguistic changes that immigration bring;
  Mangesh Ghogre; history; NYkr; 12/18/2023
• The Latest Western Oppressor? Your Sunday Morning Crossword Puzzle
  about 'Can Crosswords Be More Inclusive?'; NatRev; 12/18/2023
• Planet Word Survived the Pandemic to Inspire a Love of Language
  Lexicon Lane exhibition at Planet Word (DC museum) offers word-sleuthing adventures to puzzle-loving visitors; NYT; 3/29/2022
• The latest word on Planet Word: Downtown D.C.'s language museum is set to open in May
  WaPo; 11/7/2019
• Crossword Puzzles Behind Bars lang skills for the incarcerated; 5/23/2018
• A Journey Into the Merriam-Webster Word Factory
  Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper; NYT; 3/22/2017
• Dictionary Fans Might Squee: OED Adds New Words, Because YOLO NPR; 9/12/2016
• What 74 Years of Crossword History Says About the Language We Use
  the world may have become more globalized, but the venerable puzzle now relies
  less on international words and place names; interactive charts; UBER; LIPO; NADA; ITO; MOI; NYT; 2/6/2016
• And Your 2015 Word of the Year Is -- the Face With Tears of Joy Emoji? Giz; 11/16/2015
• Puzzling Through My Fiction
  writing analogy: The Blank Beginning; The Walk-Away; The Dam Breakage; The Slow Clap; NYT; 8/15/2015
• The Use of Crossword Puzzles as a Vocabulary Learning Strategy
  A Case of English as a Second Language in Kenyan Secondary Schools; 2/2013
• Study reveals words' Darwinian struggle for survival 3/21/2012
• Coming soon to a crossword puzzle near you -- 100 new words MT; 7/12/2009
• Partying with all the gnus that fit Varble; [.pdf]; MT

Other Languages

• LexisRex crosswords in many languages
• Crucigramas (Spanish crosswords)
• Hebdomada Aenigmatum, a new book of crossword puzzles in Latin and ancient Greek
  Reut; 6/7/2019
• Crosswords in other languages examples; 5/29/2013
• The Benefits Of Bilingual Spanish-English Crosswords 5/30/2008
• The World's Geekiest Crossword Puzzle you'll need to know a bit of Klingon, Elvish, Furbish,
  Esperanto and a handful of other constructed languages; MF; 2/20/2007
• From Crosswords to High-Level Language Competency
  Cryptologic Quarterly, NSA DOCID: 3860656; .pdf; Spring/Summer 2005;
  The main thesis of this article is that the ability to solve an appropriately difficult crossword puzzle
  requires a high degree of competency in the language and culture of the puzzle. The main purpose
  here is to set out a framework for using English language crosswords to help English-speaking
  students achieve a high level of competence in some other language

Summary | Quotes | References

Summary

• A fun way to access useful information about a variety of subjects
  -- for love of learning, or obscure facts for trivia games.
• Search for "crossword" and add a subject -- puzzle format & quality will vary widely;
  practice 'safe browsing' with any new web site!
• e.g., Shakespeare: NYT Learning Network; Reagle: Playing with Shakespeare;
  MyCrosswordMaker (formerly Crossword Hobbyist)
• e.g., Beer
• e.g., Ham Radio: RF Cafe; W2PA

Quotes

• Laid up in the hospital, a man passed the time doing crossword puzzles.
  One day he asked a nurse,... "What seven-letter word has three u's in it?"
  She said, "I don't know, but it must be unusual."
• "When asked 'What do we need to learn this for?',...
  any high-school teacher can confidently answer that, regardless of the subject,
  the knowledge will come in handy once the student hits middle age and
  starts working crossword puzzles in order to stave off the terrible loneliness."
  ~David Sedaris Me Talk Pretty One Day
• "If you play the NYTimes crossword regularly, you know exactly 2 things:...
  - Oona Chaplin played Talisa Stark on Game of Thrones
  - The Ford Edsel was a m***f*** FLOP"
• "The great god Ra,... whose shrine once covered acres,
  is filler now for crossword puzzle makers." ~Keith Preston (except it's 2 letters...)
• "I want to know everything there is to know about Lewis and Clark...
  And I want to do the Sunday crossword in less than an hour.
  I want to play Richard II, and I want to win another Tony award." ~Robert Sean Leonard
• A man in a bar... notices that the guy at the next stool appears to be stuck
  on a crossword, so he leans over and says "Go on then, give me a clue".
  
  "Ok, Mr. Smart Guy, here's one; 12 across, Overworked Postman, question mark"
  
  "Let me see now", says the other man, "Overworked postman, hmm, how many letters?"
  
  "Thousands of them! Now mind your own business!"
• It is said that once a Pittsburgh clergyman put up a crossword... on the blackboard
  for his congregation, asking them to solve the puzzle before his sermon;
  the text for the next sermon lay in the answers.

References

• topics: "All I Know I Learned From...", learning, subjects
• International History Olympiad: Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 2022
• Can You Solve the Atlas Obscura 2018 Crossword? test your knowledge of
  the world’s wonders with this challenging puzzle; AO; 12/31/2018
• The Learning Network (NYT) American History, Civics, Economics, Fine Arts, Geography,
  Global History, Health, Journalism, Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Technology,
  Misc. (Sports and Games, Holidays and Seasons, Retrospectives, Skills and Learning); NYT; 9/7/2016
• All I Ever Learned, I Learned from the Crossword Puzzles 9/13/2014
• The Crossword Revolution the value of knowledge, education, pop culture; 12/20/2013
• President has received pair of Grammys Obama; MT; 11/16/2013
• Crossword blog: 10 things I've learned from crosswords in 2011 The medical term for man-boobs,
  and nine other things Alan Connor has discovered from -- and about -- cryptic crosswords; 12/29/2011
• USA Today Crossword Puzzle Grants False Sense Of Intelligence Onion; 8/29/2007
• SYA: An Evan by any other name Evan Esar; MT; 3/21/2007
• Crossword puzzles: a teaching strategy for critical care nursing 2/1994
• about.com Energy, History, Holidays, Kids, Religion, etc.
• FunTrivia.com Animals, Brain Teasers, Celebrities, Entertainment, For Children, General, Geography, History,
  Hobbies, Humanities, Literature, Movies, Music, People, Religion, Sci / Tech, Sports, Television, Video Games, World

Summary | Contest | Tournaments | Scholarship | Fundraise | Edit | Publish |
References

Summary

• It is possible to earn $ by solving or publishing crosswords -- hopefully that's not your primary reason.
• Even if you do win (or have puzzles accepted), huge amounts are not involved
  -- so don't quit your day job.
• There may be entry & travel costs, or costs for subscriptions or tools.

Enter a Crossword Contest

• Buying a scratch-off "crossword" lottery ticket doesn't count.
• NYT Puzzlemania Super Mega: (NYT store, if avail)
  [right: 1st prize: $1000; otherwise, puzzle book; 2020]
• Dear McSweeney anniversary contest
  first ten people to successfully complete the puzzle will receive a complimentary copy of Dear McSweeney's
• Patrick Berry's "Cross" word contest
  six-day challenge from Oct 17 to 22, 2011;
  prize: collection of daily crosswords Will Shortz himself chose as his favorites from Sept 2002 through 2010
• Bernard Marks: Master of the Ham&High crossword 11/1/2021
• Wealth Words

Win a Crossword Solving Tournament

• "Wouldn't it be wonderful if I won... a helicopter in a crossword puzzle competition?
  There is not much hope though I am afraid, as they never give such practical prizes."
  ~Leonora Carrington
• Sometimes cash, but usually books/subscriptions or bragging rights (Fame)
• American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) [next: 3/31-4/2/2023; Stamford, CT]:
  [2023] Division A: 1st: $7,000; 2nd: $4,000; 3rd: $1,500; lesser prizes for lower divisions;
  Crossword Tournament From Your Couch live-streamed competition replaced ACPT
  after COVID-19 cancellation in 3/2020; puzzles;
  section: WordPlay documentary about ACPT 2005

• 
  

  Best Crosswords [online]

• Boswords: Boston Crossword Tournament 2/5/2023
• Bryant Park Tournament Bryant Park, NYC; samples: .pdf
• Finger Lakes Crossword Competition [Ithaca, NY];
  Annual Finger Lakes Crossword Competition 9/4/2020
• Indie 500 Crossword Tournament [Wash DC]; trophy; small prizes
• KCUR 89.3's Crossword Puzzle Tournament (on 6/24/2021) 6/8/2021;
  Presented By Andrews McMeel Universal [Kansas City, MO]
• Lollapuzzoola [NYC] Wikipedia;
  cash/ gift certificate; XWordInfo.com 1-year Angel access;
  1-year subscription to Matt Gaffney's site
• St. Louis (STL) City Crossword Puzzle Tournament; 3/4/2023
• Times Crossword Championship [London]; cryptics; awards? official site?
• Virtual Crossword Tournaments xwordblog.com
• Westchester Crossword Tournament [NY]; trophies and puzzle books
• West Coast [LA; SF area]; any active? Crosswords LA;
  Napa Valley Puzzle Challenge; Silicon Valley Puzzle Fest
• World Puzzle Championship

Find a College Scholarship

• Crossword Hobbyist: $1,000 to current / incoming undergraduates
  who create a winning newspaper-style crossword

Fundraise for Charity

• Free ‘Celebrity’ Crossword Zoom Events w/ John Halpern e.g., w/ Will Shortz on 2/5/2021
• Grids for Good raise money for organizations providing coronavirus relief,
  as well as for groups fighting against institutional racism

Edit Crosswords

• Puzzle Editor, Digital job posting; NYT; 5/10/2024

Publish a Crossword

• "Almost nobody makes a career solely constructing puzzles...
  and I think it's safe to say that nobody gets wealthy that way.
  ...Most people who want a career in puzzles also have to do proofreading, editing, and so on.
  A lucky few get jobs editing the puzzles for large newspapers or for publishing houses." ~Trip Payne
• "Is it possible to live from creating puzzles?...
  Yes, but doing so is very difficult, because constructing crosswords pays notoriously little!
  Editing jobs are hard to come by, and freelance constructing is hit-and-miss and
  ultimately not quite lucrative enough." ~David Steinberg
• Inside the Elite, Underpaid, and Weird World of Crossword Writers
  Efforts to diversify the industry might be having the opposite effect.
  And although puzzles are an important part of The New York Times' business strategy,
  only a handful of people actually make a living from crosswords; NewRep; 8/5/2022
• NYT: weekday (15 x 15): $500 (1-2), $750 (3+); Sun (21 x 21): $1500 (1-2), $2250 (3+);
  "encourage even newer contributors to contribute more often, by the setting of
  an easier bar to meet for the higher rate" ~Will Shortz; 1/2020;
• Crossword Publication Specs
  NYT; Univ; WSJ; LAT; Newsday; AVC; Fireball; ...; table from Matthew Stock; lower rates from non-NYT
• Some publishers profit from crosswords, even as print subscribers decline, e.g.,
  The New York Times Tops 5 Million Subscriptions as Ads Decline
  ~1M Crossword (and Cooking) digital subscribers; NYT; 2/6/2020
• Some independent constructors offer bundles and subscriptions.

Other?

• Include crosswords in a new murder mystery novel or TV show
• [on right: Oklahoma prisoner Harvey Stigler sells crosswords, gains parole]
• Impress a wealthy fiancé/fiancée with a crossword marriage proposal
• "White&Blackmail": extort payment to not publish an embarassing crossword?
• ???

References

• Annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
  Division A: 1st: $5,000; 2nd: $2,000; 3rd: $1,000;
  Division B & Rookies: $500 / $250 / $150;
  Division C: $100 / $75 / $50;
  registration: $235 -- + hotel
• Survey: Nearly 3 in 5 Say Managing Money More Demanding Than Solving A Crossword 4/12/2022
• Arkadium Announces 12 Days of Crossword, a Fun, First-of-its-kind
  Crossword Sweepstakes Celebrating the Holiday Season
  chance to win $3,000; 11/30/2020
• My Journey to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
  a well-loved clipboard loaded with crossword puzzles
  became the rock one woman leaned on when her husband became critically ill;
  'When days were long, doctors' visits were discouraging and the future was uncertain,
  crossword puzzles gave me a sense of accomplishment, comfort and stability.' NYT; 11/25/2020
• Digital Revenue Exceeds Print for 1st Time forNYT Company
  669,000 new digital subscribers, which includes 176,000 for cooking & crosswords;
  NYT; 8/5/2020
• Finding College Scholarships
  Crossword Hobbyist blog offering $1,000 scholarship to current and incoming
  undergraduates who create a winning newspaper-style crossword on a favorite topic; USA; 5/8/2019
• New York Times Crossword Contributors to See Pay Raise
  [1993] $40(weekday), $150(Sun);
  [2018] $300-450/$1000-1200;
  [2019] $500-750/$1500-2250;
  higher rates for more frequent/reliable contributors; NYT; 12/18/2018
• Your Job May Affect How Your Brain Ages 'crossword puzzle maker' among 43 occupations
  scored as 'High Cognitive Engagement'; 538; 11/19/2014
• shmoop.com: Crossword Puzzle Writer Career, Salary
• Wealth Words online contest site

Summary | Quotes |
References: General | Aging; Dementia

Summary

• Learning a skill, playing a game or solving a new kind of problem can improve
  mental flexibility, mood and brain connections -- and burn a few extra brain calories.
• Welcome distraction from disasters, wars, pandemics.
• Solving crosswords might aid in concentration, and ability to recognize patterns.
• Although solving puzzles might not prevent dementia, practicing
  and constantly challenging yourself appears to add to your "cognitive reserve",
  possibly delaying the onset of symptoms in some studies, e.g.,
  Study Finds Crossword Puzzles May Improve Memory Better Than Other Brain Games
• Up your game to different and more difficult crosswords (sources)
• Diversify to different kinds of puzzles, e.g., acrostics, cryptics, etc.
• Even more challenging and fun -- construct crosswords!

Quotes

• Crossword puzzles satisfy... 45 fundamental desires of the human species.
  ~a Columbia University psychologist
• "I don't want to retire... I'm not that good at crossword puzzles." ~Norman Mailer
• "Solving crosswords eliminates... worries.
  They make you a calmer and more focused person." ~Will Shortz
• "The little boxes on a crossword puzzle could be seen as the...
  hours of our lives, to be filled in from the information, names, events, locations,
  people, all the memories stored in our minds throughout our life experience.
  Like a crossword, through a day or a life, there are all kinds of questions
  to respond to, odds and ends of stimuli along the way, some easy, some hard,
  that come at us." ~Linda Johnson
• Chicago's health commissioner... endorsed crosswords as a means of calming the nerves.
• "More frequent puzzlers had better...
  long-term memory and could more easily recall emotions and context, not just facts.
  They also excelled at spatial working memory tests -- tasks like remembering details
  about the physical environment in which something occurred -- and had better attention,
  processing speed, and executive function. While taking a moment every day to pick up a
  puzzle and challenge your brain is ideal, doing something on occasion is better than nothing, too.
  The performance of those who never did puzzles was 'significantly inferior' to those
  who did puzzles at all, the researchers found."
  ~Studies: One daily habit may help your brain beat the effects of aging
• "Crossword puzzles start...
  the daily routine gentle
  exercise of brain" ~Crossword haiku 1/26/2012
• "[Loraine Atherton, 107] spends every spare moment of her time... in her room doing crossword puzzles.
  She has every book. She also competes against other residents at crossword puzzles with
  a device that allows for group play on a television. She can beat anybody in that room.
  Her mind is that sharp." ~New year is 107th for Greenfield woman
• "If you have an active mind, it always helps.
  You know, people who don't do crosswords,... their minds fall asleep.
  That's why I do them -- my mind is always working.
  One day my brain is going to explode through the top of my head." ~Brett Hull
• "We don't stop playing because we grow old,... we grow old because we stop playing."
  ~George Bernard Shaw
• "I'm taking memory power boost tablets... to help me every day and
  doing the puzzles to help me stay focused." ~Terry Bradshaw
• "I would prefer to live forever in perfect health,... but if I must at some time leave this life,
  I would like to do so ensconced on a chaise longue, perfumed, wearing a velvet robe and pearl earrings,
  with a flute of champagne beside me and having just discovered the answer to the last problem
  in a British cryptic crossword." ~Olivia De Havilland
• "Where nothing in a person's earlier years lends itself to an old age
  devoted to continuing intellectual and physical pursuits,... a late-life interest in Tolstoy
  or even crossword puzzles is unlikely to appear, no matter the urging by well-intentioned
  social workers or people like me who write books about it." ~Sherwin B. Nuland
• "When you challenge the brain, you increase
  the number of brain cells and the number of connections between those cells.
  But... it's not enough to do the things you routinely do -- like the daily crossword.
  You have to learn new things." ~Keith L. Black, M.D., chair of neurosurgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
• "Q. Any special exercises for your nose?...
  A. Crossword puzzles...You don't really smell with the nose, it's just the channel.
  Your brain deciphers what you smell." ~Ray Matts, haute fragrance designer
• "In difficult times, when life begins to feel out of control or... when faced with an emotional dilemma,
  working on something that has finite answers can provide a sense of security...
  Human brains are hard-wired to fill in blanks when they see them." ~Helen R. Friedman
• "I do the 'New York Times' crossword puzzle...
  every morning to keep the old grey matter ticking." ~Carol Burnett
• "People say, well, they're doing crossword puzzles. That's great, but...
  if they've done crossword puzzles of the same kind for a year or so, that's not a challenge.
  You need something that's a little harder, where you have to work."
  ~Marian Diamond, Professor of neuroscience and anatomy at Cal's Dept. of Integrative Biology
  and a pioneer in research on brain enrichment
• "I don't have any trouble memorizing lines... because of the crossword puzzles
  I do every day to keep my mind a little limber." ~Betty White
• "I should go to bed so I can get an early start... on the crossword puzzle tomorrow," he thought, oldly.
• "It's why you're supposed to do crossword puzzles and... exercise and learn a musical instrument.
  If you're not bilingual but you're active and engaged, you're getting cognitive reserve.
  [But] Nobody spends all day every day doing crossword puzzles, but everybody spends
  all day every day talking. It's a way to get massive doses of this stimulating [executive functioning]
  activity without doing anything special." ~Ellen Bialystok, York University

References

• sections: Dementia; Alzheimers
• Packers Star Aaron Rodgers, In a Candid Conversation With Danica Patrick, Shared How Crossword helps with Concussions 6/4/2022
• Doing Puzzles Can Help Solve Your Other Problems, Too Time; 5/5/2022
• Why crossword puzzles have become my safe space as a Black man 3/26/2022
• Judi Dench health: 'I can't do a crossword' Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD); 3/18/2022
• This Is What Martha Stewart Does Every Morning for Better Brain Health a crossword; 1/26/2022
• Escaping Into the Crossword Puzzle
  'Black-and-White Thinking'; Anna Shechtman; NewYorker; 12/20/2021
• Why You Gravitate to Puzzles When You're Depressed
  Puzzle games keep our minds occupied, even in our darkest moments.
  Here's why they make you feel better, more capable, and more optimistic about life; Wired; 11/20/2021
• She's 100 and 'whips butt' on crossword puzzles. What's her secret? 9/8/2021
• Drinking tea sharpens ability to solve puzzles Times; 8/25/2021
• Boost your brainpower with old-school puzzles and games 3/1/2021
• To 'Keep Sharp' This Year, Keep Learning, Advises Neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta NPR; 1/4/2021
• Reading software code activates the part of your brain used for crossword puzzles
  and logic problems ZD; 12/17/2020
• My Journey to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
  a well-loved clipboard loaded with crossword puzzles
  became the rock one woman leaned on when her husband became critically ill;
  'When days were long, doctors' visits were discouraging and the future was uncertain,
  crossword puzzles gave me a sense of accomplishment, comfort and stability.' NYT; 11/25/2020
• From surgery recovery to easing anxiety, the surprising health benefits of a crossword Tel; 11/12/2020
• Soothe your election nerves by solving NYT crossword puzzles together on Twitch
  calming soundtrack and positive atmosphere in the chat; Verge; 11/4/2020
• A crossword a day keeps the brain fog at bay 10/4/2020
• Queen Elizabeth Responds to 7-Year-Old Boy Who Made Her a "Happiness Crossword"
  "He sent it with a letter saying how she might be feeling sad or lonely because of lockdown..."; 7/11/2020
• Woodturning helps one Homer resident recover after stroke I was doing a crossword puzzle
  and I said to somebody else in the room what's a nine-letter word for blah blah blah?
  And he rolls over and tells me the answer. I knew right then he was in there; 6/10/2020
• Before Bed: Designer Clare Vivier Self-Soothes With Crosswords and a Candle Vogue; 4/8/2020
• This Is Your Brain on Crosswords
  Those black-and-white squares can help us understand how memory works; episodic buffer,
  a liaison between short- and long-term memory that basically integrates both verbal and
  visuospatial information; especially the crossword experts, appeared to use both verbal and
  visuospatial components of their short-term memory—that is, that instead of separating out
  visual cues from verbally processed ones, the crossworders were integrating both types of
  perceptions in their short-term memories; SciAm; 3/17/2020
• Sudoku, crossword and confinement, Michigan woman describes life on quarantined cruise line 3/3/2020
• Times crossword is the daily solution to Derek Jacobi's sharp mind Times; 2/18/2020
• Puzzles, games, and new activities can keep your brain healthy. Plus, they're fun!
  emphasis on new challenges; 1/30/2020
• Mind fuel: Can you think yourself thinner? burn more calories by solving crosswords? 1/29/2020
• John Cannon: Exercise mind, body 1/7/2020
• New year is 107th for Greenfield woman Loraine Atherton b. 1/1/1913; same year as 1st crossword; 1/6/2020
• Trouble with crossword puzzles? Improve your semantic memory Harvard; 12/10/2019
• Prison’s Tips for Inmates in Solitary: 'Plant a Tree' or 'Go on a Picnic'
  For now, the penitentiary has decided to instead include softcover library books as part of the materials
  distributed to inmates as they enter solitary confinement -- along with crossword puzzles; NYT; 11/16/2019
• How Crosswords Put Your Brain Into Hyperdrive NYkr; 9/16/2019
• Keeping Anxiety at Bay by ‘Hitting the Squares'
  When the panic attacks began and life decisions became overwhelming,
  solving crosswords helped halt the intrusive thoughts; NYT; 9/15/2019
• Out of the Fog: How Solving Puzzles Cured My 'Mommy Brain'
  a mother of a toddler loses her grip on words until crossword puzzles helped bring them back; NYT; 6/26/2019
• Crossword queen Bunny is 104 across and never down!
  "I do a cryptic crossword every day to keep my mind active and a lot of reading.
  The residents at Ironside Walk call me the Crossword Queen"; 5/17/2019
• Regular crosswords and number puzzles linked to sharper brain in later life
  the more regularly adults aged 50 and over played puzzles such as crosswords and Sudoku,
  the better they performed on tasks assessing attention, reasoning and memory, according to
  research in more than 19,000 participants, led by the University of Exeter and King's College London;
  published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry; 5/16/2019
• Your Job May Affect How Your Brain Ages 'crossword puzzle maker' among 43 occupations
  scored as 'High Cognitive Engagement'; 538; 11/19/2014
• Crosswords and puzzles do not prevent mental decline, study says
  such pursuits will not necessarily act as a preventative, but they could still provide
  a "higher cognitive point" from which to decline; CNN; 12/20/2018
• Crossword-Solving: A Search for Connections and Answers NYT; 2/14/2017
• How to Become a 'Superager' do challenging activities; NYT; 12/31/2016
• Brain Game Claims Fail A Big Scientific Test NPR; 10/3/2016
• For Effective Brain Fitness, Do More Than Play Simple Games
  novelty and complexity; social interaction important; 'brain fitness' courses? NYT; 7/8/2016
• Learning a New Sport May Be Good for the Brain NYT; 3/2/2016
• Using Card and Board Games to Keep Minds Sharp chess, bridge, poker; NYT; 12/4/2015
• Can You Get Smarter? brain training and social integration can slow decline; NYT; 10/23/2015
• Psychologists compare the mental abilities of Scrabble and crossword champions
  both equal at verbal and visuospatial working memory; some differences; 9/12/2014
• Did You Know? 10 Fun Facts About The Oldest Living Man
  Mr. Salustiano Sanchez (d. 9/13/2013); #8: hobbies include crosswords; Guin; 7/25/2013
• Puzzles help 'boost earning power'
  "Research shows that completing puzzles and other mental games sharpens the brain by improving
  concentration, memory, level of alertness, recall of detail, recognition of patterns and speed of reaction time.
  When undertaken with others, improved team-playing is also added to the list of benefits"; 9/16/2012
• How crossword puzzles mess with your mind
  the agony and the ecstasy of solving a crossword puzzle can reflect a surprising amount about
  the subconscious mind; NewSci; 12/20/2011
• Top 10 Tips and Tricks to Train, Exercise, and Better Your Brain
  Sudoku; Wikipedia:Random; Simple Math; Write Instead of Type (More Often); Act Like You're Teaching;
  Tell Yourself Stories; Lumosity app; Meditate; Learn About Your Brain's Faults and Account for Them;
  Exercise and Eat Well; LH; 1/29/2011
• NYT: No Memory, but He Filled In the Blanks learning after brain damage; NYT; 12/7/2010
• Cross-Worditis Gets Official Attention from Health Bureau Tampa (FL) Times, p. 7; 3/11/1925
• Cross-Word Headache Booms Optical Trade New Strain on Eyes Reveals Defects in Vision, as Did the Early Motion Pictures; NYT p. 20; 12/22/1924

Aging; Dementia

• Not black and white: are crossword puzzles really good for your brain? Guardian; 1/22/2024
• Getting Myself Back, One Puzzle at a Time
  after a devastating injury damaged his cognitive abilities, word games
  helped the author build new ways to shape his thoughts; NYT; 12/4/2023
• Tai chi helps boost memory, study finds. One type seems most beneficial
  effect doubled with word game; NPR; 11/6/2023
• Digital puzzle games could be good for memory in older adults
  older adults who play digital puzzle games have the same memory
  abilities as people in their 20s, a new study has shown; 8/14/2023
• Puzzles And Games Cut Dementia Risk -- But Socializing With Friends And Family Barely Helps, Study Finds Forbes; 7/14/2023
• Advice from Ireland’s oldest person, 109-year-old Máirín Hughes: Regular crosswords and live life to the full 5/22/2023
• Secrets of 'SuperAgers' with superior memories into their 80s CNN; 11/26/2022
• Study Finds Crossword Puzzles May Improve Memory Better Than Other Brain Games Prev; 11/5/2022
• Slowing Memory Loss: Crossword Puzzles Beat Cognitive Computer Video Games 10/27/2022
• Playing word games regularly can give a person the daily challenge
  needed to 'keep your memory and your thinking sharp', expert says 4/27/2022
• Maintaining a cognitively active lifestyle 3/23/2022
• Dementia treatment: Can a daily crossword-a-day reduce symptoms? Fact checked
  ...Based on this theory, while crosswords do not necessarily stop people
  from developing dementia, they can help to create a 'higher cognitive point'.
  The findings suggest that although crosswords will not entirely protect you
  from dementia, they can still be beneficial towards overall cognitive function; 11/11/2021
• Daily crossword a key to long life says 100-year-old after Scotsman tribute 10/11/2021
• What's a four-letter word ... MT; 5/30/2021
• Can a Puzzle a Day Keep Dementia at Bay?
  "The Bronx 20-year longitudinal Aging Study found that self-reported crossword puzzle use
  was associated with a 2.54 year delay in dementia onset"; 7/15/2019
• At 104, feisty Helen Marrese of Rockland swears by 'a crossword puzzle a day'
  a top-three reason for longevity; 8/3/2021
• Crosswords may hold solution to delaying dementia
  "people who are most intellectually active in later life appear to delay the onset of dementia by as much as five years";
  Times; 7/15/2021
• Brain Exercises That Work
  1. Do a Crossword Puzzle; Forbes; 7/9/2021
• The Secrets of 'Cognitive Super-Agers'
  factors for cognitive reslience: higher level/better quality education;
  choosing occupations that deal with complex facts and data;
  consuming a Mediterranean-style diet; maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking;
  engaging in leisure activities (cognitively new and challenging to the brain);
  socializing with other people; exercising regularly; NYT; 6/21/2021
• Pursuing Leisure Activities May Not Protect Against Dementia NYT; 11/3/2020
• Alzheimer drugs are great, but taking control of your brain is better 8/16/2020
• 5 Measures That May Lower Your Alzheimer's Risk
  exercise, not smoking, moderate drinking, a Mediterranean diet and mentally stimulating activities; NYT; 6/23/2020
• Studies: One daily habit may help your brain beat the effects of aging
  More frequent puzzlers had better long-term memory and could more easily recall emotions and context,
  not just facts. They also excelled at spatial working memory tests -- tasks like remembering details about
  the physical environment in which something occurred -- and had better attention, processing speed,
  and executive function; 12/24/2019
• Almost Half of Older Americans Fear Dementia
  crossword lovers might be the kind of people who maintain a generally "cognitively stimulating" life
  -- and there is evidence to support benefits from doing so; more 'cognitive reserve'? WebMD; 11/15/2019
• Steps to Prevent Dementia May Mean Taking Actual Steps
  Brain-training apps can't match the several ways that exercise benefits the mind, research shows; NYT; 10/21/2019
• Doing these five things could decrease your risk of Alzheimer's by 60 percent, new study shows
  eating high-quality diet, exercising regularly, refraining from smoking, limiting alcohol consumption,
  engaging in 'cognitive stimulation activities'; 7/14/2019
• How Advocates And Editors Used A Word Game To Reach 50 Million People About Alzheimer's Disease
  'Hardest Crossword': "Only one person knows all the answers, but she doesn’t remember them anymore";
  Alzheimer's Foundation of America (AFA) puzzle site: Katherine, Marie, Pat; Forbes; 6/27/2019
• Supplements Won't Prevent Dementia. But These Steps Might.
  increased physical activity; blood pressure management for people with hypertension,
  particularly in midlife; cognitive training ('something you enjoy where you're learning something
  new, challenging and stimulating your brain'; brain training apps not proven useful); NYT; 3/1/2019
• Can Dementia Be Prevented? Education May Bolster Brain Against Risk NPR; 2/11/2016
• For an Aging Brain, Looking for Ways to Keep Memory Sharp
  even the widely acclaimed value of doing crossword puzzles has been called into question, beyond its
  unmistakable benefit to one's font of miscellaneous knowledge. Although there is some evidence
  that doing crosswords may help to delay memory decline, Molly Wagster, a neuroscientist at the
  National Institute on Aging, said they are best done for personal pleasure, not brain health.
  'People who have done puzzles all their lives have no particular cognitive advantage over anyone else,'
  she said.; NYT; 5/11/2015
• Can crossword puzzles prevent dementia? Clinical Correlations: The NYU Langone Online Journal of Medicine; 3/12/2014
• Crosswords could knock 10 years off brain and delay dementia brain training study; 1/14/2014
• Do Crossword Puzzles Really Stave Off Dementia? NPR Morning Edition; audio: 5:00; NPR; 12/20/2013
• Keeping brain sharp may ward off Alzheimer's protein
  (but "starting crossword puzzles late won't help"); Reut; 1/24/2012
• Association of crossword puzzle participation with memory decline in persons who develop dementia
  Pillai, J.A., et al.; J Int Neuropsychol Soc, 2011. 17(6): p. 1006-13; 11/2011
• Interview: neurologist Martin Samuels brain and aging:
  "There's no evidence that doing the New York Times crossword puzzle prevents Alzheimer's."; 4/15/2010
• Leisure Activities and the Risk of Dementia in the Elderly N Engl J Med 2003;348:2508-16
• Patients with Alzheimer's disease have reduced activities in midlife compared with healthy control-group members
  intellectually challenging hobbies may help prevent Alzheimer's; paper; 3/6/2001

Summary | Quotes |
References: General | Solver Stories | Marriage Proposals

Summary

• Solving crosswords can be a social activity: a way to meet people,
  propose marriage, play together, stay together, ... -- or a source of conflict.

Quotes

• "Whenever I ask people how they got started solving puzzles, the answer
  is always the same: They picked it up as a child from someone they loved,
  usually a parent or a grandparent. Their memories of spending one-on-one time
  with a loved one are warm and nostalgic. Perhaps they started solving
  in adulthood in order to rekindle those feelings.
  
  I remember draping myself over the back of my father’s armchair early on
  Sunday mornings when I was a child, just so I could watch over his shoulder
  as he solved the New York Times Crossword. He whizzed through the puzzle,
  and I thought he was the smartest man in the world. My father also taught
  me how to fold the paper so only the crossword was visible, and that on
  newsprint a pen made for a more pleasant writing experience than a pencil.
  He traveled a lot for work, and I treasured those quiet hours when I had
  him all to myself. The first time I attempted the Times’s Crossword as an adult,
  I dutifully folded the paper the way he had taught me, and pulled out a pen.
  
  New technology has allowed people to connect over puzzles in the form of
  group texts and other chat formats. I know more than a few adults who say
  good morning to their mothers by sharing their Wordle, Spelling Bee and
  Connections scores. Grandparents buy subscriptions to the puzzles so they
  can bond with grandchildren who live far away. It’s not quite the same as
  solving the crossword over a slice of pie, but it’s almost as effective."
  ~Deb Amlen, Gameplay newsletter, 5/6/2024
• "Fighting with him was like trying to solve a crossword and realizing there's no right answer."
  ~Red by Taylor Swift; full lyrics
• "While some people prefer to solve crosswords on their own,
  many enjoy working on a puzzle with a friend or two.
  It's a common trope in comics or movies for a crossword solver
  to look up from a puzzle with a question for a group." ~Christina Iverson; 3/17/2023;
  -- or spouse, e.g., Clare Briggs cartoon from the 1920s
• "It’s better... when you solve together." ~Deb Amlen, WordPlay blog
• "One thing that I do find really sexy is... a girl who's good at crossword puzzles." ~Chris Pine
• "I need help with this crossword," yelled my girlfriend, almost in tears.
  "9 letters, another word for 'concentration'...
  I think she's seeking attention.
• "Another reason for the extraordinary success of crossword puzzles"...
  according to Columbia University professors of psychology H. E. Jones and Prescott Leeky,
  "was the low cost of working them" and "The puzzles appeal to the sex instinct in that
  they supply a new reason for social gatherings, of young particularly."
  ~Trivia on History of the Crossword Puzzle
• "shared crossword
  interlocking
  coffee rings" ~crossword senryu
  senryu: 3-line unrhymed Japanese poem structurally similar to haiku
  but treating human nature usually in an ironic or satiric vein.
• "A lady got off the train so I finished her crossword...
  Turns out she'd just gone to the toilet and now she's back and she hates me."
• "Relationships are like crossword puzzles:... sometimes it takes a few times to find the right fit.
  ~Lessons from the End of a Marriage 9/3/2012
• "My wife thinks she's better than me at puzzles... I haven't given in on that one yet." ~Bill Gates
• "Scrabble is the one that George... now seems to be playing constantly.
  Like, I'm trying to get his attention; I'm still here." ~Bush Plays Scrabble on iPad
• "Sitting alone at a coffee shop, working the Sunday New York Times crossword,... I got stuck on a clue.
  An attractive guy peeked over my shoulder and said, 'Trireme: a Roman galley. It's the answer to six across.'
  Thirty-two years later, we compete to see who can complete the crossword fastest." ~Sher Garfield
• "A man was working a crossword puzzle and asked,
  'What is a four letter word for... a strong emotional reaction toward a difficult person?'
  Someone standing nearby said, 'The answer is hate.'
  A lady interrupted and said, 'No, the answer is love!'
  Everyone is working that same crossword puzzle,
  but the way you answer is up to you." ~Kent Crockett, The 911 Handbook
• "Never let a problem to be solved become... more important than the person to be loved."~Barbara Johnson

References

• see Refs: Marriage Proposals; section: History: 1920s: marital strife
• topics: arguments, communication, loss, romance, sex, tournaments
• XWordInfo: Collaborate or Compete with a Friend (NYT)
• ‘My husband does the crossword every night in bed
  – and it's causing us problems’
  Turns out puzzle-solving can test your marriage as well as your brain;
  as one reader told me; Tel; 2/3/2023
• My bad trip – I met a handsome Scot with a crossword
  and thought it was true love. I was wrong Guard; 1/31/2023
• How Crossword Puzzles Helped Me Connect With My Son 4/2/2022
• All in the Game of Love
  Over crosswords, Rubik's Cubes or Scrabble, these couples bonded through their shared love of puzzles and games; NYT; 3/24/2022
• It's Becoming Pretty Clear that the Crossword Constructor Is Going Through Something NYkr; 1/25/2022
• 'Want to Join My Crossword Group Chat?'
  a new generation of crossword enthusiasts has changed the way that puzzles are discussed.
  And they are determined to make their pastime a space where all are welcome; NYT; 8/31/2021
• A Collaboration Across Time Deborah Sosin stumbled upon her father's unfinished crossword puzzles.
  Solving them became a way to honor his memory; NYT; 4/28/2021
• A Handy Vehicle for Social Interaction
  a recent college graduate learned lessons about mindfulness
  and camaraderie by solving the bite-size NYT Mini Crossword; NYT; 2/24/2021
• Author David Leavitt on crossword puzzles, grief and ritual NPR; 12/30/2020
• Collaborative NYT crosswords return to Twitch over the holiday weekend
  commands are formatted like "23d barn" meaning "the answer for 23 down is barn";
  calming soundtrack; Verge; 11/25/2020
• The Crew has met daily for 18 years to solve crossword together; 10/1/2020
• Why I gave up the daily crossword Gen Z daughter now solving the newspaper puzzles; 6/11/2020
• Happiness is FaceTime, wine, and the Sunday crossword BG; 6/1/2020
• I Can't Spend Time With My Dad, but Doing Crosswords Over the Phone Helps
  working on puzzles side-by-side has always been a ritual for us.
  Even with quarantine keeping us apart, we found a way to hold on to it; MB; 5/5/2020
• Introducing The Atlantic's Sunday Crossword
  We’re expanding our puzzles to the weekend, and you can play with friends; 5/3/2020
• Introducing Partner Mode: Crosswords for the Age of Social Distancing
  virtual togetherness through solving; NYkr; 4/10/2020
• Long-Distance Crossword Puzzle Activity to Do With Children 4/3/2020
• What is nine letters and the key to the SF Giants’ clubhouse chemistry? The daily crossword.
  Evan Longoria, Brandon Crawford and Jeff Samardzija don’t let a day go by without completing the crossword;
  "Just 30 minutes of thinking about stuff that's not baseball keeps you intelligent on that spectrum"; SJM; 3/3/2020
• Halifax man closing in on goal of completing 3,653 NYT crosswords in honour of late father
  they bonded over crosswords; 11/21/2019
• It's Better When You Solve -- and Construct -- Together Gabrielle Friedman and Jakob Weisblat; NYT; 11/11/2019
• 'Dot was drinking a beer and doing a crossword. I thought, there's a woman after my own heart!'
  Registered nurse Tim Castley, 54, met war widow and former switchboard operator Dot Sullivan, 101, eight years ago.
  They bonded over a love of crosswords, getting together every Monday evening to decode that day's puzzle; 11/1/2019
• After I Got Hit By a Car, I Never Expected Crosswords Would Save Me
  When I felt isolated or resentful, puzzles helped me remember how to connect with the world outside my head; Vice; 6/3/2019
• Words matter: Clarity found in Mom's crumpled crossword 1/29/2019
• As camp preps players for friendlies, USMNT competing off the field with crossword puzzles
  crossword puzzles may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of team-building,
  but they've become somewhat of a lunchtime ritual for the U.S. men's national soccer team; USA; 1/24/2019
• They'll Check on You After Surgery: Meet the Times's Crossword Puzzlers NYT; 8/19/2018
• Puzzle Lovers Find Their Tribe at a Crossword Tournament NYT; 3/26/2018
• 40 ways to add romance to your relationship
  4. Create a game. Design a personalized crossword puzzle for your sweetie with romantic clues such as,
  "Where did we have our first kiss?" It's easy: discoveryeducation.com/free-puzzlemaker; 2/2013
• Life Is Shortz a 2-Act Play by Lee Marcus; [video; 14:38]; 3/27/2011
• Doing crosswords or sudoku 'helps couples get over arguments' 3/11/2010
• Crossword Protocol
  "I recently noticed a week-old, half-finished crossword puzzle
  on my mother's kitchen table. I filled in a few answers -- no big deal.
  But Mom went ballistic. What's the protocol on helping out
  on crosswords?" Wired; 4/20/2009
• Dear Abby: "I chuckled when I saw the letter from
  "Eating Single but Not Alone" (Feb. 5), about discovering
  single men in a diner at breakfast....
  My advice to single women: Bring the crossword puzzle
  from the daily paper and you won't feel so awkward.
  It will give you a legitimate reason for starting a conversation,
  and you may even get offered help with the answers."
  Local diner makes matches along with serving meals MT; 4/10/2007
• Top 5 Ways for the Aging to Remain Socially Engaged: Game On crossword clubs; HSW
• Love and Relationships Crosswords: Easy and Hard
• Marriage and Family: The Quest for Intimacy textbook; crosswords in 19 Chapters; 2004
• Crossword Murder Man, Crazed by Them, Slays Wife and Wounds Self; Cincinnati (OH) Post, p. 15; 12/18/1925
• Crossword Mania Breaks Up Homes
  Neglected Cleveland Wives Said to Plan Divorces from Stricken Husbands; NYT p. 8; 12/11/1924

Solver Stories (NYT)

• Shelter From Life's Storms NYT; 6/22/2022
• Progress Comes Only With Practice
  the lessons my grandfather taught me while we solved crossword puzzles
  went well beyond putting letters in squares; NYT; 1/26/2022
• The Safety of Order
  Finding stability in puzzles during a turbulent time; NYT; 9/22/2021
• Crosswords Were a Way for My Grandmother to Prove Herself
  A woman with little formal education taught her granddaughter an important lesson;
  NYT; 7/28/2021
• Learning to Love the Theory of ‘Good Enough’
  Letting go of perfectionism is a formidable task; NYT; 5/26/2021
• The Girl Who Walked Away
  as an adolescent, Leslie Doyle felt embarrassed by her father.
  As an adult, she learned to be grateful for what he taught her; NYT; 1/27/2021
• Escape the Room, Escape the World
  a family takes refuge from life’s sharper edges by solving puzzles together;
  solving puzzles gives us a chance to escape reality -- and the weight of society's demands
  -- at least briefly; NYT; 12/23/2020
• My Journey to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
  a well-loved clipboard loaded with crossword puzzles
  became the rock one woman leaned on when her husband became critically ill;
  'When days were long, doctors' visits were discouraging and the future was uncertain,
  crossword puzzles gave me a sense of accomplishment, comfort and stability.' NYT; 11/25/2020
• Staying Connected Across the Miles solving crosswords together
  helped two friends cling to their bond when distance and life got in the way; NYT; 10/28/2020
• Crossword Puzzles: The Sixth 'Love Language'
  when work separated Jamie Sumner and her husband, they found a way to connect over the miles; NYT; 9/30/2020
• Bringing Order to Chaos
  In Italy, a country ravaged by the effects of coronavirus,
  a man finds some solace and peace by focusing on crossword puzzles; NYT; 4/6/2020
• When Survival Depends on the Little Things
  After tragedy struck, solving crosswords allowed estranged sisters to find a way back to each other; NYT; 5/15/2019
• From Generation to Generation
  In one family, a love of solving puzzles flowed from old to young, and united them; NYT; 4/10/2019
• Always Another Puzzle a son remembers the joy of solving with his mother; NYT; 2/13/2019
• When the Child Becomes the Parent
  words become medicine as Anu Garg helps his formerly self-reliant mother recover from a stroke; NYT; 12/19/2018
• "You Are Tough. You Have to Be This Boy's Mother. You Can Do a Saturday Puzzle."
  in the NICU, a life hangs in the balance and a new mother practices self-care with crossword puzzles; NYT; 11/28/2018
• Loss Across and Love Down
  for Maria Janelli, solving crossword puzzles made loss bearable and love possible; NYT; 10/26/2018
• One Hundred Miles From Here
  solving the crossword helps a young woman stay connected to family as she ventures toward independence; NYT; 8/29/2018
• 'Solver Stories' Submission Guidelines
  have a story that needs to be told about puzzles and how they connected you to someone else?
  Wordplay wants to hear from you; NYT; 5/29/2018
• The Language of Letting Go
  solving crossword puzzles helps a mother bond with her adult child in a new way;
  "There's something profoundly satisfying about solving a crossword puzzle. It's not just the filling in of squares
  It's the way you must continually push yourself to look at what you know through a different lens,
  the unexpected discovery that you have more resources at your disposal than you ever imagined"; NYT; 5/23/2018

Marriage Proposals

• Steele Harvey proposes to girlfriend Remy Spillane in Newcastle Herald Blockbuster crossword 12/6/2021
• Who is Tracey McShane? Jon Stewart proposed to his wife through crossword puzzle 6/15/2021
• Man proposes to girlfriend with Israel Hayom crossword puzzle 3/1/2021
• They All Said Yes A Puzzling Proposal: Amanda Yesnowitz & Brendan McGrady; NYT; 1/4/2020
• 'Ingenuity, solvability and mischievousness': i's crossword king on secret to the perfect clue
  and why he set his wife a puzzle for their wedding day Nimrod; 12/17/2019
• A Proposal in Our Pages. The Crossword to Be Exact
  Here’s the down and across of the plan. But did it work? Austin Chronicle; 11/20/2019
• New York Times editor helps crossword fan get marriage proposal across, down on a knee
  'A great puzzle is like a great relationship' at P'ville Crossword Puzzle Tournament; 9/23/2019
• Puzzling out the perfect proposal 6/17/2019
• Anna proposes to Tessa by hiding 'will you marry me?' in Press crossword 3/12/2019
• Man Proposes to Girlfriend with Cryptic Personalised Crossword 4/6/2018
• Fiancee discovers proposal in crossword puzzle The News-Review (paywall), Roseburg; 4/3/2018
• Wedding Crossword Puzzle | And a 9 Step Tutorial! 5/31/2013
• Crossword marriage proposal: Where are they now? WaPo; 12/21/2011
• For Alexandria couple, wedding proposal in a crossword puzzle just fit WaPo; 4/16/2011
• Marriage proposal in crossword puzzle yields correct answer: Yes! NYT; 9/26/2007
• Jonesin' for Marriage Eugene Weekly; 7/14/2005
• A Modest Proposal Newsday; 3/9/1998
• Marriage proposal puzzle [NYT] 1998; Will Shortz Discusses (video: 2:56);
  included 20-A: "1729 Jonathan Swift pamphlet": A MODEST PROPOSAL;
  56-A: "1992 Paula Abdul hit": WILL YOU MARRY ME

Summary | Quotes |
References: General | Celebrities | Death | Politicians | Sports | Tournaments

Summary

• Some already-famous people (e.g., politicians, celebrities) enjoy solving crosswords.
• Some seek fame -- while alive -- by
• appearing in a crossword clue, proposing marriage in a crossword, celebrating a birthday in a crossword
• solving the fastest on 'leaderboards', bragging on social media about longest solving streaks
• winning a tournament
• publishing one or more crosswords
• creating crossword-themed art, music, literature, software, ...

• 
  

  Some company names include "crossword", e.g., Crossword Cybersecurity.

• An obituary may tout the deceased's love of crosswords -- especially solving them in ink,
• or a suicide note or tombstone may leave behind a tantalizing crossword mystery.

Quotes

• "You are never famous until... you've had your name in a crossword puzzle." ~Beverly Sills
• "You know when you've got it made?...
  When you get your name in the crossword puzzles." ~Rocky Bridges
• 'crossword-famous':...your name is better known by regular crossword-solvers
  than it is by the general population
• "They just use my name for a filler... I like that." ~Yoko Ono
• "AOC is maybe the first politician since LBJ... with an iconic three-initial nickname,
  which is good news for her career but ESPECIALLY for crossword editors"
• "TV host who's a big crossword fan?"... (D)AVID LETTERMAN
• Like many actors, Sir John Gielgud passed the time between scenes... by doing crosswords.
  
  Although he was renowned for the speed with which he demolished the cryptic puzzle in his
  daily newspaper, he did not always concern himself with such mundanities as getting the answers right.
  
  One day a co-star peered over his shoulder as he solved and caught sight of a strange-looking word.
  
  'Excuse me, John, but what are Diddybums?' he asked.
  
  'I have no idea,' came the reply. 'But it does fit awfully well.'
  
  Gielgud, who died at the age of 96 with a freshly completed crossword on his bedside table,
  attributed his longevity to the puzzles.
  
  'It's the only exercise I take. I smoke non-stop and solving the crossword clears the fumes.'
• "Once you've sat in a room annoying Derek Jacobi... while he's trying to do his crossword,
  you're prepped for working with the greats." ~Nicola Walker
• "Father liked word games. He was fourteen times World Scrabble Champion.
  When he died,... we buried him at Queenzieburn to make use of the triple word score."
  ~Jasper Fforde, The Big Over Easy
• "Touring Ireland's countryside with a group of travel writers,
  we passed an immaculate cemetery... with hundreds of beautiful headstones
  set in a field of emerald-green grass. Everyone reached for their cameras
  when the tour guide said the inventor of the crossword puzzle was buried there.
  He pointed out the location, 'Three down and four across.'" ~Anonymous joke
• "My goal in life is to be a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle...
  I've never told anyone that, but it's true." ~Peter King, Sports Illustrated writer [puzzle!]
• "I'd like to be a crossword clue one day... I want to be in The New York Times's Sunday edition.
  Right now, the clue 'Giants great' is always Mel Ott. I want my clue to be down, not across.
  The down ones are usually harder. And when I'm the clue, I'll fill it in -- just that one --
  and frame it. How sweet would that be?" ~Brian Wilson, SF Giant
• "The problem is even if the crossword author needs the answer 'Brian Wilson',...
  there's a 99.99% chance that the clue is going to be about the Beach Boys." ~Anonymous commenter
• "30 D. Giants hurler (2010 champs) / Beach Boys vocalist on 'Help Me, Rhonda' (#1 in 1965)"...
  3/31/2011 NYT puzzle about identities of pitchers on World Series-winning teams
  who shared a name with musicians who had No. 1 songs; Brian gets his wish!
• "'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' was my favorite of all the things I ever did,...
  because it was like doing a Sunday crossword puzzle and beating it."" ~Carl Reiner
• "[My husband] tells everybody that I do / my puzzles in ink. He never /
  brags about / my high notes. My favorite / clue in the whole world is... [___ Sills' solo]"
  ~Beverly Sills; Newsday, Sun, 8/29/2021: "SILLS SOLO: Miss Beverly singing about crosswords";
  puz (pdf), sol (pdf)
• "All I've ever ended up with in terms of achievements... is the movie, some really stupid anecdotes,
  a bunch of crosswords that I didn't finish and maybe some old bicycle that I found lying around on set."
  ~Christian Bale
• ."I never just sit down and see what's on TV anymore... And also, I hate almost everything,
  so that keeps you reading magazines and doing crossword puzzles or whatever." ~Andy Richter
• "Q. Who in your family was the New York Giants/Mel Ott fan?...
  
  A. I'm a fan of any celebrity whose name is short and contains a convenient vowel-consonant pattern.
  We need more famous people with names like Eli, Eno, Ira, Ari, Omar, Ella, Ida, Ada, Uma, Ono, Oona
  and, yes, Mel and Ott." ~Will Shortz interview NYT; 7/19/2009
  -- and AIMEE, IDI AMIN, ANAIS NIN, ARA, ELLE, ELLIE, ERLE, ESAI, ETTA,
  EMO, IDA, MIA, NIA, NITA, YMA, OLLI, ... ~Steve
• "Q. Has any celebrity or public figure ever tried to influence you... to use their name
  as a puzzle answer? Having your name as an answer to a NYT puzzle clue must be
  up there with an Oscar, Nobel or Grammy, wouldn't you say?
  
  A. Once in a while a semi-celebrity or up-and-coming starlet (or that person's agent)
  has sent me info on himself or herself, with the suggestion that I use the name in a Times
  crossword. I always throw this away immediately. I don't want to be influenced by personal
  appeals. If I use a name in a Times crossword, I want it to be because the name has seeped
  into my brain naturally. Having one's name in a Times crossword does seem to carry some cachet.
  In "Wordplay," one of the Indigo Girls says the appearance of their name in a Times puzzle
  (the very first puzzle I edited for the Times back in 1993, as a matter of fact) was
  'total thrill' and '... let's call it the pinnacle of our career!'" ~Will Shortz interview NYT; 6/20/2006
• "All smart people do crossword puzzles"... spokesperson for Rand Paul,
  who was solving a crossword during 2020 impeachment trial.
• "I, TONYA is the new movie I'm most looking forward to seeing,... in crossword puzzles for decades."
• "Shoutout to the NYT crossword for making sure nobody... ever forgets about Ulee's Gold"
• "She died as she lived, doing crossword puzzles on her phone... while attempting to cross a major street."
• "I contend there has never been a 'Brian Eno'... He exists only in crossword puzzles."
• "Everyone knows ghosts were people with unfinished business,...
  so right before I die I'm starting a crossword puzzle."
• "I was fortunate to be able to do two movies with Harold Ramis... On top of his talent,
  he could do the 'New York Times' crossword puzzle faster than anyone!" ~Andie MacDowell

References

• sections: Ref:Celebrities; Ref:Death; Ref:Politicians; Ref:Sports; Ref:Tournaments
• topics: art, clues, movies, records
• WordPlay: ACPT 2005: Will Shortz, Merl Reagle, Bill Clinton,
  Bob Dole, Jon Stewart, Ken Burns, Mike Mussina, the Indigo Girls
• Wikipedia: Crossword records
• Most people doing crosswords simultaneously Guiness record 2017; =609
• Steve's puzzles some published
• Companies with "crossword" in name:
• Crossword Cybersecurity UK
• Crossword Bookstores India
• Crossword Group travel; India
• Crossword Agro Industries exporter; India
• Damien Hirst: Mom took my art seriously when I became a crossword clue CNN; 3/2/2021
• A reader of The Scotsman and avid crossword fan has celebrated her milestone
  100th birthday with a puzzle dedicated to her in her favourite newspaper 1/14/2021
• Laurie Keller's Crossword Surprise
  in NYT Sun: 21 Across: '____ the Doughnut,' children’s book series; 1/12/2021
• My "Kind-Of, Sort-Of, Bucket List"
  Now what I would like to have happen is for my name to be an answer to a newspaper crossword clue.
  Have you ever thought of having your name be the answer to a crossword clue?
  I think and dream of things like that'; 2/2/2020
• Former Spotlight reporter hits the big time: The NYT crossword puzzle Michael Rezendes; BG; 7/3/2019
• Reader enjoys crossword surprise birthday puzzle in newspaper; 5/13/2019
• NY Times Deletes Tweets Scolding Twitter User for Joke
  About Winner of Crossword Getting to Execute a Pundit 4/10/2019
• "___ Technica" is a clue in today's NYT crossword
  It has three letters... and I work there; Ars; 8/7/2018
• "Holy crap! You're in the crossword!"
  Ira Basen's maritime odyssey to find out who turned him into a crossword clue...
  and, more importantly, why. His documentary is called "42 Across." 11:58; 10/10/2017
• 91-Year-Old Woman Fills in $89,000 Artwork She Thought Was Crossword Puzzle
  'Reading-work-piece' by avant garde artist Arthur Koepcke at Nuremberg's Neues Museum closely
  resembles a crossword and features the phrase 'insert words'; Time; 7/15/2016
• A Man, a Plan, a Palindrome a short documentary about Palindrome World Champion Mark Saltveit; 3/2015
• The Shortz Factor introducing a new measure: 'crossword-famous' -- your name is better known
  by regular crossword-solvers than it is by the general population:
  7. URI; 6. YMA; 5. OTT; 4. ESAI; 3. ERTE; 2. RAE; 1. ERLE; 1/27/2012
• Word Wars a look at the obsessive world of competitive Scrabble; 2004

Celebrities

• "Famous Puzzlers: Kristen Bell, David Bowie, Ken Burns, Ellen Burstyn, Daniel Craig,
  Bill Clinton, Claire Danes, Rachel Dratch, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman,
  Bill Gates, Teri Garr, Jake Gyllenhaal, Keith Hernandez, Dustin Hoffman, Kate Hudson,
  Rashida Jones, Stephen King, Diane Lane, John Lithgow, Yo-Yo Ma, Keith Olbermann,
  Nancy Pelosi, Katy Perry, Natalie Portman, Zachary Quinto, Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra,
  Stephen Sondheim, Jon Stewart, Martha Stewart, Sting, Vanessa Williams, Bellamy Young,
  Catherine Zeta-Jones." Puzzle Mania, p. 7; NYT; 12/18/2016
• Celebrity Crosswords: Facebook; Trensa; Word-Game-World
• The Types Of Notable People That Newspaper Crosswords Mention The Most, Visualized 5/15/2023
• El-P Was Pretty Chill About Being A NYT Crossword Clue 4/21/2021
• I'd Like to Solve the Puzzle: Pat Sajak Loves Crosswords DB; 4/12/2021
• Free ‘Celebrity’ Crossword Zoom Events w/ John Halpern e.g., w/ Will Shortz on 2/5/2021
• Billy Crystal Is Spending Quarantine Playing Basketball
  and Doing the NYT Crossword Puzzle video; Yahoo; 1/28/2021
• Dune Star Rebecca Ferguson Compares Reading Frank Herbert's Novel to 'Doing a Crossword Puzzle' 10/6/2020
• Leah Remini To Host Crossword Puzzle Show 'People Puzzler' For Game Show Network 7/30/2020
• 'The Office': Leslie David Baker Reveals How Many Actual Crosswords
  He Did as Stanley on Set and It's Impressive 7/29/2020
• Why Full Celebrity Names in Crossword Puzzles Are Fun -- And Hard to Come By DB; 7/27/2020
• Why Idina Menzel is More "Crossword Famous" Than Jay-Z:
  The Art of Vowel-Heavy Celebrity Names in Puzzles 7/4/2020
• Queen's lockdown revealed: From crosswords to walks around Windsor Castle 5/28/2020
• Soha Ali Khan challenges herself a crossword puzzle amidst national lockdown 3/28/2020
• The BTS ARMY Finally Figured Out the Meaning Behind Jungkook's Crossword Tattoo 3/5/2020
• Shannon Cartier "Lucy Home is a crossword puzzle I can't solve" at Lubov art exhibition; 3/2020
• Ana de Armas Gets Included in the NYT Crossword Puzzle Knives Out actress; 1/27/2020
• Brenda Blethyn: How cryptic crosswords help me play Vera, TV's cleverest detective
  She’s a cryptic crossword fiend. 'I race my brother every day to finish the cryptic crossword [in the newspaper].
  My record is 40 minutes – not very quick,' she says modestly. She can polish off a concise crossword in
  three-and-a-half minutes; 12/28/2019
• Paul Rudd Talks About Being a Crossword Answer on The Late Late Show
  with James Corden! video; 10/22/2019
• 5 Questions with Brandon Uranowitz from Burn This 5/1/2019
• June Spencer's secrets for a long life... a sense of humour, crosswords and a Baileys
  actress in The Archers; 6/12/2019
• Robert Downey Jr. Celebrates Birthday With Crossword Puzzle Tweet HP; 4/4/2019
• Lucinda Williams on memoirs, crossword puzzles and more before St. Petersburg concert 1/29/2019
• Natasha Lyonne Has a New Life. It's Just That She Keeps Dying.
  There have been relationships where I've broken up because I'm like, I need this to feel
  more like a crossword puzzle; you were an answer in a Times crossword puzzle and wrote:
  "Please put this on my tombstone"; NYT; 1/25/2019;
  How Natasha Lyonne Created a Times Crossword Puzzle NYT; 4/1/2019
• Garry Trudeau NYT; 5/14/2018
• A Year of Celebrity Crossword Puzzles NYT; 10/24/2017
• Transylvania Twist Emanuel Ax; 4NYT; /18/2017
• Matt Bai: All-Encompassing political correspondent; NYT; 9/6/2014
• Lion Observed at Night Joy Behar; NYT; 9/25/2017
• Modern-Day Remake Elayne Boosler; NYT; 7/11/2017
• Elayne Boosler: Soft T's comedian; NYT; 4/27/2013
• Bill Clinton Didn't Want His New York Times Crossword to Be Boring
  The Way It Used to Be; the (free) puzzle; NYT; 5/11/2017
• Dana Delany actress; NYT; 4/14/2011
• Something Bleeped Out for Television Sen. Joe Donnelly; NYT; 1/10/2018
• Jesse Eisenberg NYT; 2/14/2017
• Ron Ely Tarzan; 3/16/1997
• Melinda Gates NYT; 9/26/2018
• Part of a Magic Act Neil Patrick Harris; NYT; 8/23/2017
• Mollie Katzen cookbook author; NYT; 1/31/2011
• John Lithgow Is Not Eldritch NYT; 10/17/2017
• Lisa Loeb Hears Music in the Creation of a Crossword Puzzle NYT; 6/5/2017
• Keeper of the Flame Rachel Maddow; NYT; 3/1/2018
• Merrill Markoe writer; NYT; 3/14/2011
• By Design Isaac Mizrahi; NYT; 7/29/2017
• A Questionnaire for the Immodest and Curious: Clever Puzzles, Riddles,
  and Word Games from Nabokov’s Love Letters to His Wife 4/16/2015
• Daniel Okrent NYT public editor; NYT; 8/12/2011
• The One That Got Away: The Bittersweet Story of George Orwell and His Childhood Sweetheart
  "All I do is read and do crossword puzzles"; 6/25/2015
• Neal Pollack author; NYT; 4/4/2016
• Sex, Drugs and R&B: Inside the Weeknd’s Dark Twisted Fantasy Abel Tesfaye;
  "A high school dropout, he used to do crossword puzzles to improve his vocabulary"; RS; 10/21/2015
• Josh Radnor actor; NYT; 2/22/2011
• Calculated Josh Radnor; NYT; 1/30/2018
• Carl Reiner NYT; 4/5/2015
• A Path to Victory Peter Sagal; NYT; 11/1/2017
• Gestures of Gratitude Harry Smith; NYT; 12/4/2017
• Joel Stein TIME contributor; NYT; 6/26/2011
• Quite a Distance Off Neil deGrasse Tyson; NYT; 3/19/2017
• Suzanne Whang: It's Better This Way actress; NYT; 3/15/2014
• Betty White on her world record, her favorite works, and getting started on TV
  GWR longest TV career; "I am an avid crossword puzzle addict"; 9/4/2013
• Cheesy Stuff Weird Al Yankovic; Word Crimes; NYT; 4/3/2018
• Alan Zweibel writer; NYT; 1/30/2012
• The Acrosses and Downs of Crossword Celebrity 2/6/2012
• The Shortz Factor new measure of crossword-related fame; 1/27/2012

Death

• Halifax man closing in on goal of completing 3,653 NYT crosswords in honour of late father 11/21/2019
• Gerald Castillo enjoyed crossword puzzles and hunting 9/30/2019
• Barrington Pheloung obituary Composer who found fame with the theme and incidental music
  he created for the TV series Inspector Morse; "Bazz was an avid tackler of the Guardian's cryptic crossword,
  which he rarely failed to complete"; Guard; 8/11/2019
• My grandfather: Apollo 11 engineer, crossword savant ... nudist 7/16/2019
• Colin Dexter's life in five clues Inspector Morse (book) creator, who died on Tuesday, was a prolific creator
  of crosswords both real and fictional. Here are five clues that sum up his life of witty wordplay; Guard; 5/22/2017
• Bean Puzzle Tombstone 1867; Henrietta & Susanna Bean; it took over 100 years to decode this enigmatic
  epitaph for two buried brides; AO; 12/5/2016
• This Man’s Tombstone Features a Cryptic Crossword Puzzle—Can You Solve It? 1832; John Renie
• Family Poses Dead Mother With Beer, Cigarettes and Crossword Puzzles at Memorial 6/13/2014
• Rev John Graham, aka Araucaria: 'Crosswords are a way of life'
  Last week, he used one to reveal he has cancer; 1/18/2013

Politicians

• Cigars, painting, and crosswords: the surprising hobbies of 17 presidents
  crosswords: Bill Clinton; Yahoo; 2/11/2021
• 'New York Times' Pledges To Cover Biden Sexual Assault Allegations In Upcoming Crossword
  ;-) Onion; 4/10/2020
• CNN's Berman Upset that Rand Was Doing Crosswords During Impeachment Trial
  "All smart people do crossword puzzles"; 1/23/2020
• Doing the crossword and smoking a cigar on his balcony
  Australian PM; Bob Hawke's last home photo with his beloved wife Blanche smiling until the end; 5/17/2019
• Schumer jokes NY Times erred in crossword clue: 'Chuck' has 'five letters!' 4/27/2019
• Nancy Pelosi "in the zone" with crossword puzzles
  she tells Jane Pauley her hobby of doing crossword puzzles comes with benefits; video: 0:38; CBS; 1/6/2019
• Obama Orders Two-Year Supply of Crossword Puzzles
  the President said that he hoped that Republicans in Congress would support his plan for the puzzles,
  but added, "I don't need their support. All I need is a pen."; 11/7/2014
• Pres. G. W. Bush to Replace Will Shortz as NYT Crossword Editor (& 1st puzzle) ;-) 1/3/2009
• Pres. Bill Clinton pens NY Times' crossword puzzle Reut; 5/7/2007; [Java, .pdf, .puz]
• The Embattled Woman Who Relishes Crosswords, Children -- and Running India:
  Indira Gandhi; People; 6/30/1975

Sports

• Who is the D-backs' undisputed crossword champ? 3/20/2023
• Nationals reliever Tanner Rainey is also a crossword devotee WaPo; 6/23/2022
• Mina Kimes loves doing difficult crosswords and bragging about it on Instagram 8/21/2020
• Staten Island Yankees to host ‘The Office’ Night in August
  Leslie David Baker -- who portrayed the character Stanley Hudson (who loved crosswords)
  will make an appearance and throw out the first pitch; 3/5/2020
• Aaron Rodgers interview
  Green Bay quarterpack; 1. Rodgers does eight to 12 crossword puzzles a week. Spending time with his
  grandparents as a kid introduced him to his love of crosswords. He does them on his New York Times
  app, in USA Today and occasionally the local newspaper for both fun and to help keep his mind sharp.
  Sometimes he’ll even do one in the three hours before a game at Lambeau Field. I do enjoy them,
  but also I’ve had a number of concussions and you worry about your future brain functions,
  and I feel like doing crosswords, doing Sudoku, doing KenKen, watching ‘Jeopardy,’ brushing your
  teeth with a different hand, tying your shoes in different orders, there’s a lot of different things
  that you can do to stay sharp mentally, and I think that’s one of them, crosswords.”; 12/26/2019
• Everything to Know About ESPN Reporter Mina Kimes
  Aside from painting, Kimes says her 'number one hobby' is doing crossword puzzles
  -- particularly the ones published by the New York Times; she finds the Times‘ Friday and
  Saturday crosswords to be the most difficult; People; 12/23/2019

Tournaments / Awards

• see also: Financial: Tournament
• Win an Orca Award?
  annual (2019-2012) celebration of outstanding achievement in crossword puzzle construction and editing,
  with many categories: Best Crossword, Best Clue, Constructor of the Year, ...
• American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) Winners: 1978-present
  most wins: Dan Feyer =7 (6 consecutive); oldest: Doug Hoylman =56+; youngest: Tyler Hinman =20+
• Portland man crowned UK crossword puzzle champion with 'totally misleading' clue Oreg; 10/31/2023
• Crossword Tournament From Your Couch
  an online, synchronous, live-streamed crossword solving competition; puzzles; 3/20/2020
• Wordsmiths turn to web for 'largest crossword puzzle ever organized'
  About 900 compete in Crossword Tournament From Your Couch event on Facebook; WT; 3/22/2020
• People share passion for puzzles at annual crossword contest Westport; 2/4/2020

Summary | Quotes | References

Summary

• Solving crosswords can become time-consuming, frustrating, and/or addictive.
• This course could speedup your solving time and reduce frustration,
  -- though it might make them more fun and addictive.
• Why do You solve puzzles-- or not?
• "Write a history of crosswords in the style of a conspiracy theorist." by ChatGPT (AI chatbot)
  All right, here goes: The history of crosswords is a shadowy one, full of intrigue and deceit.
  It all began with a man named Arthur Wynne, who worked as a journalist for the New York
  World newspaper. But little did the world know, Wynne was not who he seemed.
  He was actually a secret agent, working for a shadowy organization that sought to control
  the masses through the use of mind-altering puzzles. In December of 1913, Wynne unveiled
  his latest creation: the "word-cross" puzzle. It was published in the Sunday edition of the
  New York World, and it quickly became a sensation. But all was not as it seemed.
  Hidden within the puzzle were subliminal messages, designed to brainwash the unsuspecting public.
  The crossword craze only grew from there, with other newspapers jumping on the bandwagon
  and publishing their own versions of the puzzle. But make no mistake -- these were not mere games. more

Quotes

• "'Judge John Hodgman' told the story of his own streak addiction, and how unhealthy it was
  when his happiness depended on hearing the ditty that plays upon finishing a puzzle.
  He went on to advise restraint: 'Do not get addicted to the streak. Do not let it interfere
  with your life. Do the puzzle such that it is fun, and not an addictive torment to you.'"
  
  "The puzzle-checking features in our app do nullify a crossword streak.
  If keeping a [puzzle solving] streak brings you joy, then go ahead and keep it up.
  But if it’s causing you anxiety, then allow yourself the freedom to use whatever
  features [e.g., Check button] make the puzzle more enjoyable for you."
  ~Christina Iverson, Easy Mode newsletter, 3/22/2024
• The chairman of Maryland's Board of Mental Hygiene worried...
  that the puzzles 'might easily unbalance a nervous mind'
  and even lead to psychosis.
• Q. Do I rue a life wasted doing crosswords?...
  A. Yes, but I do know the three-letter-word for regret." ~Robert Brault
• I didn't realise that I was addicted to crosswords but...
  when I look back now, all the clues were there.
• I went to see my psychiatrist last week. I explained to him that I was
  getting depressed because of my addiction to crossword puzzles...
  He said try not to get too down.
• An interviewer asks a woman if she has any unusual talents...
  She says she'd actually won a few national crossword puzzle contests.
  "Sounds good," the office manager replies, "but we want someone who will be just as intelligent during office hours."
  "Oh," says the applicant. "That’s good because that’s when I do most of my puzzles."
• Woke up the other day with a puzzled look on my face...
  Had fallen asleep on my crossword.
• "Their addiction to the useless habit somehow proves... they are smarter
  or more literate than the rest of us. Need I suggest that those who spend time doing
  crossword puzzles (or sudoku) -- uselessly filling empty boxes (a metaphor for some
  emptiness in their lives?) -- could be doing something else that involves words and letters?
  It’s called 'reading'.
  
  But somehow crossword types think that their addiction to this sad form of mental
  self-abuse somehow makes them 'literary.' Sorry: Doing puzzles reflects not an
  elevated literary sensibility but a degraded letter-ary sensibility, one that demonstrates
  an inability to find pleasure in reading. Otherwise, why choose the wan, sterile
  satisfactions of crosswords over the far more robust full-blooded pleasures of books?
  ~Ron Rosenbaum, in Slate
• "You’re always a little embarrassed to even confess that you do them...
  because it's such a pointless waste of time. What a waste of life!"
  ~John Lithgow, on Jimmy Fallon Show
• "A crossword puzzle is a great way to unwind or ruin your entire day,...
  and there's no way to tell which it'll be before you start."
• "The rush I get from completing a crossword puzzle leads me to believe...
  that trying hard drugs would destroy my life within hours."
• Invited to comment on the Crossword Crisis,
  the Times’s puzzle editor Will Shortz waxed lighthearted:...
  "As a crossword editor, I basically play all day, and I’d like to bring that same sense of playfulness
  to as many other people as possible. The public consequences be damned!”
• "One cannot build life from refrigerators, politics, crossword puzzles...
  and credit statements. That is impossible. Nor can one exist for any length of time
  without poetry, without color, without love." ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• The long line is standing still due to the clerk doing a crossword puzzle...
  Impatient, Lisa completes the puzzle herself, only to find herself addicted to the puzzles.
  Eventually, she becomes so obsessed with them that Superintendent Chalmers
  hands her a pamphlet for the Crossword City Tournament....Feeling guilty,
  Homer commissions Merl Reagle and Will Shortz to create a special puzzle for the NYT,
  with his apology to Lisa hidden in the clues and solution.
  -- in Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words
• "Based on the study, we can safely conclude that... if an employee's job is to process expense reports,
  doing a crossword puzzle will result in the successful completion of that task
  zero times out of 100..." ~Study Finds Working At Work Improves Productivity The Onion; 11/5/2007
• "Sometimes I'll work... through the crossword sections of three separate papers." ~Samantha Bond
• "The drive to fill in empty spaces is more likely... a mental illness than a cure.
  While 'puzzle addiction' is usually meant as a lighthearted metaphor,
  the term contains more than a nugget of truth." ~from a book review of
  'From Square One: A Meditation, with Digressions, on Crosswords' by Dean Olsher

References

• see section: History: 1920s
• topics: addiction, obsession
• Dear Abby: My wife is obsessed with crossword puzzles NYPost; 9/18/2023
• The Sunday Essay: Confessions of a cryptic addict 4/2/2023
• Crosswords no good against mild cognitive impairment
  Millions of people around the world are “hooked” on crosswords. Are crosswords dangerous?
  Do they worry you too? Do you need help? 12/9/2022
• What's another word for crossword addicted? Times; 8/7/2022
• How To Recover After The NYT Mini Jingle Plays During Class And Your Professor Says "What Was That" 12/7/2021
• Like I Was Sayin’: Crossword puzzles leave me clueless, frustrated 9/26/2021
• 5 Ways to Become Smarter Without Doing Crossword Puzzles 8/19/2021
• Too much crosswording during the shutdown may be leading to brain fatigue 5/6/2020
• News organizations just want to get readers hooked, whether their habit's news, podcasts, or puzzles 2/2020
• Councillor denies using phone and doing crossword during meeting 7/2/2019
• The Art and Politics of Crosswords joys and addiction; NYr; 6/21/2019
• Drugs in crosswords and 5 other ways prison staff allegedly
  tried to smuggle contraband 3/18/2019
• Are crosswords killing America? BG; 1/4/2019
• How I Became Addicted to Online Word Games NYT; 3/18/2017
• 21 Signs You're Addicted To Crossword Puzzles
  What's a three-letter word for obsessed? YOU; 7/22/2013
• Help, I Am Addicted to Crossword Puzzles 4/25/2010
• That Crossword Obsession 2/6/2010
• Meditations, Digressions, From A Crossword Addict NPR; 6/23/2009
• Crossword, Sudoku Plague Threatens America! Slate; 8/20/2008
• My Crossword Life 3/3/2008
• Why aren't crosswords more popular? 1/13/2008
• The Confessions (and Rehabilitation) of a Crossword Addict 1/24/2008
• Withdrawal symptoms 2/8/2007
• Crossword Addiction Leads To Arrest 2/20/2005
• Confessions of a NY Times Crossword Addict 9/26/2002
• NYT: 50 Years of Crosswords: An Addict's Tale NYT; 2/16/1992

Introduction | Quotes | Technology | Creativity

Introduction

• While you might not often see "art" mentioned in the same sentence as crossword puzzles,
  there are many possible meaning and layers that I will explore briefly here.
• Arts -- fine and popular -- appear in crosswords as clues, answers and themes that refer to
  music, literature, paintings, sculpture, film, theater, etc.
• Crosswords have been featured in different forms of art and media: song names and lyrics,
  paintings, architecture, documentaries, improv comedy, books (esp. mystery novels),
  musicals, TV shows, clothing design, etc.
• Crossword solvers learn and apply skills (practical arts) in order to unravel a crossword:
  absorbing new vocabulary and knowledge, seeing clues in different contexts,
  and delving for deeper patterns and themes.
• Constructors and editors of crosswords design within language constraints and format conventions,
  e.g., grid symmetry, theme relationships and placement. In a fully-crossed (interlocking) puzzle,
  word selection, especially of longer words and phrases, requires the skill of choosing words and phrases
  and intuiting which will mesh best in the crossing direction
  — and then creating clues that go beyond simple dictionary definitions to push the limits of the solver
  with ambiguity and often humor.
• Perhaps "Art" might also refer to Arthur Wynne, credited with constructing the first crossword puzzle,
  published in New York World, 12/21/1913?
• In addition to a few examples already mentioned above
  -- and selected quotes listed below -- there are more in sections of my crossword course:
  Why Do We Solve Puzzles? and History, Milestones and Media.
• The Crossword Mentality in Modern Literature and Culture by Adrienne Raphel;
  .pdf; Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences;
  e.g., Chapter 2. Crosswords and Literature, pp. 105-

Quotes

• "The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science." ~Erich Fromm
• "Crosswords, like any art, should reflect life." ~Will Shortz
• "Total absorption in a task ('flow') is a state that some artists experience in their creative moments
  and that many other people achieve when enthralled by a film, a book, or a crossword puzzle:
  interruptions are not welcome" ~Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
• "Puzzles are like songs -- a good puzzle can give you all the pleasure of being duped that a
  mystery story can. It has surface innocence, surprise, the revelation of a concealed meaning,
  and the catharsis of solution." ~Stephen Sondheim
• "In their own way, crossword puzzles are an important language art.
  This makes constructors, editors, and publishers artists of a sort and supporters of the arts."
  ~The Muse Of Language Arts; Electricka
• "The piercing sound of Jimmy Reed's harmonica won his attention;
  Bishop would later liken it to a crossword puzzle that he had to figure out.
  What was this music? Who made it? What was it all about?" ~quote about Elvin Bishop
• "Writing songs and lyrics is not that different from doing the 'Times' crossword every morning.
  They both give you a good mental workout." ~Leslie Bricusse
• "Solving crossword puzzles is part science of deduction, part mother wit, part erudition."
  ~Margaret Petherbridge Farrar, 1st NYT Crossword editor
• "I'm drawn to a certain level of ambiguous storytelling that requires hard thought
  and work in the same way that the 'New York Times' crossword puzzle does:
  Sometimes you just want to put it down or throw it out the window,
  but there's a real rewarding sense if you feel like you've cracked it." ~Damon Lindelof
• "We try to do a Shakespeare play every year, because I feel that it provides
  the best tool for actor training. It's challenging in performance and language,
  physicality, analytical skills, and this particular one is along the serious lines, which
  seemed to fit the bill in terms of the kind of genre we wanted to explore.
  I call this the Sunday 'Times' Crossword Puzzle for actors." ~Jack Cirillo
• "Q. Any special exercises for your nose? A. Crossword puzzles...
  You don't really smell with the nose, it's just the channel.
  Your brain deciphers what you smell." ~Ray Matts, haute fragrance designer

Technology

"Technology, like art, is a soaring exercise of the human imagination." ~Daniel Bell

In the 1970s, I took a Computer Science class at Stanford from Donald Knuth based on
the first book in his multi-volume work, The Art of Computer Programming.
Many might think that computers have more to do with engineering than science
and that programming has little to do with art. In his 1974 ACM Turing Aware lecture
entitled Computer Programming as an Art, Dr. Knuth compared the different relationships
and categories of "art" over the centuries with other human skills, technology and science.
Philosophers over the ages have wrestled with this issue. His lecture is a short and worthwhile read.
A few excerpts follow:

• "Science is what we understand well enough to explain to the computer, art is everything else."
• "The process of going from an art to a science means that we learn how to automate something."
• "When I speak about computer programming as an art, I am thinking primarily of it as an art form, in an aesthetic sense.
  The chief goal of my work as educator and author is to help people learn how to write beautiful programs.
  A programmer who subconsciously views himself as an artist will enjoy what he does and will do it better."

It is satisfying to me, a software researcher/developer, to consider myself an artist.

Some connections between computers and crosswords:
interestingly, young Don Knuth created crosswords for his school newspaper;
as a professor, students in his class vied in a programming contest to create
the shortest program to read and print a crossword.

There are many applications for solvers that download puzzles, lookup word patterns or clues,
or provide selective hints: e.g., AcrossLite, Crosswords; I developed an app myself: CrozzWord.

AI solvers, are no match yet for human insight
-- and, of course, would take away the fun and challenge for human solvers; e.g., Dr. Fill.

Apps for constructors can assist with grid layout, display possible word options from dictionary databases,
even auto-fill when requested, and list previously published clues to be adapted or avoided:
e.g., CrossFire, Crossword Compiler.

Creativity

Now, back to the connection between art and crosswords.
In the 1970s, I read several books by Arthur Koestler.
In The Act of Creation [source; 1964], Koestler begins with a 3-panel tryptch
that illustrates his overall theme about the interplay between
Humor [#1; left panel], Science[#2; center] and Art[#3; right].
Creative activity is represented on all three panels, consisting of merging
two different frames and discovering hidden similarities (bisociation):

1. "Comic comparison is intended to make us laugh via the collision of matrices."
2. "Objective analogy to make us understand by integrating different contexts."
3. "Poetic image to make us marvel by their juxtaposition."

Or, as he explained slightly differently [in Encyc. Brittanica: Humor article],
"Comic inventiveness, scientific discovery, and artistic inspiration form a continuum
with no sharp boundaries between wit and ingenuity, nor between discovery and art.
Contemporary psychology regards the conscious and unconscious processes
underlying creativity in all domains as an essentially combinative activity
-- the bringing together of previously separate areas of knowledge and experience."

1. "The humorist's game is to contrive a collision."
2. "The scientist's purpose is to achieve synthesis."
3. "The artist aims at a juxtaposition of the familiar and the eternal."

Very weighty stuff. Several years later, in Ghost in the Machine,
Koestler revisited these topics and very clearly and famously summarized our reactions
upon experiencing these creative bisociative interactions:

1. humor: "haha"
2. science: "aha"
3. art: "ah" (or perhaps "aah" and "awe" -- Koestler includes mystical transcendence)

Interestingly, "during his years [1920s] in Palestine, Koestler became sufficiently fluent
in Hebrew to write stories in that language, as well as to create what is believed to have been
the world's first Hebrew crossword puzzle."

Did you notice "word puzzle" featured near the triptych center
-- between humor's "pun" and art's "rhyme"? Maybe crosswords aren't a trivial pursuit as some think?

As above, it's gratifying, as a long-time crossword solver and budding constructor,
to think of crosswords as art, in addition to a fun and logical challenge.

So, the next time you are solving a crossword, perhaps you'll notice the occurrence of
"haha", "aha", "aah" and "awe" in answers -- literally! More significantly, you might
experience those reactions when being misled or amused by an ambiguous or clever clue;
when enjoying creative wordplay in theme answers; when appreciating the layout and
symmetry of a puzzle grid; or when discovering deeper patterns or a puzzle-within-a-puzzle.

Perhaps this article might have been better named "The Art -- and Humor, and Science -- of Crosswords"?
As I have time and additional insights, I may expand on these ramblings.