Summary | Quotes | References

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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

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

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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

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Summary | Quotes | References: General, Other Lang.

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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 | 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

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.

---

1904 | 1908 | References

---

1904

• People's Home Journal: blended squares [on right]

1908

• Hydrox cookie Oreo not produced until 1912
• The Sad History of Hydrox Cookies, Which Were Probably Doomed
  Because They Were Called Hydrox 5/17/2017

References

• Wikipedia: 1900s
• The Decades That Invented the Future: Part 1: 1900-1910
  Theory of Relativity; Toaster Heating Element; Football's Forward Pass; Tanks; Vacuum Tube; Gas-Powered Mercedes;
  Nintendo (playing cards); A Trip to the Moon; Bakelite; Radio; FBI; Kodak Brownie; Wired; 10/8/2012
• Paleofuture (predictions): 1900s
• 24 Strange Predictions For the 21st Century MF; 9/3/2020
• A Look at the 13 Most Influential Inventions from the Early 1900s 7/14/2019
• 8 Inventions of 20th Century that Changed the World 4/29/2019

---

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
• "The first known crossword puzzle was published in The New York World in 1913.
  It was constructed by Arthur Wynne, a British-born editor, who called it 'Word-Cross.'
  The puzzle’s grid was shaped like a hollow diamond and had some unchecked squares;
  that is, some letters were part of a word in only one direction and not both.
  The first Across entry already had three letters written in the squares: F-U-N.
  The puzzle format became a regular feature in the 'Fun' section of the paper.
  At some point, an illustrator made a typesetting error and published the puzzle
  with the title 'Cross-Word.' The name stuck!
  
  Crosswords became increasingly popular in the early 1920s, but there weren’t many
  standardized rules. For instance, some puzzles had black squares, while others
  just had irregular shapes. Some had all-over interlock, while others had a grid
  that was divided into different sections by black squares. In the mid-1920s,
  the Amateur Cross Word Puzzle League of America worked to standardize crossword
  puzzles, making many of the rules that we still follow today.
  
  In 1942, Margaret Farrar became the first editor of the New York Times Crossword.
  She had worked with Wynne as a proofreader for The New York World and went on
  to edit its puzzles as well as puzzles for Simon & Schuster puzzle books.
  Over the years as an editor, Farrar ended up playing a huge role in the
  standardization of crossword puzzles. She required grids to be square in shape,
  with symmetrically placed blocks. She also banned two-letter words, specifying
  that all entries be at least three letters long. While Wynne is credited with
  the invention of the crossword puzzle, Farrar is a major figure who helped shape
  the 'Word-Cross' into the crossword puzzles we solve today."
  ~Christina Iverson, Easy Mode newsletter, 4/12/2024

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; examples: 3/4/1917, 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
• 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

---

Highlights | Craze | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | 1929 | References

---

Highlights

• Many "firsts" for crosswords in publications and culture. Much debate about fads and obsessions.
• 1921: Margaret Farrar: crossword editor at New York World; first crossword dictionary
• 1922: first UK magazine with crossword: Pearson's
• 1924: The Cross Word Puzzle Book -- 1st book ever published by Simon & Schuster.
• UK newspaper Daily Express
• crossword rules, e.g., rotational symmetry; interlocking;
  ~1/6 black squares; word choice; clue conventions
• New York Herald-Tribune's National All Comers Cross Word Puzzle Tournament

• 
  

  song: "Crossword Mama You Puzzle Me (But Papa's Gonna Figure You Out)"

• 1925: cryptic crossword invented in UK
• musical revue: "Puzzles of 1925"
• animated short Disney film: "Alice Solves the Puzzle"
• mystery story: "The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will"
• 1926: book: "The Truth About George" by PG Wodehouse

Crossword Craze & Quotes

• "Crossword puzzles became a way of life in the 1920s...
  Newspapers started adding them to increase circulation.
  Sales of dictionaries soared, and foot traffic in libraries increased dramatically.
  Clothes made with black-and-white checked fabric were the rage. The B&O Railroad
  put dictionaries on all of its mainline trains for crossword-crazy commuters." ~BUJBR
• "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
• "The Pennsylvania Railroad... printed crosswords on the backs of menus in dining cars."
• "Pickpockets in hotel lobbies,... pretending to need help with a crossword,
  would steal a man's wallet while he was examining the puzzle."
• "A New York man was arrested because... he refused to leave a restaurant at its 2 a.m. closing time.
  The reason -- He hadn't finished solving his crossword puzzle."
• "The working of cross-word puzzles is... the mark of a childish mentality. There is no use
  for persons to pretend that working one of the puzzles carries any intellectual value with it."
  ~NYT: 12/23/1924, p.18; "Condemns" Cross-Word Fad"
• 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
• In the 1920s, as now, there were 2 schools of puzzle solution fans:...
  those who grimly armed themselves with dictionaries, gazetteers, and classical Latin
  phrase books, and free souls "who'd sooner die in the flames than consult a reference book.
  The crossword puzzle was America's favorite licit indoor activity in the days before television."
  ~Publishers Weekly
• A humorous squib in The Boston Globe has a wife ordering her husband... to run out and
  "rescue the papers, the part I want is blowing down the street." "What is it you're so keen about?"
  "The Cross-Word Puzzle. Hurry, please, that's a good boy."
• "The latest craze to strike libraries is the crossword puzzle...
  the puzzle 'fans' swarm to the dictionaries and encyclopedias so as to drive away readers
  and students who need these books in their daily work, can there be any doubt of the
  Library's duty to protect its legitimate readers?" ~New York Public Library
• "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

• 
  

  "Some folks were driven over the edge by the craze... A Chicago woman sued
  her husband for divorce, claiming 'he was so engrossed in solving crosswords
  that he didn't have time to work.' The judge ordered the man to 'limit himself
  to 3 puzzles a day and devote the rest of his time to domestic duties.'" ~BUJBR

• "Judging from the number of solvers in the subway... and 'L' trains,
  the crossword puzzle bids fair to become a fad with New Yorkers."
  "Jottings About Town" in first issue of The New Yorker
• Range of opinions about crossword longevity:...
  "This crossword craze will positively end by June!" and
  "The crossword puzzle is here to stay!" ~Time: The Press: Barometer (1/5/1925)
• "Yale University defeated Harvard in the first-ever... intercollegiate
  crossword tournament. The team from Harvard stumbled on the final clue:
  'a slight convex curve in the shaft of a column.'" ~NYT Puzzle Mania, p.11, 12/17/2017
• 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
• "A New York Telephone Co. employee shot his... wife
  when she wouldn't help with a crossword puzzle." ~BUJBR
• Popular interest in the 1920s is shown by aids which were marketed ...
  to help puzzle-solvers. One was a crossword "finder," an indicator with a series of
  movable alphabets on paper strips which were supposed to aid in forming proper
  letter arrangements before they were written in the squares. The device allowed the
  trial of test words, "saving erasures and changes on the puzzle chart. The indicator,
  which can be carried in the pocket, does not require a pencil for marking and its
  construction permits as ready operation as a small adding machine."
  ~Popular Mechanics; March, 1925
• "A woman who has small children... and has to be in her home a great deal of the time
  needs something to make her think and use her mental faculties. Cross-wording is just the thing."
• These two sources refer to many 1920s newspaper articles (most included below):
  The New York Times hated crossword puzzles before it embraced them 2/15/2022
  Crosswords: the meow meow of the 1920s Idling workers, distracted housewives and a decline
  in reading: Alan Connor looks at the great crossword panic of the 1920s; Guard; 12/15/2011
• The Cross-Word Puzzles Bridegroom New Britain (CT) Herald, p. 10; 7/18/1924
• Crossworditis Widow Has Her Court Innings Kenosha (WI) News. p. 15; 11/7/1924
• A Familiar Form of Madness
  "Latest of the problems presented for solution by psychologists interested in the mental peculiarities
  of mobs and crowds as distinguished from individuals is created by what is well called the craze over
  cross-word puzzles... All ages, both sexes, highbrows and lowbrows, at all times and in all places,
  even in restaurants and in subways, pore over the diagrams... [A] sinful waste in the utterly futile
  finding of words the letters of which will fit into a prearranged pattern, more or less complex.
  This is not a game at all, and it hardly can be called a sport... [solvers] get nothing out of it
  except a primitive form of mental exercise, and success or failure in any given attempt
  is equally irrelevant to mental development." NYT p. 18; 11/17/1924
• Ban Cross-Word Puzzles at [Univ. of] Michigan Portsmouth (OH) Daily Times, p. 1; 12/4/1924
• Crossword Mania Breaks Up Homes
  Neglected Cleveland Wives Said to Plan Divorces from Stricken Husbands;
  A manager of one legal-aid association claimed to have received an average of
  "ten letters a day from wives who have to remain at home these evenings just
  because their husbands are suffering from 'crossword puzzleitis.'" NYT p. 8; 12/11/1924
• Cross-Word Puzzles: Offices, Hospitals, Insomnia Sunday Star (Wash. DC); Gravure section; 12/21/1924
• Crossword Puzzle Causes Hectic Night Modesto (CA) Bee, p. 6; 12/16/1924
• Cross-Word Puzzle Craze Held Beneficial by Editors Sunday Star (Wash. DC), p. 6; 12/18/1924
• 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
• Cross-Word Puzzles: an Enslaved America
  "[The crossword] has grown from the pastime of a few ingenious idlers into a national institution:
  a menace because it is making devastating inroads on the working hours of every rank of society...
  [people were seen] cudgeling their brains for a four-letter word meaning 'molten rock' or a
  six-letter word meaning 'idler,' or what not: in trains and trams, or omnibuses, in subways,
  in private offices and counting-rooms, in factories and homes, and even -- although as yet rarely
  -- with hymnals for camouflage, in church... Pernicious puzzles have been known to break up homes.
  The solution of one concerned policeman was to enforce on addicts a ration of 3 puzzles a day,
  with 10 days' imprisonment if a 4th was attempted... Five million man-hours were being lost every
  day as workers forgot their duty to contribute to the gross national product, lost in the pure
  pleasure of finding synonyms." London Times (12/9/1924) and Tamworth Herald (12/27/1924)
• Decreased demand: library "Crossword puzzles and the radio have been given as the reason for a marked
  decline during the recent months in the demand for books at the Ottawa Public Library" Reuters; 1924
• Decreased demand: movies The picture theatres are also complaining that cross-words keep people at home.
  They get immersed in a problem and forget all about Gloria Swanson, Lilian Gish, and the other stars of the
  film constellation; Nottingham Evening Post
• Cross-Word Puzzles Clog the Wheels of Justice NYT p. 27; 1/6/1925
• Cross-Word Puzzles Causes More Trouble (assault); Marion (IL) Evening Post, p. 1; 1/7/1925
• Crossword Puzzle Cause of Trouble (late to meeting); Huntsville (AL) Times, p. 5; 1/11/1925
• Queen Mary, wife of King George V of England, Cross-Word Puzzle Fan Boston Globe; 1/12/1925
• Crossword Puzzles Steal Memory of Excessive Addict Sacramento (CA) Star, p. 1; 1/28/1925
• Sees Harm, Not Education "Fortunately, the question of whether the puzzles are beneficial
  or harmful is dying out fast and in a few months it will be forgotten." NYT p. 20; 3/10/1925
• The Cross-Word Puzzle Fad NYT p. 18; 3/16/1925
• Cross-Worditis Gets Official Attention from Health Bureau Tampa (FL) Times, p. 7; 3/11/1925
• Crossword Murder Man, Crazed by Them, Slays Wife and Wounds Self; Cincinnati (OH) Post, p. 15; 12/18/1925
• The cross-word puzzle mania is becoming more hectic even than craze for 'put and take'
  Nottingham Evening Post; 1925
• The damage caused to dictionaries in the library: Wimbledon, Willesden 1925
• Dulwich Library starts blacking out crosswords' white squares "with a heavy pencil,
  to prevent any one person from keeping a newspaper for more than a reasonable length of time"
• Competition One of the most marked characteristics of this present century is the competition fever,
  which holds a big proportion of the population under its allurement. The root of the whole problem
  can be found in mankind's instinctive desire "to get something for nothing." It is not surprising, therefore,
  to find that many ingenious devices have been used to attract the attention of the public in this respect,
  and the latest method is known as the cross-word puzzle; Western Times
• Competition "This week us 'ad a bit of talk about those yer crossword puzzles as they calls 'm.
  I duunaw that I knaws rightly what they is, 'cause seems to me they'm mostly for the bettermost people
  what got time to spare... I got a [daughter] only her don't ask me no questions. Her's fiddling about
  most all the week about what don't seem to be no use to nobody. Her send in to the competitions [but]
  her never won nothing yet, and I don't s'pose her's ever likely to." Western Times: Village Philosophy column
• Wild Hyacinth "This loss to productive activity of far more time than is lost by labor strikes.
  The cross-word puzzle threatens to be the wild hyacinth of American industry."

• 
  

  Is It the Cause? Crossword Puzzles Blamed headmasters decry the "laziest occupation" and an "unsociable habit"

• Ban on Cross-Words libraries limit access to dictionaries within reading rooms
• In Abuse of the Cross-Word Puzzle
• Crosswords "For Nerves" one British wife took her husband to court for staying in bed until 11 am doing crosswords
• Zoo keepers "Correspondents [are] unabashed over requests for aid in solving 'cross-word' puzzles,
  and the Zoo at least will be relieved when a new hobby takes the place of the current one.
  What is a word three letters meaning a female swan? What is a female kangaroo, or a fragile
  creature in six letters ending in TO?" Nottingham Evening Post
• Theater Mr. Matheson Lang missed his entrance in the Inquisition scene through becoming absorbed in a puzzle.
  This caused him much chagrin, for he is extremely conscientious as regards his stage work. All the "Wandering Jew"
  company at the New Theatre are, like their chief, interested in cross-word puzzles
• Grocery A girl asked a busy grocer to name the different brands of flour he kept. When he had done so,
  expecting a sale, she said she didn't want to buy any. She just thought one of the names might fit into a cross-word puzzle
  she was doing. The cross-word craze has been described as a disease. For which the scientific name might be "cluemonia."

• 
  

  Huntley and Palmers: "Cross-word" Cream Biscuit
  Eating our own words is a familiar phrase. Eating cross-words is a new pastime, but a pleasant
  one since Messrs. Huntley and Palmers, Ltd. have put on the market their "Cross-word" Cream
  Biscuit, so named because of its design. Simultaneously with arrival of the new biscuit Messrs.
  Huntley and Palmers have inaugurated a cross-word competition in which prizes are offered
  to the extent of £1,000

• A time before Wordle: Newspapers used to hate word puzzles 2/2022
• "By 1927, a wide-spread neurosis began to be evident, faintly signalled, like a
  nervous beating of the feet, by the popularity of cross-word puzzles."
  ~F. Scott Fitzgerald
• "The cross-word puzzle, it would seem, has gone the way of all fads."
  ~NYT: 12/29/1929, p.27; "All About the Insidious Game of Anagrams"

1921

• Margaret (Petherbridge) Farrar's "career in crossword puzzles began at the New York World in 1921.
  She had been hired as the secretary to the editor of the Sunday edition of the New York World;
  he eventually assigned her to assist crossword inventor Arthur Wynne, who was overloaded
  with reader submissions of puzzles -- and with complaints about flawed puzzles.
  Petherbridge had never solved a puzzle herself and therefore chose puzzles to be printed
  without testing them, until fellow World employee Franklin Pierce Adams criticized her for it;
  in response, she tried the puzzles, and discovered to her dismay that some of them were unsolvable.
  She subsequently described her reaction as '(taking) an oath to edit the crosswords to the essence
  of perfection;' her puzzles eventually became more popular than Wynne's."
  (spoiler alerts: 1924:Simon&Schuster; 1941: 1st NYT editor)
• Colonel H.W. Hill publishes the first "Quickway" Crossword Dictionary.

1922

• Pearson's [1st UK magazine w/ crossword]
• Morning Oregonian and other newspapers published a comic strip by Clare Briggs
  entitled "Movie of a Man Doing the Cross-Word Puzzle"; with an enthusiast muttering
  "87 across 'Northern Sea Bird'!!??!?!!? Hm-m-m starts with an 'M', second letter is 'U'...
  I'll look up all the words starting with an 'M-U...' mus-musi-mur-murd--Hot Dog! Here 'tis! Murre!"

1923

• Margaret Petherbridge revises the cluing system for crosswords, sorting them into
  “Horizontal” and “Vertical” clues by number. (It wouldn’t be until the 1940s that
  the more familiar “Across” and “Down” terminology became the norm.)

1924

• Simon & Schuster found a company to publish The Cross Word Puzzle Book
  which came with a pencil and eraser; now, 258+ vols. According to legend, a young Columbia Univ. graduate
  named Richard L. Simon went to dinner at his Aunt Wixie's house. A NY World subscriber and a cross-word devotee,
  she asked where she could buy a book of crossword puzzles for her daughter. Simon, who was trying to break into the
  publishing business with college chum M. Lincoln Schuster, told her there was no such book -- and then hit on the idea
  of publishing one himself. The next day, he and Schuster went to the World's offices and made a deal with the paper's
  crossword puzzle editors. They would pick the newspaper's best crossword puzzles and pay $25 apiece for the rights
  to publish them in a book. To avoid the risk of beginning their corporate existence with a flop, they brought out the
  book under an alias -- the Plaza Publishing Company (named after their telephone exchange).
• "This odd-looking book with a pencil attached to it"
• The first run of 3,600 copies (@ $1.35) sold out quickly and the company ran
  additional printings (@ $0.15). The book eventually sold more than 100,000 copies,
  perhaps spurred on by groups like the Amateur Cross Word Puzzle League of
  America, itself a creation of marketing-savvy Simon & Schuster.
• Wikipedia: Simon&Schuster: History
• Margaret Farrar compiled two crossword puzzle books a year for
  Simon & Schuster; she was working on the 134th volume upon her death.
• "The cross word solver becomes a collector, a connoisseur of words. They lose, to him, their mundane purpose of a
  suitable medium for the exchange of thoughts, and take on an esoteric significance, akin to the appeal of slip-ware to
  the collector of pottery or the three-cornered Mauritius to the philatelist. He and Hamlet are one. 'Words, words, words'
  -- except that he has the advantage of the melancholy one. Hamlet's words ran in decorous file, one after the other;
  the solver's twine and interwine, each leading to others, resulting in a harmonious whole unapproached by any except
  the masterpieces of classic literature." ~F. Gregory Hartswick, introduction to the first edition of Cross Word Puzzle Book

• 
  

  The (first) Cross Word Puzzle Book -- now public domain!
  pages: Project Gutenberg online, EPUB, Kindle;
  puzzles: Crosserville: 50 puzzles: .puz, .pdf, web

• Cross-word puzzle blues (song) (audio; 2:37)
• I've Got the Crossword Puzzle Blues (song)
  by D. J. Michaud and Marguerite A. Bruce;
  performed by jazz clarinettist Bob Fuller;
  "I'm feeling awfully down, and cross.
  I spend all day solving, but I still don't have a clue"

• 
  

  Crossword Mamma You Puzzle Me (But Papa's Gonna Figure You Out)
  Papalia & His Orchestra; (song) (audio: 2:32);
  Will Shortz on NPR On the Media: Life Squared (interview; excerpts; 4:07-4:40; 9:20-12:54), 4/6/2006;
  MayasMix @ 13:24; YouTube 2:41; lyrics:
  "You treat me like an orphan in a storm / Crossword books won't keep my tootsies warm.
  Crossword Mamma, you puzzle me / But Papa's gonna figure you out.
  Washington, he crossed the Delaware / Columbus crossed the ocean blue
  If there's any more crossing to be done / Papa's gonna double-cross you..."

• Vladimir Nabokov "thought in crosswords", publishing the first Russian puzzle in Berlin
• Daily Express [1st UK newspaper w/ crossword]
• I tried the Chronicle's first crossword puzzle from 1924. It went poorly SF; 12/24/2023
• New York Herald-Tribune publishes first daily crossword?
• Todd Gross on New York Herald-Tribune Crosswords 12/13/2013
• NYT publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger is said to have loved crosswords
  almost as much as he hated having to buy copies of the rival New York Herald-Tribune
  in order to get them (since NYT wouldn't publish any)
• "The fans they chew their pencils
  The fans they beat their wives
  They look up words for extinct birds
  They lead such puzzling lives" ~Gelett Burgess, author of the “Purple Cow”
• Amateur Cross Word Puzzle League of America began the
  process of standardizing the appearance of crosswords as
  as early as 1924, instituting rules such as “all over interlock,”
  which meant that no part of the grid could be completely
  cut off by the black squares; only one-sixth of the squares
  could be black; and the grid design had to be symmetrical
  (rotational symmetry). Other changes, like outlawing
  two-letter words, came later.
  Why are crossword puzzles symmetrical?
• Ruth Franc Von Phul won the New York Herald-Tribune's
  National All Comers Cross Word Puzzle Tournament
  at the age of 20; obituary NYT; 4/1/1986
• Crossword Champ: Ruth von Phul NYT; 5/1/2020
• The Crossword Puzzle: Where'd The Women Go? 8/21/2013

1925

• "Young people who want to increase their vocabulary should not deceive
  themselves with crosswords. Let them read Shakespeare." ~Arthur Brisbane
• Puzzles of 1925 (musical revue); opens 2/2/1925;
  crossword sanitarium scene: solvers who had lost their minds.
  "Since Ma's Gone Crazy Over Cross Word Puzzles" (lyrics):
  "The house has gone to ruin / Since all that Mother's doin' /
  Is putting letters in the little squares /
  We live on canned tomatoes / And old cold boiled potatoes
  No wonder when he comes home / Father swears"

• 
  

  100-year old Ambrose Hines solving a puzzle in 1925 [on right]

• Forgotten book offers clues to the puzzling history of the crossword
  The Cross Word Puzzle Book, publishers Hodder and Stoughton;
  "This is not a toy! It is just possible you may pick up this
  book thinking of it as a present for the younger children.
  Will you please do us one favour -- in the name of humanity?
  Refrain, in a word. Think twice. Keep the book from younger hands,
  as cross words are not for tender minds"; 10/22/2021
• That Guiltiest Feeling cartoon; Clare Briggs; cross word craze, covering earth

• 
  

  A Punch cartoon about "The Cross-Word Mania" [on right]

• cryptic crossword invented.
  "There is something about the British mind-set... that won't leave anything straightforward.
  British humor is twisted, and so are the nation's crossword puzzles.
  
  When the crossword became a craze in the United States in 1925-25,
  it immediately crossed the Atlantic and took hold in English publications, where
  very soon the puzzle makers started using clues with anagrams and other wordplay.
  
  The literary critic Edward Powys-Mathers is credited with inventing the
  so-called cryptic crossword, creating puzzles under the pseudonym Torquemada
  (the first grand inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition). Torquemada set puzzles
  for The Saturday Westminster beginning in 1925 and for The Observer
  beginning in 1925 until his death in 1939. Typically Torquemada's clues
  were not dictionary definitions. Each clue was a distinct word puzzle in itself.
  Mathers felt that this cluing innovation made the puzzle more difficult
  and therefore more entertaining.
  
  Derrick Somerset Machutt, working under the pseudonym Ximenes
  (the name of another grand inquisitor), took over as setter for
  The Observer after Torquemada's death. He and other British puzzle
  makers were instrumental in shaping the rigorous rules of cryptic
  cluing that became standard over the succeeding decades.
  
  In the United States, cryptic crosswords have been a weekly staple of
  The Nation magazine since 1943. The Broadway composer
  Stephen Sondheim created a notable series of weekly cryptics for
  New York magazine in 1968 and 1969. Another Broadway composer,
  Richard Maitby, Jr., has created a monthly cryptic for Harper's since 1976.
  
  Today cryptic crosswords are popular among elite solvers throughout the
  English-speaking world. Curiously, other languages don't lend themselves so
  much to cryptic cluing, so this style of crossword is almost unheard-of elsewhere."
  ~NYT Puzzle Mania, p. 6, A Brief History of Cryptic Puzzles; 12/17/2017
• Have a go at the very first Sunday (UK) Times crossword [1/11/1925] Times; 3/27/2022
• Cross-Words (Between Sweetie and Me) by Little Ramblers; (song; 3:48);
  "Sorrow has torn at my heart strings / I wonder who is to blame
  My sweetie never has time for me / She's deep in love with a game
  Crosswords have made me blue as can be, / Cross, crosswords between my sweetie and me,
  She's been puzzling, don't seem to care / Whether I'm near her or taking the air
  I'm jealous. How can I win sympathy? I'm hoping she'll soon need L-O-V-E.
  Every night in our little home / We sit together, but I'm all alone.
  She's so contrary / Her old dictionary and crosswords are sweeter than me."
• even more songs: Cross word papa you sure' do puzzle me; by Josie Miles;
  Cross-word puzzle of love; Cross words; Crosspuzz;
  Crossword (The) puzzle glide; Do you do cross-word puzzles;
  I'm a cross word puzzle fan; My cross-word puzzle girl;
  They're doing cross word puzzles now; Your cross-words are making me blue

• 
  

  Alice Solves the Puzzle animated short Disney film; features "Bootleg Pete"
  (later Peg Leg Pete) a bear-like creature who collected crossword puzzles
  and tries to steal a rare and valuable one from Alice. [on right]

• Felix All Puzzled Felix the Cat cartoon; video: 2:39; 1/15/1925
  Felix is hungry, but his owner won’t feed him until he finishes his crossword puzzle.
  And he’s fixated on the clue that will complete the puzzle,
  “Vertical. Found chiefly in Russia.”

• 
  

  Ernie Bushmiller's comic strip “Red Magic":
  adventures of a mild-mannered cruciverbalist: Cross Word Cal.
  One strip features a frustrated cabbie idling for passengers
  when a pedestrian tells him to get a "checkered cab".
  Cal dives into a stack of newspapers, cuts out the crossword
  from each one, and spackles them to his car.

• 
  

  Puzzled by Crosswords (movie; comedy)

• The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will
  (story; Lord Peter Wimsey) by Dorothy L. Sayers
• Top 10 crosswords in fiction, no 2: Lord Peter Wimsey Guardian; 8/23/2012
• The Evening World: heart-shaped, advertising content
• "Helen Keller did Braille crosswords and recommended them to the blind."
• The Long Green Gaze: A Cross Word Puzzle Mystery Vincent Fuller, 1925
• First Estonian language crossword puzzle published 99 years ago with prizes, on 2/9/1925; 2/15/2024
• NYT advertisement: "Strictly a Newspaper -- Without Comics. Without Puzzles"

1926

• The Truth About George by P. G. Wodehouse
  Top 10 crosswords in fiction, no 9: PG Wodehouse's The Truth About George [Guardian; 8/23/2012];
  Plumtopia: The world of P.G. Wodehouse: The Truth About George;
  George Mulliner: "Will you be my wife, married woman, matron, spouse, help-meet,
  consort, partner or better half ?”;
  Susan Blake: "Oh, George! Yes, yea, ay, aye ! Decidedly, unquestionably, indubitably
  incontrovertibly, and past all dispute!";
  And never a cross word [homage to PG Wodehouse: Jeeves and the Leap of Faith by Ben Schott; TheTimes];
  other Wodehouse crossword stories: 1937: Summer Moonshine;
  1938: The Code of the Woosters: Madeline Bassett looks at Bertie Wooster "like someone
  who has just solved the crossword puzzle with a shrewd ‘emu’ in the top right-hand corner";
  1957: Something Fishy: Lord Uffenham, a bumbling aristocrat, demanded answers
  from his butler sotto voce so that,
  should a visitor happen to enter, he could appear to be dashing off the puzzle with ostentatious ease.
  1963: Ice in the Bedroom: Freddie Widgeon is overcome by "the feeling he had sometimes had
  when trying to solve a Times crossword puzzle, that his reason was tottering on its throne";
  1966: Sticky Wicket at Blandings; 1971: Much Obliged, Jeeves;
  1989: The Wench is Dead: Morse frustrated by a single remaining clue on the train from Oxford to London,
  ‘quickly wrote in a couple of bogus letters (in case any of his fellow passengers were waiting to be impressed)’.
• A Budapest man committed suicide, leaving a note in crossword puzzle form:
  "The solution will give you the exact reasons for my suicide and also the names of the people interested."
  No one could solve it.
• Crossword suicide, latest update 4/1/2013
• Budapest crossword suicide, revealed! (mostly) 2/20/2013
• Budapest crossword suicide? 10/30/2009
• Crossword, Crossword narikin 2 films ; Japan

1929

• Mildred Jaklon spearheaded a crossword-puzzle contest for the Chicago Tribune,
  with a $5,000 prize; the contest proved so popular that the paper instituted
  a regular daily puzzle, with Jaklon as its editor
• "The Curse of Eve" by Flora Annie Steel is about two antiheroines
  who are "making a living out of the craze for crossword puzzles."

References

• The Roaring 20s crossword; NYT Learning Network
• Saucy "Crosswords" Postcards by Donald McGill in 1920s
• Roaring Twenties: Fads The Charleston; 1st Miss America Pageant; Flagpole Sitting; Mah-Jongg;
  Crossword Puzzle Book-of-the-Month Club; Time; Reader's Digest
• Wikipedia: 1920s
• The Decades That Invented the Future: Part 3: 1920s
  R.U.R. (robots); IBM 80-Column Punch Card; Amphibious Warfare; Art Deco; Babe Ruth; Tri-motor Airplane; Polygraph;
  Leica I and the 35mm Standard; Scopes Monkey Trial; McKinsey and Co.; Traffic Light; Mickey Mouse; Wired; 11/2/2012
• Paleofuture: 1920s
• Popular fads from the year you were born: 1920-2020
• 11 Influential Inventions from the 1920s That You Should Definitely Know About 7/17/2019

---

Highlights | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1934 | 1935 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | References

---

Highlights

• 1930: The Times (UK) -- the "Thunderer" mentioned in letter to NYT editor [on right]
• "Together with The Times of London, yours [NYT] is...
  the only journal of prominence that has never succumbed to the lure of the cross-word puzzle.
  The craze -- the fad -- stage has passed, but there are still people numbering into the millions
  who look for their daily cross-word puzzle as regularly as for the weather predictions."
  ~NYT: 2/4/1930, p.20; "The Lure of the Puzzle"
• 1931: Dell Crossword Puzzle Magazine
• 1934: Acrostics
• 1938: Scrabble; Bletchley Park
• 1939: Frank Lewis
• "By the late 1930s, the crossword puzzle boom... had begun to fizzle --
  largely because the crossword puzzles in most newspapers had become predictable,
  repeating boring clues like 'Headgear' (HAT), 'Writing instrument' (PEN), 'Woody plant' (TREE).
  But readers of The New York Times never got bored with their crossword puzzle --
  because the Times didn't have one." ~BUJBR

1930

• the term "crossword" first appeared in a dictionary
• The Times Crossword at 90 -- cracking fun for the clued-up The Times; 2/1/2020
• A brief history of The Times crossword see our very first crossword, explore the history of the cryptic
  and get to know our longest-serving crossword compiler; The Times; 3/9/2014
• First Times Crossword UK; 1/20/2011

1931

• Dell (Crossword Puzzle) Magazine; longest running crossword magazine

1932

• Have His Carcase by Dorothy L Sayers
  "classic whodunnit with a crosswordy code" [Guardian]
• Dictionary Wrecked Word Contests and Cross-word Puzzles Blamed at Library;
  Evening Star (Wash. DC), A-3; 12/19/1932

1934

• "Acrostic puzzles, also known as 'Double-Crostics', were the invention of... Elizabeth S. Kingsley,
  a Wellesley graduate (class of 1898). Kingsley enjoyed crosswords, but they left her unsatisfied.
  'When you were done,' she said, 'all you had was a filled-in grid. What was the purpose?'
  So she invented the Double-Crostic, whose solution would leave the reader with an
  interesting thought or a worthwhile passage from literature.
  
  In March 1934, Kingsley walked in the offices of The Saturday Review of Literature
  and left a portfolio of 100 original acrostic puzzles, which impressed the editors.
  Within a few weeks they were appearing weekly. Simon & Schuster started
  publishing books of Kingsley's puzzles in 1935, and The New York Times Magazine
  introduced them on its puzzle page in 1943.
  
  Because Double-Crostic was a trademarked term (now lapsed), other publisher
  had to devise alternative names when they published their versions of the puzzle:
  Anacrostic, Quote Acrostic, Twin-Crostic, Double Cross, etc. This is why the
  same puzzle form has so many different names in different publications.
  
  Besides Kingsley, only four people have made Acrostics for the Times:
  Doris Nash Wortman (1953-67), Thomas Middleton (1967-99) and
  Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon (1999 to date), who work as a team."
  ~NYT Puzzle Mania, p. 4, Brief History of Acrostic Puzzles, 12/17/2017
• Crossword Mystery (Bobby Owen Mysteries #3) E.R. Punshon; 1934
• A 1934 murder mystery’s pages were printed out of order. Now the world is obsessed.
  only four people have ever solved the puzzle contained in the pages of 'Cain’s Jawbone.'
  TikTok helped turn the obscure, 100-page British novel into a craze; WaPo; 12/26/2022

1935

• Competition judges have to decide whether skill is involved or whether, as a lawyer for the police argues at Bow Street,
  "the words are ridiculously easy, and a child of 12 should have no difficulty in solving them"; 1935
• Word-Nerd Nation: The surprising history of The Stanford Daily's crossword 2/23/2023

1937

• The Great Rebus Craze of 1937 (Plus 4 Rebuses to Solve Yourself) MF; 12/28/2021

1938

• Criss-Crosswords => Lexiko => "Scrabble"
  created by architect named Alfred Mosher Butts
• "Bletchley Park asked its cryptologists to... solve a Daily Telegraph
  in under 12 minutes as part of its recruitment process."
  ~15 Fascinating Facts About Crosswords: #8
• Wikipedia: Bletchley Park; cryptanalysis
• Bletchley Park: Home of the CodeBreakers Google Cultural Institute; slideshow
• Cryptography: U.S. Cyber Command Valentines Day 2021 Cryptography Challenge Puzzles; .pdf
• Can You Solve a UK Intelligence Agency's Christmas Puzzle? GCHQ ; Giz; 12/10/2015
• Turing's Spirit Hovers at a Restored Estate
  Bletchley Park, where the Real 'Imitation Game' Happened; NYT; 11/28/2014
• At Bletchley Park, a Reminder About the History of Cracking Codes NYT; 8/9/2014
• Happy birthday, Crossword: a very efficient aptitude test 12/6/2013

1939

• World War II: 1939-1945; Frank Lewis US Army code breaking; later NSA
• Code Girls: The Untold Story of the Women Cryptographers Who Fought WWII
  at the Intersection of Language and Mathematics interviewer had only two questions to ask her:
  "Did she like crossword puzzles, and was she engaged to be married?"; 12/11/2017
• The Women Who Helped America Crack Axis Codes review of Code Girls;NYT; 11/6/2017
• NSA Uses Twitter Puzzle To Recruit Computer Hackers 5/16/2014
• Can You Crack the NSA's Top-Secret Crossword Puzzles?
  the National Security Agency Just Released Archive Editions of its In-House Magazine, Cryptolog; PopSci; 3/28/2013
• Frank Lewis, US Codecracker, Ingenious Puzzle Designer Wired; 12/2/2010
• NSA's Puzzle Periodical: 2015-; NSA Cryptochallenge: Puzzle of the Week
• The CryptoKids Arrive at NSA.GOV! Codes & Ciphers; Games & Activities
• The Winter Murder Case. A Philo Vance Story Van Dine, S. S.; "A detective story is a grim business,
  and the reader goes to it, not for literary furbelows and style and beautiful descriptions and the projection
  of moods, but for mental stimulation and intellectual activity -- just as he goes to a ball game or to
  a cross-word puzzle? Dissertations on etymology and orthography interspersed in the definitions of a
  cross-word puzzle would tend only to irritate the solver bent on making the words interlock correctly."

References

• Wikipedia: 1930s
• The Decades That Invented the Future: Part 4: 1930s
  Radar; Works Progress Administration; Schrödinger's Cat; Pop Culture Characters; Ballpoint Pen;
  Nylon; Z1 computer by Zuse; Kodachrome; Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias; War of the Worlds;
  Electric Pinball; Volkswagen Beetle; Wired; 11/9/2012
• Paleofuture: 1930s
• A Look at the 13 Most Influential and Interesting Inventions from the 1930s 7/13/2019

---

Highlights | 1941 | 1942 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1948 | References

---

Highlights

• Crosswords were banned in Paris during the Second World War,... for fear
  of being misused. In fact, some editors were pulled up by the authorities
  when there happened weird coincidences such as these. Two days prior
  before an escape from the Wormwood Scrubs prison by a famous spy,
  a crossword had included the name of the road outside the prison.
• 1942: NYT (finally!)
• 1944: D-Day -- and Crosswords
• 1945: movie: Brief Encounter

1941

• "We ought to proceed with the puzzle, especially... in view of the fact
  that it is possible that there will now be bleak blackout hours
  -- or if not that, then certainly a need for relaxation of some kind.
  We ought not to try to do anything essentially different from what is now being done --
  except to do it better." ~Lester Markel, NYT ed. (< 2 weeks after Pearl Harbor)

1942

• The Daily Telegraph ran a misleading ad, offering to donate 100 British pounds to the Minesweeping Fund
  if, under controlled conditions, anyone could solve their crossword puzzle in less than 12 minutes.
  In fact, the ad was a ploy to recruit intelligence agents to work on enemy ciphers at Bletchley Park.
• President Franklin Roosevelt's pragmatic 'green light letter'; 1/15/1942 stated that public recreation
  (specifically baseball) supported the war effort rather than distracting from it, and therefore should be preserved.
  "The inclusion of the puzzle in the Times would therefore not be considered a trivial notion during a time
  of national peril, but instead a way to help relieve tension among the war-minded public"
  ~All the Clues That Are Fit to Solve: The New York Times Crossword Puzzle Popular & American Culture Association; 6/2019

• 
  

  "The Herald Tribune runs the best puzzle page in existence so far,
  but... they have gotten into a bit of a rut.
  Their big puzzle never ventures even one imaginative definition,
  and lacks the quality that I believe can be achieved and maintained.
  We could, I dare to predict, get the edge on them. I don't think
  I have to sell you on the increased demand for this kind of pastime
  in an increasingly worried world. You can't think of your troubles while solving a crossword."
  ~Margaret Petherbridge Farrar (Simon&Schuster crossword editor -- soon, 1st NYT crossword editor)

• Margaret Farrar: 1st NYT crossword editor, 1942-1968; "1st Lady of Crosswords" bio
• Few Gnus: The Woman Behind the Crossword-Puzzle Craze
  Margaret Farrar is probably the most important person in the world of the crossword puzzle; New Yorker; 6/13/1959
• "Under Margaret Farrar's direction,... the crossword 'constructors'
  (freelance puzzle makers) developed a clever and elaborate style.
  Instead of giving clues like 'Stinging insect' (BEE) and 'Bird's home' (NEST),
  they phrased them as 'Nectar inspector' and 'Nutcracker's suite.
  The Times' clever, whimsical style almost single-handedly ushered in a
  crossword renaissance, as newspapers all over the U.S. followed its lead." ~BUJBR
• NYT inaugurates a puzzle page; NYT; 2/15/1942;
  "There will be two puzzles each Sunday [daily not introduced until 1950]
  -- one with a flavor of current events and general information, and one varied in theme, ranging
  from puzzles in a lighter vein, like today's smaller one, to diagramless puzzles of a general nature.
  Readers are invited to contribute their puzzles. Payment will be made for each puzzle accepted.
  The pattern of the larger puzzles should be 23 by 23 squares; the smaller 15 by 15"
• 15 x 15: Riddle Me This .puz;
  23 x 23: Headlines and Footnotes .puz; a few example clues:
  1-Across: Famous one-eyed general (WAVELL) Gen. Sir Archibald Wavell of Britain, whose victory
  against Italy at the Battle of Sidi Barrani in Egypt in 1940 "shattered the illusion of Axis invincibility";
  117-Down: Nazi submarine base in Belgium (OSTEND);
  54-Down: Reluctant allies of Germany (FINNS);
  49-Down: Prime necessity for war production (SPEED)
  43-Down: Strait between Nova Scotia and New Breton (CANSO)
  Cape Breton, an error and the first crossword ever printed in the New York Times
• Birth of the Crossword
  the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ushered the US into WW II and the NYT Crossword into print; NYT; 12/17/2022
• The legacy of the crossword puzzle in times of crisis NPR; 3/24/2020
• Sunday NYT crossword later becomes popular stereotype of 'most difficult' puzzle
  -- even though NYT Fri & Sat are harder; Sun is like a hard Wed or easy Thu NYT
• The New York Times Crossword Puzzle Still Stumps After 80 Years history; HSW; 12/19/2018
• The Quick 10: The New York Times Crossword Puzzle trivia about NYT crossword; 8/20/2009
• History of the NYT Crossword: Wikipedia; Barry Haldiman
• The New York Times Celebrates 75 Years of Crosswords a brief history;
  1913: The World's First Crossword Puzzle Sparks a Craze; 'The granddaddy of crossword puzzles';
  1924: The New York Times Refuses to Join in the Fun; 'The utterly futile finding of words';
  1941: Bombing of Pearl Harbor Leads to Changed Minds; 'We ought to proceed with the puzzle';
  1942: Margaret Farrar and the First New York Times Crossword; 'Profession and passion';
  1950: The Daily Crossword Begins;
  1969: Will Weng Becomes Second Crossword Editor; 'Good company on lazy Sunday mornings';
  1977: Eugene T. Maleska, the Third Crossword Editor; 'Exactitude with puckishness';
  1978: First American Crossword Puzzle Tournament;
  1993: Will Shortz Becomes Fourth Editor of the Crossword; 'A tradition of culture and quality';
  1996: First New York Times Crossword on the Web; 'Less blood, fewer erasures';
  1998: First (and Only) Marriage Proposal in the Crossword -- Although we still get requests;
  2006: Crossword Documentary 'Wordplay' Opens; 'Crowd-pleasing entertainment and suspense';
  2008: The Wordplay Crossword Blog Begins; 'The Simpsons' Meet the Puzzle Master;
  2016: The Puzzle Mania Section Is Published; the largest New York Times Crossword: 50x50; NYT; 2/14/2017
• "Egotism, n:... Doing the New York Times crossword puzzle with a pen." ~Anonymous, ?
  (incorrectly attributed to Ambrose Bierce -- who died ~1914, also before "crossword" coined in ~1930)
• "Men in their forties are like the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle:...
  tricky, complicated, and you're never really sure you got the right answer."
  ~Carrie Bradshaw in Sex in the City

1944

• Wikipedia: D-Day Daily Telegraph crossword security alarm
  Dieppe; Gold; Sword; Juno; Utah; Omaha; Overlord; Mulberry; Neptune
  Crossword puzzles in World War II
• Physics teacher and crossword constructor Leonard Dawe is questioned by authorities...
  after several words -- Omaha (codename for one of Normandy's beaches),
  Utah (another Normandy beach codename),
  Overlord (the name for the plan to land at Normandy on June 6th),
  mulberry (nickname for a portable harbor built for D-Day), and
  Neptune (name for the naval portion of the invasion)
  -- appeared in London's Daily Telegraph crosswords during the month preceding
  the D-Day landing. This has been attributed to either an incredible coincidence,
  or Dawe somehow overhearing these words (possibly slipped by soldiers involved)
  and incorporating them into puzzles unwittingly.
• The D-Day clues were there, if only Hitler had done the Telegraph crossword
  When short of inspiration Dawe used to ask his pupils for words to be used as solutions.
  The boys, habitually playing games with the American soldiers stationed nearby, had picked up
  some of the strange words used by the loose-lipped troops; Tel; 6/5/2019
• That Time When Winston Churchill Panicked Over a Crossword Puzzle 12/12/2018
• The D-Day Crosswords in which a British newspaper mysteriously spends June 1944
  printing top-secret World War II spoilers; Omnibus: Entry 318.PR2019; 8/7/2018
• The Crossword Puzzles That Jeopardized D-Day 2/5/2018
• Spies, Crosswords, and Secret Messages! 9/16/2021
• Untold Stories of D-Day 6/2002

1945

• Brief Encounter (movie);
  Wikipedia; Top 10 crosswords in fiction, no 10: Brief Encounter; Guardian; 5/10/2012
  Fred Jesson: Come and sit by the fire in the library and relax. You may help me with the Times crossword.
  Laura Jesson: You have the most peculiar ideas of relaxation.
  Fred Jesson: [playing the crossword puzzle] You're a poetry addict. See if you can help me over this.
  It's Keats. 'When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face / Huge cloudy symbols of a high _______.'
  Something that's seven letters.
  Laura Jesson: Romance, I think. I'm almost sure it is. 'Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance.'
  It will be in the Oxford Book of English Verse.
  Fred Jesson: No, it's right I'm sure. It fits in with 'delirium' and 'Baluchistan'.

1946

• What do I think of the Secretary of Commerce? HAW!
  crossword puzzles these days are making subtle editorial comments by having
  the initials of congressmen spell out words describing these individuals.
  For example, the initials of the Senator from Ohio spell the word "rat." (Robert A. Taft); 8/17/1946

1948

• The Crossword Puzzle Mystery (radio show), (April - May 1948) (13 parts); The Adventures of Superman
  e.g., Lois Lane has told cub reporter Jimmy Olsen to look in the Daily Planet from the day before yesterday
  for the crossword puzzle in search of clues in case she hasn't been heard from within twenty-four hours.
  
  Meanwhile, Lois is on an airplane trying to solve a crossword in order to learn where she must go.
  She finds, thanks to the clues, that she must be in a town called Moundville.
  
  Not long afterwards, Clark does the crossword puzzle in which Lois had done.
  Mayor Perry White, who has left Kent in charge of the newspaper, thinks that the mild mannered
  reporter has gone mad. Clark proves him wrong and finds that he must go to Moundville as Superman.
  
  Withers later learns that the head of syndicate in Metropolis that distributes crossword puzzles to
  newspapers like the Daily Planet is also the mastermind behind the gold heists. ~review

References

• Wikipedia: 1940s
• The Decades That Invented the Future: Part 5: 1940s
  Manhattan Project; George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four; Polaroid Camera; Computer Bug;
  First Videogame; Guided Missile; House Committee on Un-American Activities; Materials Rationing;
  Helicopter; Microwave; Jackie Robinson; Start of Silicon Valley; Wired; 11/15/2012
• Paleofuture: 1940s
• 11 Inventions from the 1940s That Still Shape Our World Today 7/23/2019

---

Highlights | 1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1954 | References

---

Highlights

• 1950: Daily NYT
• 1954: Princess Margaret

1950

• NYT begins publishing daily crosswords (9/11/1950) [.puz], [.pdf]
• "The capitulation of the N.Y. Times to the daily crossword puzzle is...
  an event for which we have been able to figure out no logical motivation,
  unless it is that the Times was embarrassed at sharing solely with the
  Daily Worker, among the local papers, the distinction of not having such
  a frivolous feature. The Times has had puzzles on Sunday, of course.
  We have often wondered what sort of people editors believe solvers
  of their daily crosswords to be, aside from commuters. The two papers,
  that, with the Times are most favored by commuters have always had
  set spots for their puzzles, the World Telegram and Sun on a comics page
  and the Herald Tribune either beneath its comics or beneath notices
  of auction sales -- implicit evidence of a feeling on the part of their
  editors that puzzles appeal in the main to people who are childlike
  or have special interests in buying used tiaras or tugboats."
  ~New Yorker comment, 9/30/1950
  (spoiler alert: New Yorker finally capitulates in 2018 and publishes crosswords)

1951

• The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey book;
  "Well, I suppose it is no use suggesting jig-saws to someone in your position.
  How about cross-words. I could get you a book of them, if you like."
  "God forbid."
  "You could invent them, of course. I have heard that is more fun than solving them."
  "Perhaps. But a dictionary weighs several pounds.
  Besides, I always did hate looking up something in a reference book."

1952

• Crossword Quiz (Canadian TV game show)
• Scrabble History; In the early 1950s, as legend has it,...
  the president of Macy's discovered the game on vacation and ordered some for his store.
  Within a year, everyone 'had to have one' to the point that Scrabble games
  were being rationed to stores around the country. In 1952, the Brunots
  realized they could no longer make the games fast enough to meet the growing interest.
  They licensed Long Island-based Selchow & Righter Company, a well-known game manufacturer
  founded in 1867, to market and distribute the games in the United States and Canada.

1954

• "Princess Margaret of England... won a crossword contest in Country Life magazine.
  At first the editors thought the entry was a hoax. A call to Buckingham Palace, though,
  confirmed that the princess had indeed submitted the solution." ~NYT Puzzle Mania, p.11, 12/17/2017
• "A minister in the India Parliament introduced a bill to... ban crossword competitions
  He declared before a cheering house: 'This menace has come to the forefront
  and has assumed really appalling proportions.'" ~NYT Puzzle Mania, p.11, 12/17/2017

References

• The 1950s crossword; NYT Learning Network
• Wikipedia: 1950s
• The Decades That Invented the Future: Part 6: 1950s
  Transistorized Computer; Sci-Fi Cinema, Rock&Roll; Spy Satellites; Hockey Mask; Hovercraft; Digital Photograph;
  Tennis for Two (videogame); DNA; Black Box; Fidel Castro; Catalyzed Plastics; ICEE Machine; Wired; 11/22/2012
• Paleofuture: 1950s
• 11 Interesting Inventions from the 1950s That Still Affect Our Lives Today 7/24/2019

---

Highlights | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | References

---

Highlights

• 1965: Reading-Work-Pieces by artist Arthur Köpcke resembles crossword; 2016: defaced (filled-in)
• 1969: Margaret Farrar (1st NYT crossword ed.) retires, succeeded by Will Weng;
  ARPAnet (precursor to Internet); Apollo moon landing

1965

• Reading-Work-Pieces nos. 32-32 + 124, Arthur Köpcke
• 51 years later...
• Art-Defacing Crossword Solver Now Says
  She Owns the Copyright to the New Piece MF; 8/3/2016
• Woman fills in crossword at museum only to discover
  it is a $89,000 artwork 7/16/2016
• Nuremberg museum horrified after woman fills in artwork
  resembling crossword puzzle A 91-year-old woman has found
  herself in trouble with a German museum after writing on an exhibit.
  Part of the avant-garde artwork was meant to look like an
  empty crossword puzzle; 7/14/2016

1966

• Crossword (TV game show); An unsold pilot for a game show, basically a crossword puzzle
  played by two teams of two, the game itself is on a large board. Each game has a title denoting the theme
  that the words will lead to. A player chooses a spot on the puzzle board, something like "ten across",
  or Twenty-two down" and then must guess the word from the clues supplied by the emcee.

1967

• "The pattern of the thing precedes the thing. I fill in the gaps of the crossword at any spot I happen to choose."
  ~Vladimir Nabokov likened writing a novel to creating a crossword in Paris Review interview
• The Clue in the Crossword Cipher (mystery) by Carolyn Keene; Nancy Drew Mystery Stories v44

1968

• Lyricist Stephen Sondheim begins creating cryptic crosswords for New York Magazine,
  helping introduce Americans to British-style crosswords.
• Beryl Reid Says Good Evening TV series;
  Crossword blog: the best TV gags about crosswords Guardian; 9/20/2012; The Crossword Sketch video: 6:15;
  Reid as an uncouth train passenger irritates bowler-hatted commuters
  by sitting in their first-class carriage and interfering with their solving.

1969

• Margaret Farrar: Wikipedia 1st NYT crossword editor -- retires
• Few Gnus: The Woman Behind the Crossword-Puzzle Craze
  Farrar: "[p]robably the most important person in the world of the crossword puzzle."
  Her preferences for clues: "We don’t allow two-letter words and we avoid as much as
  possible obsolete words, variants, obscure words, and clichés—words like 'gnu' and 'emu'
  and 'proa' ... I favor using lots of book titles, play titles, names in the news, and so on.
  I also favor puzzles with a unifying theme ; New Yorker; 6/13/1959
• Margaret Farrar, Times Editor of Crossword Puzzles, Retires;
  Held Position Since '42 When Feature First Appeared NYT; 1/5/1969
• Margaret Farrar, 87, Editor Of Crossword Puzzles, Dies obit; NYT; 6/12/1984
• A Crossword Hall-of-Famer: Margaret Farrar by Helene Hovanec;
  .pdf; CROSSW RD Magazine; Nov/Dec 1992
• "Perhaps Margaret Farrar's greatest legacy is the large number of expert puzzlemakers
  she discovered and/or nurtured over the years – Will Weng, Eugene T. Maleska,
  Frances Hansen, Anne Fox, A.J. Santora, Diana R. Sessions, Jules Arensberg,
  Herbert Ettenson, Harold T. Bers, Mel Taub … the list goes on. Other editors have left
  their mark on the world of crosswords…, but it was Margaret Farrar, more than anyone else,
  who established the American crossword rules and format, and whose smooth, sensible,
  timeless style of editing I still try to emulate today." ~Will Shortz; 2006
• A Life In The Arts -- The Life Of Margaret Petherbridge Farrar innovations, rules; Electricka

• 
  

  Will Weng: 2nd NYT crossword editor, 1969-1977;
  "His greatest innovation for The Times crossword was humor," says Shortz.
  "He was genuinely a funny man and his sense of humor came through in the puzzles." [obit.], NYT

• Apollo 11 moon landing 7/24/1969
• ARPAnet first 2 "internet" hosts: UCLA & SRI (Stanford Research Inst.); 10/29/1969

References

• The 1960s crossword; NYT Learning Network
• Wikipedia: 1960s
• The Decades That Invented the Future: Part 7: 1960s
  2001: A Space Odyssey; venture capital (Rock and Davis); Compact Disc; Muhammad Ali; Spacewar (videogame);
  Douglas Engelbart's "Mother of All Demos"; Nuclear Powered Carrier; Sketchpad (drawing program);
  Psychedelic Research; Concorde; Kennedy Assassination; Saigon Execution Photo; Wired; 12/06/2012
• Paleofuture: 1960s
• 9 Influential Inventions That Got Their Start in the 1960s 7/29/2019

---

Highlights | 1970 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | References

---

Highlights

• 1972: Crossword Puzzle (song; from Dana)
• 1975: Last Bus to Woodstock (first Inspector Morse novel)
• 1976: Starting Here, Starting Now (musical): Crossword Puzzle (song)
• 1977: Will Weng (NYT ed. #2) retires, succeeded by Eugene Maleska
• 1978: American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) started by Will Shortz

1970

• One Across, Two Down (novel) by Ruth Rendell;
  "There are only two things that interest Stanley: the crosswords and getting his hands on his mother-in-law's money"
• Where Have All Our Heroes Gones (song) by Bill Anderson, album Where Have All Our Heroes Gone;
  lyrics: "And sometimes when it rained you'd sit beside me / And we'd race raindrops down the window pane
  You'd bring me coffee and we'd work crossword puzzles together / We don't do anything together now"
• Crossword (song) (video; 2:18) by Jeff Cooper and the Stoned Wings, album Purple Haze / Tribute to Jimi Hendrix

1972

• Crossword Puzzle (song) by Dana (BBC Top of the Pops) from album All Kinds of Everything;
  MayasMix @ 18:35; lyrics: "Isn't life a little bit like a crossword puzzle? Giving you lots of trouble /
  I'm scratching my head to find the clues
  In the black and white that make up yesterday's news / And my crossword puzzle is keeping me in a muddle"

1973

• Crossword Puzzle (album) by Partridge Family (just title, cover; no puzzle songs)
• The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis novel;
  Top 10 crosswords in fiction, no 7: Lionel Asbo; Lionel Asbo character added later
  in 12 crossword novels; Guardian; 6/14/2012
  Charles Highway: "Sipping on my coffee I tackled the Mirror crossword.
  If I completed it, I would **** Rachel within... three weeks"

1974

• Revisiting the brilliance of "McGear":
  Paul McCartney's brother Mike's 1974 solo album
  McGear sparkles with the younger McCartney's hilarious sense of wordplay
  and musical eccentricity; "My dad used to do the crossword," McCartney recalled,
  "and he had a great love of words and puns, which is very Liverpool. My family
  and people in Liverpool were into surrealism before the surrealists," he joked.
  "While we may have been Liverpool working-class people, we had a natural
  love of wordplay, along with our Liverpudlian sense of humor, and my dad
  would stimulate it at home with the crosswords, which he shared with me
  and 'our kid'," Mike's warmhearted euphemism for his world-famous brother.
  Salon; 7/28/2019

1975

• Last Bus to Woodstock (mystery) by Colin Dexter; "Inspector Morse, the irascible detective
  whose penchants for cryptic crosswords, English literature, cask ale and Wagner reflects
  Dexter's own enthusiasms."; Inspector Morse and DS Lewis after were named
  after two Ximenean crossword prize-winners: the former chairman of Lloyds Bank,
  Sir Jeremy Morse and Mrs DW Lewis;
  "In the same way he's fascinated by crosswords, the puzzle of solving the murder is
  what drives him on." ~John Thaw (Morse protrayer)
  "Thaw was the definitive Morse. Grumpy, crossword-fixated, drunk, slightly misogynistic, pedantic about grammar."
  ~No one else should play Inspector Morse, says his creator Colin Dexter; Guardian; 3/25/2014
• Top 10 crosswords in fiction, no 3: Inspector Morse Guardian; 8/9/2012
• Curtain novel by Agatha Christie;
  Ironically, Captain Hastings had unwittingly intervened in Mrs. Franklin's plan to poison her husband,
  by turning a revolving bookcase table while seeking a book to solve a crossword clue (Othello again),
  thus swapping the cups of coffee, so Mrs Franklin poisoned herself.
• Crossword Puzzle (song) (video; 2:54) by Sly Stone, album High on You; MayasMix @ 72:14
  lyrics: "There's a puzzle in my head / Spend a lifetime finding pieces / It will take forever to put together"
• The Cross-Wits (TV game show; 1975-1980)

1976

• Crossword Puzzle (song) (video; 4:51) from musical Starting Here, Starting Now; MayasMix @ 43:25;
  lyrics: "I am sitting here doing the Sunday Times Crossword Puzzle. Somehow the words won't come.
  I am staring at squares but my eyes never focus, and my mind's feeling strangely numb. It's a fact that a word...";
  synopsis: "A woman holding a NY Times's reveals that ever since her Hecky left her, she has been unable to
  focus on the crossword puzzle. As she tries to answer some clues, she is continually distracted by thoughts of him.
  Slowly, it is understood that the reason Hecky left her was because, being the intelligent woman that
  she is, when they did the crossword together, she always got all of the answers before him.
  This led to much frustration and arguing and eventually Hecky couldn't handle it anymore.
  As she stumbles through each clue, she becomes more upset and less in control of her emotions."
• The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin by David Nobbs fiction;
  Top 10 crosswords in fiction -- Honourable mention: The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin; Guardian; 6/28/2012;
  Reggie tends to tackle the crossword on the morning train, still stuck as it arrives at Waterloo while his carriage
  companion Peter Cartwright says "Finished" by Raynes Park.
• Letters to a Young Puzzler between Margaret Farrar (1st NYT editor, then 79) to Will Shortz
  (24 years old, future 4th NYT editor); NYT Puzzle Mania, p. 4, 12/18/2016
• "An air crash occurred over Zagreb, Croatia, possibly because of... a crossword.
  A British pilot, who may have been distracted by solving a puzzle,
  wrongly flew into restricted airspace and hit another plane." ~NYT Puzzle Mania, p.11, 12/17/2017
• Spiral Puzzles. "Early in his career, the crossword editor Will Shortz found inspiration...
  in the puzzles magazines of Italy, which are known for their innovations in word puzzling.
  In Piccola Enigmistica (which loosely translates as Little Puzzledom,
  a reference to the magazine's diminutive size), he was entranced by one called
  La Doppia Rotazione (The Double Rotation). Although Shortz couldn't read Italian,
  he was mesmerized by the swirly grid and the idea that every letter appeared
  in exactly two answers, once inward and once outword.
  
  Shortz created his first Spiral, in English, for the January 1976 issue of
  Classic Crossword Puzzles magazine. Later he made Spirals for (Pencil Puzzles & Word) Games,
  where he was an editor from 1978 to 1993, and then for The Times.
  
  Before online tools were available, Shortz used rare books that list words spelled backward
  to create the puzzles. Now anyone has access to the same digital resources he does.
  These days, he reports, his biggest challenge is not repeating words from past Spirals.
  'It would be easy to get into a rut and reuse an elegant combination of interlocking words.
  Most words don't lend themselves for use in Spirals, and if they do work,
  often they force things I've used before. I'm always searching for fresh combinations.'"
  ~NYT Puzzle Mania, p. 2, Brief History of the Spiral Puzzle, 12/17/2017

1977

• Will Weng's Farewell Puzzle transcription; NYT; 2/27/1977
• Eugene Maleska: 3rd NYT crossword editor, 1977-1993
  "I'd say the wordplay in the crossword themes became more varied and sophisticated under Maleska
  — it became more a word game than in previous years. But Maleska was a staid guy —
  he had been a school superintendent in the Bronx, he loved opera and classical music and
  his puzzles had a more serious tone than Will Weng's." ~Will Shortz
• M*A*S*H: 38 Across TV series; Season 5; 1/11/1977
  Crossword blog: the best TV gags about crosswords; Guardian; 9/20/2012;
  After being stumped yet again by a crossword puzzle, Hawkeye calls in his friend Tippy Brooks,
  who is adept at crosswords, to provide the needed answer.
• Crosswords (song) (video; 3:29) by Split Enz, album Dizrythmia; MayasMix @ 38:46; lyrics:
  "I'm down, you're across / I can't seem to solve this puzzle / I turn while you toss / Crosswords puzzle me"

1978

• American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT site) started by Will Shortz
• Try/time yourself on 8 tournament puzzles! 2006: free; 2008-2018: $20/year;
  Java (< 2017), JavaScript (2018-) required; only Win/Mac currently
• Puzzle Lovers Find Their Tribe at a Crossword Tournament NYT; 3/26/2018
• A Million Little Boxes Dan Feyer; 538; 4/17/2015
• Humans of ACPT Shortz; Feyer; contestants; NYT; 4/4/2015
• ACPT 2014: On Your Marks, Get Set -- Wait! First, There's Work To Do
  how puzzles are selected for the tournament; back to Stamford from Brooklyn; NYT; 3/7/2014
• "The marketing manager of Stamford, Connecticut's newly built Marriott Hotel was exploring ways
  to bring in business during a slow winter weekend. He decided to tap into the crossword-solving community
  and was introduced to Will Shortz by Norton Rhoades, a crossword constructor. Will had recently moved to Stamford
  and was ready to take on the challenge. He organized the first American Crossword Puzzle Tournament at the hotel,
  and now, 45 years later,still directs and hosts it for hundreds of crossword-solvers across the world." ~NYT, 4/1/2022
• WordPlay movie, released in 2006, about ACPT 2005

1979

• "The puzzle with the Japanese name (Sudoku) that millions of people love to solve
  did not, in fact, originate in Japan....
  
  It was invented by an American, Howard Garns, an architect in Indianapolis,
  and first appeared in the May 1979 issue of Dell 'Pencil Puzzles & Word Games'
  magazine. It was called 'Number Place' and appeared as an occasional feature.
  
  In the early 1980s, Nobuhiko Kanamoto, the editor in chief of the Japanese puzzle
  publisher Nikoli, was visiting the United States. He picked up a copy of
  'Pencil Puzzles & Word Games', and while he couldn't solve any of the word
  puzzles, he loved Number Place. He took it back to Japan and, after fine-turning it,
  introduced it in his magazines under the name 'Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru,'
  or the 'numbers must be single.' This was later shortened to 'sudoku'.
  
  In 1997 a retired, puzzle-loving judge from New Zealand, Wayne Gould, visited Japan.
  He became entranced with Sudoku, and created a computer program for generating
  the puzzles. 'The Times of London' bought Sudoku from him in November 2004.
  That publication immediately set off a craze in Britain, which then came back
  full circle to the United States as well as spreading around the world.
  
  Howard Garns, unfortunately, died in 1989, so he did not live to see his invention
  become a global phenomenon." ~NYT Puzzle Mania, p. 4, Brief History of Sudoku, 12/17/2017
• The Puzzlemaster's Dilemma Will Shortz's crosswords are about to make him a word-nerd movie star.
  But Sudoku is making him rich; NYM; 6/19/2006
• Crossword (song) by Jethro Tull, album Stormwatch (iTunes; 3:38); MayasMix @ 00:00;
  lyrics: "Life is a clue in your crossword...Your life is a clue in the crossword."

References

• Wikipedia: 1970s
• The Decades That Invented the Future: Part 8: 1970s
  Apple II; Weapons-Grade Lasers; Pentagon Papers; Title IX; Computer Printers; Altair; Atari; Modern Sci-Fi ETs;
  Anti-Lock Braking System; Color Fine-Art Photography; Fractals; Nixon's nuclear "Project Independence"; Wired; 12/13/2012
• Paleofuture: 1970s
• 9 Inventions That You Probably Didn't Know Came from the 1970s 7/28/2019

---

Highlights | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1987 | 1989 | References

---

Highlights

• 1981: Crossword Magic (software)
• 1982: A is for Alibi (book; by Sue Grafton)
• 1984: Crossword Puzzle (song; by Barbara Mandrell)
• 1987: Inspector Morse (TV series)

1980

• MIT Mystery Hunt (puzzlehunt)

1981

• Cardiac Arrest (song) (video; 2:54) (wikipedia) by Madness, album 7;
  lyrics: "Ten more minutes till he gets there / The crossword's nearly done. / It's been so hard these days /
  Not nearly so much fun / Think of seven letters / Begin and end in 'C' / Like a big American car / But misspelt with a 'D'."
• Crossword Magic for Atari 800 and Apple II
  Crossword puzzle maker. Choose subject, words, and clues; program automatically connects words.
  Play on-screen or make printout. L&S Computerware manual
• Top 10 crosswords in media, no 6: Madness's Cardiac Arrest Guardian; 6/28/2012

1982

• 'A' is for Alibi (novel; first in 'alphabet mysteries' series) by Sue Grafton;
  her books appear in short crossword clues, e.g., 'Sue Grafton's "___ for Lawless"' (3);
  "My landlord, Henry Pitts, is a former commercial baker who makes a living now, at the age of eighty-one,
  by devising obnoxiously difficult crossword puzzles, which he likes to try out on me."
  ~Kinsey Millhone, fictional private investigator
• United States Open crossword puzzle-solving tournament directed by Will Shortz, 1982-1986
• the world's "largest crossword" by Robert Turcot.
  for even larger, later puzzles, see course section Terminology&Types: Size
• Chapter and Verse (song) (video; 3:42) by Utopia (Todd Rundgren), album Utopia;
  lyrics: "I got the dictionary in my hand / But I can't seem to find the word I'm looking for
  I've checked every letter, now I'm up to Z / There just ain't anymore / I've got a million choices in my head"

1983

• The Crossword Mystery (TV episode) in Mister T (series)
• (Can I) Find the Right Words (To Say) (song) (video; 3:08) by Blondie, album The Hunter; MayasMix @ 59:44
  lyrics: "The right words are so hard to say. It's a challenger puzzle from the magazine section Across with the questions."

1984

• Crossword Puzzle (song) (video; 3:38) by Barbara Mandrell, album Clean Cut; MayasMix @ 32:33;
  lyrics & .mp3: "What we've become is 1 Across, and also rhymes with rules /
  Two Down is what we tell that's opposite the truth / Three Across is what we do to each other's feelings /
  Four Across begins with 'A', and means disagreeing."
• A Six-Letter Word for Death Patricia Moyes; 1984

1985

• The Golden Girls TV series; 1985-1992
  Substitute teacher Dorothy (Bea Arthur) is often seen working on a crossword puzzle,
  which is an activity her roommates and mother do not find enjoyable.
  Rose: Oh Dorothy, what crossword puzzle are you doing?
  Dorothy: Sunday, New York Times... IN INK. [S6E20: Even Grandmas Get the Blues]
• All That Is New Yorker poem: "a ghostly grille / Through which, as often, we begin to see /
  The confluence of the Oka and the Aare"; 5/13/1985
• Train Of Thought (song) (video; 4:22) by A-ha, album Hunting High and Low; MayasMix @ 26:39;
  lyrics: "He likes to have the morning paper's Crossword solved;
  Words go up words come down; Forwards backwards twisted round"

1987

• Inspector Morse TV series; "Morse has a very cryptic mind, he loves doing crosswords;
  we came up with the obvious idea -- his name is Morse and we use Morse code in the music"
  ~Barrington Pheloung (theme composer) obituary
• Tin Men movie; His unutterably unhappy wife (Nora) does crosswords, waiting until 3 AM for
  Tilley to come home, obtuse and uncomprehending of her need for escape and fulfillment.

1989

• "Split Decisions was invented... in the 1980s by an elementary-school teacher, George Bredehorn,
  of East Meadow, N.Y. It was originally called 'Set-Letter Crossword' and debuted in
  'Pencil Puzzles & Word' Games in January 1989. There, the puzzle's name was changed to
  'Split Decisions', by which it has been known every since.
  
  The puzzle maker and editor Fred Piscop, originally from Bellmore, N.Y., was Bredehorn's
  student in elementary school, where Bredehorn often presented original puzzles in class.
  Piscop's love of puzzling was sparked in part by his teacher. The two maintained a lifelong
  friendship. Before Bredehorn died in 2012, he asked Piscop to continue creating the
  Split Decisions puzzles that currently appear in 'The Times'."
  ~NYT Puzzle Mania, p. 2, A Brief History of Split Decisions, 12/17/2017

References

• Wikipedia: 1980s
• The Decades That Invented the Future Part 9: 1980s
  Space Shuttle Columbia; IBM PC; Macintosh; MTV; Miracle on Ice; Leveraged Buyout; Nintendo NES;
  Sandra Day O'Conner; Stealth; Additive Manufacturing (early 3D printing); In-Car Stereos; Autofocus; Wired; 12/21/2012
• Paleofuture: 1980s
• 7 Influential Inventions from the 1980s That Would Go on to Change the World 7/28/2019

---

Highlights | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | References

---

Highlights

• 1990: World Wide Web (proposed)
• 1993: Eugene Maleska succeeded (briefly) by Mel Taub, and finally by Will Shortz (4th NYT crossword editor)
• 1996: Election ('quantum') Crossword; Across Lite format

1990

• World Wide Web proposed
• Crossword Concerto (song) by Robert Wells, album Rhapsody in Rock II
• Landscape Painted With Tea (book) by Milorad Pavic;
  "A failed architect's search for his father, an officer who vanished in Greece during World War II,
  becomes a labyrinthine puzzle, inextricably bound to the history of the ancient monastery on
  Mt Athos". It's organized as a crossword puzzle: "Readers may approach the book chronologically by reading
  only the 'Across' sections, or less chronologically and with more digressions by reading the 'Down' sections.
  Either strategy gradually reveals the story of a soul-searching architect who roams a labyrinth of meditation and memory."
  "In ergodic literature, nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text"
• More Than Words (song) (video; 4:17) (wikipedia) by Extreme, album Pornograffitti;
  lyrics: "How easy it would be to show me how you feel; More than words is all you have to do to make it real"

1991

• Nothing Turned Out Right (song) by Demon, album Hold On To The Dream;
  lyrics: "So I walked in the sunshine / And suddenly it started to rain / So I reached for the crossword /
  But couldn't find where I'd left my brain / It's just one of those days / When nothing turns out right"

1992

• Bambi Is a Stag and Tubas Don't Go 'Pah-Pah': The Ins and Outs of Across and Down
  NYT (Sun) Crossword 50th Anniversary; 2/16/1992
• "The former president Bill Clinton... is an avid crossword solver.
  Sometimes he does as many as three puzzles a day.
  While being interviewed for a magazine in 1992,
  he completed a medium-level crossword in 6:54." ~NYT Puzzle Mania, p.11, 12/17/2017
• Happy Phantom (song) (video; 4:17) by Tori Amos, album Little Earthquakes;
  lyrics: "They say Confucius does his crossword with a pen / I'm still the angel to a girl who hates to sin"

1993

• Behind the Times: Who will succeed Maleska? CROSSW RD Magazine; .pdf; January/February 1991
• Will Weng, 86, Crossword Editor For 10 years for New York Times obit; 2nd NYT ed.; NYT; 5/3/1993
• Eugene T. Maleska, Crossword Editor, Dies at 77 obit; 3rd NYT ed.; 8/5/1993
• The Times Names A New Puzzle Editor
  Mel Taub was interim editor for 2-1/2 months between Maleska and Shortz; NYT; 10/11/1993
• Will Shortz: 4th NYT crossword editor, 1993-present; 1: Farrar; 2: Weng; 3: Maleska
• A Life In The Arts: The Life Of Will Shortz Electricka
• New York Times Crossword Editors names, # of puzzles by each; XWI
• Will Shortz's Life in Crosswords
  his favorite clues, debates in the crossword community, and unexpectedly finding his first serious romance; NYkr; 2/15/2023
• One Foot In The Grave: The Trial [S4E5] TV series;
  Victor is home alone while on call for jury service, tackles a crossword and contemplates his various ailments.
  Crossword blog: the best TV gags about crosswords; Guardian; 9/20/2012
• Crossword Compiler software for creating crosswords: shareware on DOS;
  commercial later on Windows 3.1
• How to solve crosswords origins of Crossword Compiler; 4/16/2006

1994

• The New York Times Crossword Companion Roll-a-Puzzle System from Herbko International
• Crazy Crosswords (Australia) (TV game show; 1994-1996)
• Twelve Across Barbara Delinsky; 1994
• Jigsaw (song) (video; 4:09) by Love Spit Love, album Love Spit Love;
  lyrics: "i've got to get this crossword done / of everything you've said / all the one way conversations
  words that i forget / and it would be so easy to see / if i could be there now"

1995

• Oliver's Travels TV; PBS; Top 10 crosswords in fiction, no 4: Oliver's Travels; Guardian; 7/26/2012
  "When Oliver (Alan Bates) ... is laid off by his university, he resolves to visit Aristotle, a famous compiler of crosswords.
  When Oliver discovers that Aristotle's home has been ransacked and Aristotle is nowhere to be found, ...";
• Crossword Blues (song) (video; 6:11; lyrics: 4:10-) by Rob Tognoni, album Stones and Colours;
  MayasMix @ 89:50; lyrics: "lately I've been learnin' to do the crossword everyday /
  it's just one of those things I'm gonna need to while my lonely hours away"
• The Tunnel novel by William H. Gass;
  Billy Kohler, the protagonist, describes his mother’s crossword habit with sanctimonious disgust as a waste of time,
  yet when she enters a hospital at the end of the novel, he tries to understand her by doing the puzzle. A crossword grid
  appears on the side of one of the pages, which visually as well as thematically blurs the novel and the crossword together.
• The American President movie; Wikipedia;
  (President SHEPHERD (Michael Douglas) finishing up a crossword puzzle)
  SYDNEY: Do you ever get used to helicopters dropping you off at your front door?
  SHEPHERD: How many "e"s in "kaleidoscope"?
  SYDNEY: I guess you do.

1996

• Election Day Puzzle: The clue to the middle answer across the grid was
  "Lead story in tomorrow's newspaper." The answer appeared to be CLINTON ELECTED.
  Because of intentional ambiguity in the crossing clues, however, the answer could also have been
  BOB DOLE ELECTED. Either answer fitted. For example, the crossing clue Black Halloween animal
  could have been either BAT or CAT, with the C for CLINTON or the B the start of BOB DOLE.
  "It was the most amazing crossword I've ever seen. As soon as it appeared, my telephone started ringing.
  Most people said 'How dare you presume that Clinton will win!' And the people who filled in BOB DOLE
  thought we'd made a whopper of a mistake!" ~Will Shortz; xwordinfo: the puzzle;
  Wikipedia: a quantum (or Schrödinger) crossword simultaneously has 2 states
• NYT adopts Across Lite (AL) application & .puz format
• (8/10/2021: NYT Games No Longer Available on Across Lite no more support for .puz format; 8/2/2021)

1997

• Friends: The One With The Dirty Girl [S4E6] TV series;
  Crossword blog: the best TV gags about crosswords; Guardian; 9/20/2012;
  Rachel's attempt in to surreptitiously elicit answers from Chandler after insisting that
  she really wants "to finish a whole one without any help"
• Crossword Weaver: software program for creating crossword puzzles.
• Success of firm's crossword software is no puzzle Variety Games; 2/17/1998
• Getting the lard out: The koshering of the Oreo cookie original recipe called for pig lard; 2/26/2008

1998

• USPS issues commemorative crossword stamp
• Mercury Rising (movie); "An autistic 9-year-old boy cracks the U.S. government's top-secret code
  when an unapproved test matrix gets published in a crossword magazine."

1999

• West Wing (Pilot) TV series;
  LEO (President's Chief of Staff): Margaret. Please call the editor of the New York Times crossword
  and tell him that Khaddafi is spelled with an h, and two d's, and isn't a seven letter word for anything.
  LEO: [on the phone] 17 across. Yes, 17 across is wrong... You're spelling his name wrong... What's my name?
  My name doesn't matter. I am just an ordinary citizen who relies on the Times crossword for stimulation.
  And I'm telling you that I met the man twice. And I recommended a pre-emptive Exocet missile strike
  against his air force, so I think I know how.
  LEO: [looking at the phone, then hanging up] They hang up on me every time."
  The West Wing's Leo McGarry on the Correct Way to Spell 'Qaddafi' video: 0:53; Atlantic; 8/24/2011
  
  from Season 3 (2001)
  JED: "Laissez-faire doctrine," fifteen letters.
  ABBEY: Social Darwinism.
  JED: No, that's not the answer, see, because social Darwinism isn't a doctrine.
  It's a force of nature. The answer is libertarianism.
  ABBEY: I'm going to be ready in two minutes.
  JED: Take your time.
  ABBEY: Passive aggression is not going to get me out the door any faster.
  JED: Booboo, I gave up on getting you out the door in the late seventies. Plus, it's your birthday.
  You're old, and you don't move around that fast.
  ABBEY: Libertarianism has fourteen letters, not fifteen.
  JED: I know, so I'm shading in the extra box.
  Top 10 crosswords in fiction, no 8: The West Wing; Guardian; 6/7/2012
• A Clue for the Puzzle Lady (mystery, 1st in Puzzle Lady series) by Parnell Hall;
  synopsis: "Amateur sleuth Miss Cora Felton, an eccentric, nationally-syndicated crossword puzzle columnist
  whose craving for trouble has increased with age. When the body of an unknown teenager carrying a cryptic,
  crossword-like message is found in the local cemetery". Other books: Last Puzzle and Testament, Puzzled To Death, ...
• The Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project: Bring Old New York Times Crosswords into the Digital Age
  Litz-ing NYT puzzles: 1942-1994; solve those puzzles
• Kill the Man (movie);
  "Guy: What are you doing in my parking lot?
  Bob Stein: Murder.
  Stanley Simon: Yeah, handsome guy too.
  Guy: The corpse just moved!
  Stanley: They tend to do that sometimes. I once saw a man finish a crossword puzzle after being shot five times.
  Bob: Sunday edition too."
• The Crossword Murder (mystery) by Nero Blanc from Crossword Mysteries (series)
• Nobody Knows Anybody (Nadie Conoce a Nadie) (movie);
  "Simon (Eduardo Noriega), a crossword-puzzle writer, receives a cryptic message threatening him
  with death if certain words don't appear in his puzzles."
• Your Dictionary (song) (video; 3:30) by XTC, album Apple Venus Volume 1;
  lyrics: "H-A-T-E -- is that how you spell love in your dictionary...There are no words for me inside your dictionary"
• The Story of Us (movie); Ms. Pfeiffer's character designs crossword puzzles.
  Mr. Willis goes from skepticism that anyone can make a living at such an activity to examining,
  later in his marriage, his wife's puzzles for insights into their relationship and its decidedly
  murky prospects; he starts to see her crosswords as secret messages. Wikipedia; NYT

References

• Wikipedia: 1990s
• The Decades That Invented the Future: Part 10: 1990s
  Sony Playstation; GPS-Guided Munitions; Linux; MP3 Player; RQ-1 Predator Drone; Oklahoma City Bombing;
  Photoshop; The Internet (web); Dark Energy; Women's Soccer; Web Design; venture capitalist (John Doerr); Wired; 1/25/2013
• Paleofuture: 1990s

---

Highlights | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | References

---

Highlights

• 2002: CrozzWord (Steve's Zaurus app)
• 2006: Wordplay (movie)
• 2007: iPhone
• 2008: Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words (Simpson's episode)
• 2009: Lviv crossword spans entire side of a residential building
  Crossword Puzzle with Lady in Black Coat by Paulina Olowska

2000

• Monday: Now ... and Then NYT (daily) Crossword 50th Anniv. [.puz, .pdf]
• All the Clues That Are Fit to Solve: The New York Times Crossword Puzzle
  The Journal of Popular and American Culture Association; 6/2019;
  Examples of public perception of the Times' status are not limited to storytelling and characterization.
  In his 2009 book Everything but the Coffee, Americanist Bryant Simon makes an
  important connection between Starbucks and the New York Times in terms of public perception
  as elite institutions. In looking to connect with what Simon calls "the right people,"
  Starbucks sought ways to brand themselves as the highbrow coffee shop. They sold USA Today
  to their customers for a few years, but because the paper had the perception of being "the McPaper,"
  Starbucks felt that by switching to the New York Times, the "educated class," who had money
  to spend on things like $4 coffees would associate Starbucks with the same ideals as the Times.
  The Times is seen as well-established and of the cultured, educated, middle and upper class,
  and therefore the puzzle is seen in the same light.
• Starbucks to stop selling newspapers: Bring your own NYT or WSJ
  Starbucks started selling NYT in 2000; 7/12/2019
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; 1.4 (TV series);
  Catherine: "You're right, you know. I should be just like you. Alone in my hermetically-sealed condo watching Discovery
  on the big screen, working genius-level crossword puzzles, but no relationships. No chance any will slop over into a case."
  Grissom: "Technically, it's a townhouse. And the crosswords are advanced, not genius. But you're right.
  I'm deficient in a lot of ways. But I never screw up one of my cases with personal stuff."

2002

• Steve's CrozzWord application debuts on Zaurus; CrozzWord awarded 1st place in the
  Entertainment/Educational/Multimedia category in the JPDA 2002 Application Developers Contest
  for Zaurus and iPaq sponsored by Insignia Solutions, HP, Intel, Metrowerks, Sharp,
  Softbank Publishing and Sun Microsystems
• Marathon (movie); "Each year, single New Yorker Gretchen (Sara Paul) tries to complete as many
  crossword puzzles as possible during a 24-hour marathon session while riding the subway.
  By performing this strange ritual (a legacy from her mother), Gretchen seems to be railing against
  the meaningless cacophany of city life. Though seemingly senseless, Gretchen's annual gesture
  speaks volumes about imposing personal order on the random dice throw that is daily life."
• A Star-Guarded Coronation (song) (video; 5:17) by Vintersorg, album Visions from the Spiral Generator;
  lyrics: "A star-guarded coronation / Over the crossword's profound and royal thrones"
• Happy at Last (song) (video; 2:49) by Josh Joplin, album The Future That Was; MayasMix @ 47:43
  lyrics: "I'm not as smart as a Sunday Times crossword puzzle / Big words get me into trouble"
• Hiccups (song) (video; 4:03) by Darren Hanlon, album Hiccups;
  lyrics: "Some day without trying you'll find something that's rare / Like an eight letter word on a triple word square
  A thousand ideas I try to tell crossword girl / How do I get one across when you're always too down?
  And if things get hard will you throw in the pen? / But if you are unsure you can pencil it in"

2003

• Four Down And Twelve Across (song; 2:47) by George Strait, album Honkytonkville; MayasMix @ 35:58;
  lyrics: "Girl, this relationship we're in / To say the least it's puzzling' / Like a crossword puzzle / Fill in the blanks /
  [Chorus] What's four down and twelve across / Two letter synonym for lost That's me / And a three letter word /
  That rhymes with through / Oh I get it, that's you"
• I Do My Crosswords in Pen (song) (video; 4:20) by On Broken Wings, album Some of Us May Never See the World;
  lyrics: "Ink bleeds deeper / When pressed hard / Soaks through paper and / Leaves stains on the table"
• Excalibur Touch-Screen Crossword Puzzle
  1000 NYT puzzles; Model 455 manual; [right: images]
• Corpus de Crossword: A Mystery With Crosswords Nero Wolfe, 2003

2004

• "'Ken' means 'wisdom' in Japanese,
  so the name 'KenKen' can be translated as... 'wisdom squared.'
  
  Tetsuya Miyamoto, a mathematics teacher in Yokohama, Japan, invented the puzzle in 2004
  as a way to improve his students' math and logic skills. His goal was to offer his classes a tool
  that would be understandable and fun and that would encourage independent thinking.
  He wanted his puzzle to be challenging for a student of any level and to build concentration and perseverance.
  
  In 2006, a Japanese television program featured Miyamoto's classroom as an example of
  innovative teaching methods, and the puzzle that had been a school assignment quickly
  became a favorite leisure activity for all ages in Japan.
  
  After the show aired, the Japanese educational publisher Gakken purchased the rights to the puzzles in Japan.
  It was first called 'Keisan Block', with the tagline 'Kashikokunaru Puzzuru', which means 'the make-you-smarter- puzzle.'
  
  Robert Fuhrer, founder and president of a United States game-development and
  marketing company, Nextoy, bought the rights to the puzzle outside Japan.
  
  In 2009 KenKen became the first daily puzzle besides the crossword to run in The New York Times.
  It now appears in approximately 200 newspapers nationwide, has a strong online following and is the basis
  of an annual international championship." ~NYT Puzzle Mania, p. 4, Brief History of KenKen; 12/17/2017
• The Smoking Room TV series; Barry is usually seen attempting to solve the day's crossword,
  and although he considers himself something of a crossword expert his answers are often ludicrous
  and Robin solves many of the (sometimes very easy) clues for him. Barry doesn't understand how
  Robin can be gay when he's so good at crosswords.
  videos: UFO 2:45; Bontempi 1:21; Crossword blog: the best TV gags about crosswords; Guardian; 8/20/2012;
• Crossword Puzzle Blues (song) by Steve Mardon, album Critic's Darling;
  lyrics: "I try to get my point across but you keep bringin' me down / All you offer me is cryptic clues..
  You came here on a Sunday, dressed in black and white / I'm just another fool /
  Livin' with the crossword puzzle blues (break out the White Out) /
  Livin' with the crossword puzzle blues (where's my thesaurus)"
• Word Wars (movie) "In this character-driven documentary, filmmakers Eric Chaikin and Julian Petrillo
  follow four 'word nerds' through their fastidious preparations and smaller tournaments
  that lead to the national championship Scrabble tournament in San Diego in 2002.
  Our favorite contender: Joel Sherman, a true dork with acid reflux trouble (he constantly
  quaffs Maalox) and no other discernable job besides playing Scrabble."
• Walk Idiot Walk by The Hives
  the video takes place in a white room with crossword puzzle designs on the wall. Before the music starts,
  there's a sign with a large "!"; as he steps on the crossword designs, letters appear soon after, reading "Walk Idiot Walk"
• Sideways movie; early on, the hero, Miles (Paul Giamatti), does the Times crossword puzzle
  while driving his Saab on the San Diego Freeway
• These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach; book; renamed "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" in 2012;
  Norman delights in filling in the crosswords in ink so no one can erase his answers and start afresh.

2005

• Wordplay (song) (video; 3:08) (wikipedia) by Jason Mraz, album Mr. A-Z;
  lyrics: "I am the wizard of ooh's and ah's and fa-la-la's / Yeah the Mister A to Z / They say I'm all about the wordplay"
• Everyday (song) (video; 6:44) by Authority Zero, album Rhythm and Booze;
  lyrics: "These masses of confrontation beating me down / I'm picking at the pieces to put them all back into place
  A never ending crossword of questions collaborates / While asking myself, where are we going in time?"
• The Office TV series (American);
  Stanley Hudson generally prefers working on crossword puzzles during the various staff meetings.
  Crossword blog: the best TV gags about crosswords; Guardian; 9/20/2012
• Crossword (song) by Helen Slater, album Crossword; MayasMix @ 05:35
• The Perfect Man movie; "What constitutes the perfect man according to this ill-conceived hokum
  is not someone with a burning inner soul, deep compassion or romance oozing from every pore.
  No, the clue that poor Jean's lifelong search for the ideal companion is finally over is based
  on the fact that the man in question fills in crosswords with pen."

2006

• WordPlay (movie): "WordPlay follows New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz,
  his fans and contributors, and champion solvers at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament,
  exposing the madness and mirth behind this not-so-puzzling national obsession."
• Every Word (song) (video; 2:41) by Gary Louris (from WordPlay); MayasMix @ 94:08;
  "You know every word is made up of letters / Made up of letters / Made up of letters"
• Bananagrams (game)
• Simple Man (song) by John Corbett, album: John Corbett;
  lyrics: "Crossword's on the table, coffee in the cup / She finds another word for waiting as he pulls into the drive ? /
  And she's working on that crossword, fightin' back a smile / Find another word for sober, let him sit out there a while"
• Mozartian Crossword (classical) (video; 8:08) by Jill Teml; MayasMix @ 11:50
• Crossword (video; 3:41) by Karolina Novitska on the song "Don't Look Back" by télépopmusik;
  MayasMix @ 76:40; background
• Mr. Vinegar and the Crossword "It's a bright sunny day, and Mr. Vinegar steps out into the world
  to enjoy his morning coffee and do the crossword... but the world has other plans." video: 0:07
• Crossword (song) (video; 3:41) by Bleak; album Burns Inside;
  lyrics: "I couldn't solve her / God and our hearts cried / Together, as I let my air out /
  Like a crossword / Like a crossword / You are to me"

2007

• iPhone and mobile crossword apps
• (Merv Griffin's) Crosswords (TV game show): IMdb
• The Crossword Monologues (movie):
  "If people from different parts of the world lined up their monologues, as if in a crossword puzzle,
  these monologues would eventually create a conversation."
• Mariella (song) (video; 4:17) by Kate Nash, album Made of Bricks; MayasMix @ 85:30
  lyrics: "Yes, she always got the crossword puzzle right everyday / And she could do the alphabet backwards /
  Without making any mistakes"
• The Two Ronnies TV series; A Times-solving Barker is irritated by fellow commuter Corbett tackling the Sun;
  video: 'proper' crosswords video: 5:14;
  Crossword blog: the best TV gags about crosswords; Guardian; 9/20/2012
• No Reservations film;
  "In No Reservations, the leading lady is a crossword solver. Each day she sits with her colleagues at the lunch table,
  armed with a pen and crossword grid. While the others laugh and chat, she is immersed in the crossword
  with a glum expression. She is also unkempt, unfriendly, has no "life" and no boyfriend. She is in therapy.
  Along comes the hero. As it happens in such films, they spar then become friends. The lady grows
  cheerful and beautiful. After predictable twists, the movie moves towards the inevitable happy end.
  Once Love enters the lady's life, she is never again to be seen solving the crossword."
  ~Attention film-makers: Crossworders are not oddballs! 3/15/2010
• Crossword Puzzle (song) by Noro, album Love Sweet Dream; MayasMix @ 24:58

2008

• The Simpsons: "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words" (TV episode):
  "Lisa discovers that she has a talent for solving crossword puzzles,
  and she enters a crossword tournament. Lisa's feelings are hurt
  when she discovers that Homer bet against her in the
  championship match... Crossword puzzle creators Merl Reagle
  and Will Shortz guest star as themselves...One of the few successful
  moments Gil Gunderson has enjoyed is when he won a crossword
  contest, but only because he fooled Lisa by making her take his glasses,
  which he didn't actually need."
• Top 10 crosswords in fiction, no 1: The Simpsons Guardian; 10/4/2012
• CrossFire (crossword construction software) released
• Lollapuzzoola a crossword-solving tournament with a more tongue-in-cheek, free-form style,
  launches in Jackson Heights, New York
• Cross Words (movie): "On his 50th birthday, George, an arrogant, agoraphobic, crossword puzzle maker
  is mistaken for dead... and he must crash his own funeral to learn how to live."
• Burn Notice (TV series); "In the world of intelligence, if an operative hands you a crossword puzzle,
  chances are, you just received a coded message." ~Michael Westen
• Mon-Sun NYT Crosswords (songs; .mp3) by John Schnall;
  MayasMix @ Mo: 79:49; Tu: 79:54; We: 80:13; Th: 80:52; Fr: 81:54; Sa: 82:47; Su: 83:38

2009

• 10 Years of the KenKen Puzzle in The Times NYT; 2/9/2019
• Ukraine Building Gets A 100-Foot Crossword Puzzle That Solves Itself
  The city of Lviv/Lvov, Ukraine, creates a crossword that spans an entire side of a residential
  building, with clues scattered around the city's major landmarks and attractions; 7/31/2009
• Words with Friends from Zynga; Crosswords with Friends in 2017
• From Square One: A Meditation, with Digressions, on Crosswords
  captivating and in-depth exploration of the cultural history, psychology, and even metaphysics of
  crosswords -- their promise of a world without chaos and uncertainty; Dean Olsher
• Wordplay (TV game show)
• Academia (song) (video; 3:16) by Sia from the TV movie Acceptance; MayasMix @ 64:00
  lyrics: "You can be my alphabet...You're a cryptic crossword, a song I've never heard"
• All About Steve (movie); "In All About Steve, the heroine is a crossword compiler for the (fictional) paper
  Sacramento Herald. She is also socially inept, clingy and spouts random facts to anyone
  within hearing range. She gets so besotted with a man Steve (a CCN cameraman,
  whom she has barely met) that she writes her next crossword themed entirely on him,
  titled "All About Steve". The crossword when printed frustrates the readers.
  She is fired from her job for this crossword. Now unemployed, the lady stalks the man
  all across the country and gives him the creeps." ~Attention film-makers: Crossworders are not oddballs! 3/15/2010;
  Crossword blog: ...favourite crosswords in fiction? -- Dishonourable mention: All About Steve Guardian; 5/3/2012
• Little Bird (song) (video; 6:13) by Imogen Heap, album Ellipse; MayasMix @ 50:32
  lyrics: "... little bird, little bird / What do you hear?... Crossword puzzles start to grate / One across Four letter word"
• Supernatural TV series; In the Free to Be You and Me
  [S5E3], Sam is at a bar and completes the Saturday New York Times crossword, the most
  difficult puzzle of the week. A bartender who is romantically interested in Sam takes this
  as an indication of Sam's intelligence and continues her pursuit.
• Crossword Puzzle Crisis (TV); Robert must incorporate various food-related sayings into his dishes
  when he caters the awards luncheon at the 2009 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn
• crossword poem; Valzhyna Mort; 12/2009
• Crossword (song) (video; 2:38) by Deckchair Orange, album Deckchair Orange; MayasMix @ 21:53
• We Learned To Be Cool From You (song) (video; 6:50) by Jimmy Buffett, album Buffet Hotel;
  lyrics: "Maybe I can parlez a little Francais / Maybe I can even write a whole page a day
  Do a crossword puzzle in a minute or two / But I learned to be cool from you"

References

• Wikipedia: 2000s
• The Decades That Invented the Future: Part 11: 2000s
  iPhone; Human Genome; Instagram; Rise of the Drones; Hadoop (search server software); Connected Cars; Sep. 11th;
  Nintendo Wii; Apple (design); Doping (sports); Facebook; Social Media; Wired; 2/1/2013
• Paleofuture: 2000s

---

Highlights | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | References

---

Highlights

• 2011: CROSSWORDS and YOU course, Maya's Mix crossword program
• 2013: 100th anniversary of Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", with many commemorative puzzles
• 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019: NYT Super Mega

2010

• iPad and mobile crossword apps; e.g., Crosswords
• Rubicon (TV show): Episode 1: Will Travers, an intelligence analyst at the American Policy Institute (API), spots
  related crossword answers [Java; NYT] in multiple newspapers involving the government, suicides, conspiracies, ...
• Top 10 crosswords in fiction, no 5: Rubicon Guardian; 7/12/2012
• How I Met Your Mother TV series;
  Robots Versus Wrestlers [S5E22], the pseudo-intellectual Ted is thrilled when he discovers at a high society
  cocktail party that one of the guests is Will Shortz, and Ted is burning to ask Shortz about the use of Ulee's Gold
  in the puzzles. This piece of puzzle subculture becomes fodder for the puzzle reference on the show.
  Ted suspects it is due to the combination of vowels, and in an amusing cameo, Shortz confirms Ted's hypothesis.
• A Way With Words (song) (video; 5:49) by Amanda Yesnowitz and Brian Cimmet at ACPT 2010:
  article & lyrics: "I love words. I love words. I love glorious, uproarious, notorious words
  Wouldn't that be natural for someone like me -- A dame whose name goes literally from A to Z."; NYT
• Monday's Crossword (song) by Drew Citron, album Drew Citron; MayasMix @ 68:50
• Crossword (jazz) by Crossover Jazz Trio & Tino Tracanna, album 3 Words; MayasMix @ 03:20
• Crossword (movie): "On a significant day in her life, a lonely woman who finds solace in the daily crossword
  finds that the answers to the clues are all around her. Is it magic, coincidence or something else entirely?"

2011

• "Sacked News of the World staff... buried a host of insults
  directed at Rebekah Brooks in the final paper's crossword.
  Answers included 'deplored', 'tart', 'stench' and 'disaster.'"
  ~15 Fascinating Facts About Crosswords: #14
• CROSSWORDS and YOU (this course) first offered;
  Ashland and Medford [Spring];
  crossword courses offered at other OLLIs: Santa Clara Univ.: 2007;
  Univ. of So. Miss.: 2009; Stony Brook Univ.: 2013; UNC Asheville: 2013; Penn State Univ.: 2014
• Maya's Mix Crossword program on Apr 29 (radio show) on KSKQ-LP 94.9 FM (Ashland);
  Maya's Mix on Facebook; note: "MayasMix @ mm:ss" references are to start times to this program;
  audio no longer publicly available
• OLLI LINK crossword: "An OLLI Olio: Ooh La La" puzzle: interactive, print (Nov 2011)
• Puzzled by People (song) (video; 3:10) by The Streets, album Computers and Blues; MayasMix @ 07:45;
  lyrics: "I'm pretty good at puzzles but puzzled by people / Sometimes you never find the answer
  We never had a crossword (crossed word) / My words got lost and you never heard
  I'm 2 (too) down you're one across the room / Beginning with I and ending in U"
• Mrs Parker & the Vicious Crossword (movie); "Mrs Parker was told by her beau
  that by solving a crossword, which he compiled, she'd know his true feelings.
  One hitch - she's stuck on the last clue, and God isn't helping."
• Crossword poem; Sally Bliumis-Dunn; Art Beat; PBS; 9/19/2011
• King Of The Crosswords (song) (video; 2:57) by David Mead, album Dudes;
  lyrics: "Give him that pen and the New York Times /
  And his hands would start movin' in a blur
  Even without a dictionary he'd be done in five / He's the king of the crosswords"
• The Hour TV series
• BBC's 'The Hour': A Cold War enigma, layered in '50s style
  "the professor had a side hobby of submitting crossword puzzles to newspapers,
  which, when printed, seemed to be delivering coded messages to certain readers";
  WaPo; 8/16/2011

2012

• Red (song) (video; 4:02) by Taylor Swift, album Red;
  lyrics: "Fighting with him was like trying to solve a crossword and realizing there's no right answer"
• The Computer's Next Conquest: Crosswords "Dr.Fill" (AI) at ACPT 2012; NYT; 3/17/2012
• Crossword Puzzle Stirs Controversy in Venezuela Neptali Segovia,
  a veteran crossword writer, is accused of hiding a coded message urging
  the death of President Hugo Chavez's brother; NYT; 5/11/2012
• Crossword poem; Lloyd Schwartz; 12/20/2012
• A.C.P.T. 2012: Inside the Judges' Room 3/17/2012
• 2012 Orca Awards, Nominees annual celebration of creativity in crossword construction and editing

2013

• "In January 2013, the Guardian's Araucaria,...
  who has been writing their crosswords for 50 years, told readers that
  he was dying by saying 'he has 18 down (cancer) of the 19 (oesophagus),
  which is being treated with 13 15 (palliative care)'"
  ~15 Fascinating Facts About Crosswords: #15
• Crossword Maker for Cruciverbalists released iPad
• On Oreo's 101st Birthday, 13 Facts About The Cookie
  That Will Blow Your Mind 3/6/2013
• 100th anniversary of Arthur Wynne's "word-cross"
  -- many commemorative articles and puzzles
• "Word conundrums
  Vertical Horizontal
  O Arthur Wynne!" ~Puzzling Haiku
• Puzzazz: Anniversary Puzzles [list]; Articles; Twas the Nite Before Crosswas [poem]
• 100th Anniversary Roundup! articles, puzzles; 12/26/2013
• Google Doodle: 100th Anniversary of the Crossword Puzzle interactive puzzle by Merl Reagle; 12/21/2013
• 100 Years Later, the Crossword Is Still the King of Puzzles Wired; 12/21/2013
• Happy 100th Birthday to the Crossword Scientific American; SciAm; 12/21/2013
• The Crossword Puzzle Turns 100: The 'King of Crossword' on Its Strange History
  Merl Reagle spills on the strange origins of the puzzle
  -- and his own favorite memories from decades of creating his own clues; 12/21/2013
• Quite a Milestone, as Milestones Go Wordplay blog; NYT; 12/20/2013; .puz; $
• Google Celebrates 100 Years of Crossword Puzzles Slate; 12/20/2013
• The Shape Of Clues To Come: The Crossword At 100 Ben Tausig; The Awl; 12/20/2013
• I Volunteer as Tribute Andy Kravis; .pdf, .puz; 12/20/2013
• What Did We Learn About the NSA This Year?
  crossword centennial puzzle in honor of NSA 'word games'; EFF; 12/20/2013
• A Special Centennial Puzzle .pdf; Orange County Register; David Steinberg; 12/20/2013
• Centennial: puz.pdf, sol.pdf Newsday; Stanley Newman; 12/20/2013
• Up, Up and (when I catch my breath) Away Patrick Merrell; .pdf, .puz; 12/20/2013
• 100 years of crosswords: the first appeared in New York on 21.12.1913
  Arthur Wynne left Liverpool for the US, left farming for journalism and then left millions
  delighting in solving his invention; Guardian; 12/20/2013
• Crossword Puzzles Turn 100: The History Of The Art Form And
  The Professional Standards Of Puzzle Makers 12/20/2013
• Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Crossword with a GWR Puzzle!
  Guiness World Records; 12/19/2013
• Will Shortz on the crossword's 100th anniversary CBC; audio: 13:12; 12/19/2013
• The 100th anniversary of the crossword puzzle with Merl Reagle
  Radio Times; audio: 51:45; 12/19/2013
• 100 Years Of Solvitude: A Reported Crossword Puzzle NPR; 12/19/2013; .pdf, .puz
• The New York World 100th anniversary crossword original crossword publisher; 12/19/2013; puzzle
• Word Up: Youth Fills in the Blanks as Crosswords Turn 100 Finn Vigeland; 12/20/2013
• The Crossword Turns 100 (Across) John Chaneski; AMA theme; 12/21/2013
• Celebrating 100 years of cr_ssw_rds Al Jazeera; Francis Heaney; 12/18/2013; puzzle; solution
• Who invented crosswords?
  Many people did, though Arthur Wynne did more than anyone; Economist; 12/19/2013
• What's a 9-Letter Word for a 100-Year-Old Puzzle? Smithsonian; 12/16/2013
• LA Times solution; 12/12/2013
• The crossword is 100 years old and thriving Toronto Star; 12/6/2013
• "A Winning Combo": a commemorative puzzle by Steve Weyer; interactive, print;
  Puzzle (on right) is a mashup of Wynne's diamond-shaped original (in center), with 4 corner puzzles.
  It could also be thought of as a time capsule with its inner original words and clues (a few with notes
  for solvers of our era); the outer contemporary sections describe the puzzle (who, where, why, when,
  what), along with words/clues that would not have been known to solvers of that era; 3/20/2013
• "Crunch Time" latcrossword, crosswordkathy Reagle; 97th anniversary, featuring OREO; 12/19/2010
• Dad's Crossword by Duane Keiser artwork;
  "I don't think he [Dad] even reads the news anymore in the paper -- he pulls out the crossword and throws the rest away."
• Murder by Meta Kickstarter effort; features 8 meta crosswords
• 2013 Orca Awards annual celebration of creativity in crossword construction and editing

2014

• A Mini History of Our Mini Crossword The Times's little crossword puzzle started out as a big experiment.
  We never expected that the form would find a devoted following all its own; NYT; 3/26/2019
• 'Crosswords make my life': Puzzle innovator celebrates her 100th birthday
  Bernice Gordon; first centenarian to have a grid printed in NYT; rebus pioneer; 1/13/2014
• 2014 Orca Awards: Best Crossword, Gimmick, Freestyle, Sunday-sized,
  Easy, Nominees annual celebration of creativity in crossword construction and editing

2015

• Bernice Gordon, died 1/29/2015
• Merl Reagle, January 5, 1950 - August 22, 2015 prolific, punny cruciverbalist; NYT; 8/22/2015;
  Wikipedia: Merl Reagle
• Brooklyn 99 TV series;
  The Mattress [S3E7], Jake and Amy discuss their relationship with their buttoned-up and intellectual commander,
  Captain Holt. Amy admits that she almost ended their relationship when she discovered that Jake
  was unfamiliar with Will Shortz. Captain Holt is flabbergasted that anyone could be unaware of Shortz,
  and this interchange positions Amy and Captain Holt in positions of intellectual superiority over Jake.
  
  The Puzzle Master [S5E15] (2019) incorporates the New York Times crossword more deeply into the plot when
  Jake and Amy must solve a set of arsons connected to a well-known puzzle author. Will Shortz has a cameo
  as a rival crossword puzzle author, which is a nod to his sense of humor about the puzzle's position in popular culture.
• Crossword Puzzles, Pinball, & Chess origins of three popular games worldwide; 0:30
• "A 15-year-old boy... won the Italian crossword championship in 2015.
  He was the youngest winner in the event's history.
  He defeated 162 other solvers, including four former national champions,
  to win the tournament's gold cup." ~NYT Puzzle Mania, p. 11, 12/17/2017
• 2015 Orca Awards: Best Crossword, Clue and Constructor, Gimmick, Meta,
  Freestyle and Tournament, Sunday-sized, Easy annual celebration of creativity in crossword construction and editing

2016

• NYT Super Mega: 50 x 50, 728-clues; 12/18/2016; clues (.png), answers (.pdf)
• And the Winners Are ... NYT; 1/4/2017
• The story behind The New York Times' largest and most ambitious crossword puzzle
  Verge; 12/18/2016
• Puzzle Mania! Will Shortz's Inside Look podcast: 11:25; special 16 pp. NYT paper-only section:
  Super Mega; Sudoku; Acrostics; Word games; Visual puzzles; NYT; 12/16/2016
• Watch ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Unveil a New (Crossword) Puzzle Format video; 6/7/2016
• A.C.P.T. 2016: Missing Merl Reagle and Going Into the Finals the "MERL" award; 4/3/2016
• 2016 Orca Awards annual celebration of creativity in crossword construction and editing

2017

• The New York Times Celebrates 75 Years of Crosswords a brief history; NYT; 2/14/2017
• NYT Super Mega: 53 x 53; 12/17/2017; puzzle (.pdf) ; answers (.pdf)
• And the Winners Are: Part I: The Winners of the 2017 Super Mega Crossword Contest;
  Part II: Report on the 'Hidden Contest' NYT; 1/5/2018
• Crosswords with Friends from Zynga
• The Riddle of the Sphinx (Inside No. 9) TV; Wikipedia;
  Nina is a young woman seeking answers to the Varsity cryptic crossword;
  Professor Nigel Squires pseudonymously sets the crossword using the name Sphinx.
• The Year in Crosswords twilliamcampbell; 2017
• 2017 Orca Awards annual celebration of creativity in crossword construction and editing

2018

• Forever comedy series; Fred Armisen’s character is frequently seen working
  on crossword puzzles, although he's not particularly good at them
• And the Winners Are, Part 1: Report on the 'Super Mega' Crossword Contest
  50 x 50 in 12/2018; spoiler alert; solution; NYT; 1/11/2019
• SuperMega includes link to .jpz file; 12/16/2018
• Introducing The New Yorker Crossword Puzzle 4/30/2018
• The Crossword Mentality in Modern Literature and Culture by Adrienne Raphel.
  .pdf; Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences;
  2020 book: Thinking Inside the Box: Adventures with Crosswords
  and the Puzzling People Who Can't Live Without Them
• The Puzzlemaker: Murder Is Only A Word Away by Brian Christopher;
  After 10 years' service as a cryptographer with MI6 during the cold war, the extremely shy and reclusive George Withers
  becomes editor and compiler of the Sunday Times crossword. 30 years later and now in his 60's, an old MI6 colleague
  asks him to place a code within the Sunday Times cryptic crossword puzzle. George is totally unaware the code is a catalyst
  for a number of gruesome deaths around the world. The Serbian father of one of the victims discovers the puzzlemaker
  had something to do with his son's death, and goes on the hunt. Georges' quiet world of puzzles changes into a nightmare
  hunt through the streets of London. While on the run he tries to decipher that last fatal cryptic code in the puzzle
  he got from his friend, who has now disappeared, and hopefully save his own life and others near to him.
• Crossword Two people have a difficult time talking about sensitive subjects and a crossword puzzle
  seemingly with a mind of its own leads the couple down the path of discovery; 0:09
• The Year in Crosswords twilliamcampbell; 2018
• 2018 Orca Awards annual celebration of creativity in crossword construction and editing

2019

• NYT Puzzle Mania, incl. Super Mega 50 x 50; 12/15/2019
• And the Winners Are: The 'Super Mega' Crossword Contest NYT; 1/11/2020
• And the Winner of the 2019 A.C.P.T. Is ... NYT; 3/24/2019
• The New York Times Tops 5 Million Subscriptions as Ads Decline
  in 2019, 3.5 million digital-only news customers, ~1M crosswords and cooking; NYT; 2/6/2020
• The Crossword Mysteries: Hallmark Mysteries (TV series); a brilliant crossword puzzle editor (Chabert)
  finds her life turned upside-down when she is pulled into a police investigation after several of the clues in her
  recent puzzles are linked to unsolved crimes. Proving her innocence means leaving the comfort of her sheltered world
  and working with a tough police detective (Elliott), puzzling through clues together in order to crack the case,
  as the two are fish out of water in each other's worlds.
• Lacey Chabert launches a new Hallmark mystery movie series executive producer: Will Shortz; 3/6/2019
• Crossword Mysteries: A Puzzle to Die For A crossword is found on the murdered owner of a burglarized art gallery.
  Tess, a Sentinel crossword editor, finds clues in crosswords. Eventually, detective Logan accepts her clues and help.
  Tess is also running a crossword tournament; 3/10/2019
• Crossword Mysteries: Proposing Murder Tess and Logan are back solving mysteries as an old friend of Tess's
  is found dead just before he was going to propose to his girlfriend. Codes, cyphers, and crossword puzzles
  all lend a hand at finding the killer as Tess and Logan try to find a way to work together to decipher the clues; 10/13/2019
• How Crosswords Came of Age in the 2010s
  discussion of increased diversity of constructors in gender & age;
  Ten of the decade’s favorite entries speak to the color and comprehensiveness of modern puzzles:
  MEME, SIM, SEXT, TWEET, N.L. EAST, NICKI MINAJ, LGBT, LOL, BARISTA, EDIBLE UNDERWEAR;
  Smithsonian; 12/30/2019
• The Decade in New York Times Crosswords and Games
  new people, diversity, crossword community, crossword formats, other games;
  Shortz's contribution of pop culture and vernacular made the Crossword more interesting;
  "they require less dictionary-type knowledge and more creative thinking;"
  "embrace of vernacular-- I love the conversational long answers.The clues and answers are often so timely.
  I love being up-to-date with the latest slang and rap stars. I have a lot more trivia in my head";
  Increases in pay rates for puzzle makers; Technological Advances Make the Puzzle More Accessible; NYT; 12/27/2019
• The Year in Crosswords twilliamcampbell; 2019
• 2019 Orca Awards annual celebration of creativity in crossword construction and editing

References

• The Year in Crosswords: 2017, 2018, 2019
• Wikipedia: 2010s
• The Decades That Invented the Future: Part 12: The Present and Beyond
  Discovery of Earth's Twin planet; Autonomous Cars; Wearable Technology; Growing the Visual Funnel (optics);
  Wide-Area Surveillance; AR (augmented reality), 3D printing; device convergence; Internet Memes; Kim Dotcom;
  Prosthetic Athletics; "Pluto Switch" (specialized hardware); Healthcare; Wired; 2/8/2013

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