CROSSWORDS: 1910s

Highlights | 1912 | 1913 | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 |
References: General, Oreo

Highlights

• 1913: Wynne's "FUN Word-Cross" appears in New York World
• 1916: cross-word in Pittsburgh Press; 1917: Boston Globe

1912

• Oreo introduced by National Biscuit Company (Nabisco); 3/6/1912
• OREO: popular vowel-rich, crossword 'filling' with same color scheme

1913

• "FUN's Word-Cross Puzzle" (Sun, 12/21/1913) by Arthur Wynne
  in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World
• The only directions:... "Fill in the small squares with words
  which agree with the following definitions."
• 33-34 clue: Aromatic plant (4 letters)=
  NARD (it grows mainly in the Himalayas; occurs in Bible)
• N-8 clue: A fist (4 letters; 1 letter is N)= NEIF
• 10-18 clue: The fibre of the gomuti palm (3 letters)=
  DOH (now more likely clued as Homer Simpson outburst;
  or PLAY compound suffix; probably not: DNS Over HTTPS acronym)
• "Four weeks after the puzzle first appeared,... typesetters at the newspaper
  inadvertently transposed the words in the title to read 'Cross-Word.' For some reason,
  the name stuck -- and so did the puzzle. When the World tried to drop it a few months
  later, readers were so hostile that the paper reversed itself and decided to make it a
  permanent feature of the puzzle page instead. Though the puzzles were popular with
  readers, they were decidedly unpopular with editors. Crosswords were difficult to print
  and were plagued with typographical and other errors. In fact, no other newspaper
  wanted any part of them." ~Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader (BUJBR)
• "Wynne asked The World to pay to patent the crossword,... but
  they replied that 'such puzzles are hardly worth the trouble or expense;
  it was just one of those puzzle fads that people would get tired of within six months.'
  The editor detested how the 'silly squares spoiled the look of his paper'"
  ~T. Campbell. On Crosswords: Thoughts, Studies, Facts and Snark About a 100-Year-Old Pastime
• Wynne's 1st puzzle web version; 12/21/1913
• Wynne's 2nd puzzle $; .pdf; NYT; 12/28/1913
• National Crossword Day is Dec 21st
• Jeopardy: Clues from the 1st Crossword video: 0:56; 6/8/2021
• Word Cross Puzzle Morphs to Crossword Success US Copyright Office; .pdf; 4/2015
• Crossword centennial: 2013 many articles & puzzles
• Crossword inventor honored with puzzling Google doodle 12/20/2013
• History of the Crossword Puzzle | Illuminating Moments in American History
  video: 2:13; How did Arthur Wynne go from musician and journalist to inventing crossword puzzles? 12/20/2013
• Searching for the crossword inventor: a Clearwater connection 11/1/2013
• Can You Solve the World's First Crossword Puzzle?
• "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

1914

• After constructing the World's first seven crosswords himself, Wynne solicited submissions
  from his readers. In February, Mrs. M. B. Wood became the first constructor given a byline.
• Ambrose Bierce dies: journalist, satirist, writer.
  "Egotism, n:... Doing the New York Times crossword puzzle with a pen."
  -- often attributed erroneously to Bierce, who died shortly after crosswords were invented (1913)
  -- but "crossword" not coined until 1930, and NYT didn't publish crosswords until 1942!
• Tinkertoy Construction Set
• World War I: 1914-1918

1915

• Wynne used diamond-shaped grids, but the shapes were not standardized: in Jan. 1915,
  for example, one week’s grid was in the shape of an F; the next week, a U; finally, an N.
  "That spells FUN for every one of FUN's puzzle solvers" ~Arthur Wynne.
• On March 7, 1915, Wynne painted a picture for his readers of the FUN flood of submissions:
  “The editor of FUN receives an average of twenty-five cross-words every day from readers.
  Considering that only one cross-word is published per week you can possibly imagine
  what the office of FUN is beginning to look like. Everywhere your eyes rest on boxes,
  barrels and crates, each one filled with cross-word puzzles patiently awaiting publication.
  However, the editor of FUN hopes to use them all in time. The puzzle editor has kindly
  figured out that the present supply will last until the second week in December, 2100."

1916

• The Pittsburgh Press; the puzzle: 6/11/1916; crossword p73

1917

• Boston Globe; example: 8/19/1917
• Happy 100th birthday, crossword puzzle! the Globe's earliest puzzle -- and a century of gaming obsession; 12/22/2013

References

• section: Oreo
• Wikipedia: 1910s
• The Decades That Invented the Future: Part 2: 1910s
  Flip-Flop Circuit; Panama Canal; Golf in US; Fighter Planes; Prohibition; Erector Set; First Crossword Puzzle;
  Electric Household Refrigerator; Modern Assembly Line; Superconductivity; Nikon; Snap-On Wrench; Wired; 10/25/2012
• Paleofuture: 1910s
• Britannica: This Day in History: December 21
• A Look at the 17 Most Influential Inventions from 1911-1920 7/16/2019
• 10 Lifehacks from 100 Years Ago
  How To: Make a Fire Extinguisher; Extract a Splinter;Preserve Eggs; Fell a Tree; Stop a Mad Dog;
  Keep Plants Watered While Away on Holiday; Light a Match in the Wind; Make a Chair to Cross a Stream;
  Rescue Someone from Electric Shock; Make a Water Filter -- from Gallaher's Cigarettes; 7/21/2013
• What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years
  The Ladies' Home Journal; What the Future Looked Like 100 Years Ago -- and 5 Predictions That Came True; Giz; 2/24/2012

Oreo

• see: Solving: Acquire Vocabulary: many OREO definitions
  and some classic OREO-themed puzzles and definitions
• Wikipedia: OREO (disambiguation) ethnic slur, operating system (Android), sculpture, spider, ...
• the 'Oreo-cookie' cow; Wikipedia: Belted Galloways
• 'Oreo': common name for anything with black&white shades, e.g., 'tuxedo' bicolor cat
• What does 'Oreo' mean? the mysterious (and maybe controversial) story behind the cookie; 4/8/2023
• Could Oreo Cookies Solve New York’s Rat Problem? NYT; 12/17/2021
• Why Does Oreo Keep Releasing New Flavors? Oreo has introduced 65 flavors since
  Birthday Cake Oreo in 2012; the new flavors function as advertisements for the original; NYT; 12/16/2020
• Oreo Built a 'Doomsday' Vault to Protect Its Recipe and Cookies
  Global Oreo Vault is just down the road from the famed Svaldbard Global Seed Vault in Norway; 10/26/2020
• Cherry Cola Oreos? Crazy, yes, but not as much as Avocado Oreos kettle corn; pina colada; USA; 4/30/2018
• Android 8.0 Oreo is official, starts rollout to devices Ars; 8/21/2017
• When Just Vanilla Won't Do, How About a Blueberry Pie Oreo? NYT; 7/3/2017
• Fireworks Oreos? A Reporter Digests NYT; 7/3/2017
• Oreo debuts new flavor, offers $500K for next cookie Firework Oreo ('pop rocks' in the creme); USA; 5/9/2017
• How to Cheat at the Oreo Twist Game: Lab Tested, Engineer Approved Giz; 10/16/2016
• The World Spent $2.5 Billion on Oreos in 2014 2/13/2015
• How the Oreo was Invented Giz; 1/12/2015
• Is it true that Oreos are more addictive to lab rats than cocaine?
  more sensational than scientific; Giz; 10/16/2013
• The "Oreo" -- An "Awakening" sculpture at Villanova U.; 8/13/2013
• On Oreo's 101st Birthday, 13 Facts About The Cookie That Will Blow Your Mind 3/6/2013
• The Oreo Turns 100, With a Nod to the Past NYT; 2/27/2012
• Getting the lard out: The koshering of the Oreo cookie in 1997;
  original recipe called for pig lard; 2/26/2008