![]() I can go into the program and manually give those words high scores in my list, so they get priority when I’m filling grids. The only real changes I make are when I add new, fresh words that I want to include in a crossword. PASCO: I have a basic word list, which I haven’t maintained a lot. I’ll check that list first when I’m filling a grid, whether that’s a themed puzzle or a themeless. I try to pay attention to interesting words and phrases that come up in everyday life and I’ll add those to a list on my phone using the Notes app. Since then, I’ve probably added many thousands of words by hand. Pasco dance the grid-filling tango.ĭER: My word list originally started as a few English dictionaries combined with words that had previously appeared in crossword puzzles. In addition, making sure that those entries are interesting and fun for solvers requires the strength not to fall in love with the words the constructor finds, because many of the entries may need to be replaced along the way if a section does not work.įilling a crossword is like a dance: one step forward, two steps backward and maybe a few steps to either side. Successfully achieving all-over interlock with words and phrases, as is required in American-style crossword puzzles, is not for the faint of heart. In Part 3 of “How to Make a Crossword Puzzle,” our constructors, Kevin Der and Paolo Pasco, tackle filling the crossword puzzle, perhaps the most detailed effort in the process. In Part 1 of the series, the constructors Ben Tausig and Finn Vigeland developed the theme, and the constructors David Steinberg and Natan Last set that theme in the grid and placed the black squares in Part 2. Not only does it run in the paper seven days a week with varying degrees of complexity, but you can also complete NYT Crossword puzzles online, and there’s even a video game adaptation of it for the Nintendo DS.Īs for the crossword puzzles being “sinful”… we’ll give you a clue.DEB AMLEN: We’re making great progress on our team-built crossword puzzle. Today, the crossword has moved far beyond its primitive origins. Fun fact: He’s the only “academically accredited puzzle master” in the world, holding a degree he designed himself in “enigmatology.” It’s such a specialized degree, there’s not even an entry for it on, but it stems from the word enigma. ![]() Shortz has gained widespread notoriety since that time, taking the puzzle to higher and higher heights over the years. ![]() Will Weng and Eugene Maleska followed in her footsteps before Will Shortz took the coveted reins in 1993. Since that time, there have only been four editors of the NYT Crossword puzzle, beginning with Margaret Farrar, who served as editor from the publication of the first puzzle until 1969. By 1950, the paper began running a crossword puzzle daily. The first puzzle ran Sunday, February 15, 1942, and it was, in fact, a primitive pursuit, (’s first definition for the adjective: “Being the first or earliest of the kind or in existence”), as they were the first major US paper to run a crossword puzzle. ![]() So, what absolved the crossword puzzle in the illustrious publication’s mind and made them eat their words? Reportedly, it was after the bombing of Pearl Harbor that Lester Markel, the paper’s Sunday editor at the time, decided the country could use some levity, primitive or not. In 1924, the paper ran an opinion column that dubbed them “ a primitive sort of mental exercise.” (Here, we’re inferring they meant primitive as in “simple unsophisticated”-’s ninth entry for the adjective) and a “sinful waste.” Harsh! When crossword puzzles first came about in the 1920s, the NYT turned up its nose at them. There are plenty of crossword puzzles in publications across the country, but when we think of the pinnacle of puzzledom (Not officially a word, but, perhaps, it should be?), the purveyors of the most preeminent puzzles, we bow to The New York Times (NYT).įor more than 75 years, the NYT crossword puzzle has been stumping readers with its clever clues and then sending them soaring when they finally fill in all the squares. ![]()
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