Split Decisions, Phrase Forays, and a Couple of GrypticsPlus America's Most Creative Crosswords

By the Nation's Top Constructors

ANDTHEI{WNNERSARE,.,Weng, Hook, Cox, Rathvon, Shenk, pomerance, and Joline

by Helene Hovanec

reached their zenith of deviousness, Cox and Rathvon createapuzzle that's more cunning than ever. Their winning crypticwas, to say the least, intriguing.

The winner in the category of Best Variety puzzle is MikeShenk. Shenk's puzzle "Marching Bands" appeared in theFebruaryMarch 1990 issue of Games Magazine. Shenk, whois a contributing editor of CROSSW RD Magazine, is edi-tor-at-large at Dell Champion Puzzles and was the senioreditorof the late, but soon to be resurre cted, G amesMagazine.Shenk developed a unique format that was introduced inGames and has developed a wide following.

The Wynner for Best Crossword by a New Constructorgoes to Brenda Pomerance. Her puzzle ,.Athlete's Feat"appeared inthe October 1990 issue oi theCrossworder, s OwnNewsletter.

And the winner of the Wynner for Best Crossword in aDaily Newspaper is Nancy Joline for her puzzle in the Satur-day, October 27, edition of The New york Times. Using aminimum of obscure words, abbreviations or unconventionalwords or forms, Ms. Joline created a 58-word puzzle. Mostdally puzzles contain 72 to 80 words in a 15-by- 15 grid. Onlyone other constructor is believed to have designed apuzzlewith so few entries.

Will Weng, the former cros sword edi to r for T h e N ew y or kTimes, has won the first annual Wynner award as CrosswordPuzzle Person of the Year for 1990.

Weng, 84, was honored by the editors of CROSSW RDMagazine for his numerous contributions to the crosswordworld. During his many years with The Times,,,Will Weng',and "crossword puzzles" became virtually synonymous. Al-thoughWenghas retired from full-time editing and construct-ing, to many people Will Weng remains Mr. Crossword.

The Wynner award for the best book of 1990 goes toHenry Hook, for his Hooked on Puzzles #i. While there aremany excellent collections of crosswords published annually,Hook's collection differs from most in that he constructs allthe puzzles himself. His versatility includes crosswords,cryptics, v ariety cryptics, double crostics, rebuses (with Hook'sown artwork), spirals, number crosses, and clever originalsthat are beyond classification.

The Wynner for the best American Cryptic Crosswordgoes to Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon for meir puzzle,"Mystery Theater. " Cox and Rathvon are regular contributorsto The Atlantic Monthly, in which their winning puzzle ap-peared in June, and are also contributing editors of CROSS-W RD Magazine. Jusr when you think cryptic puzzles had

7^! rosswordiris spread rapidly throughI rheUnitedSr.atesin1924afterSimon\-rA Schusrer launched its new pub-lishing house with The Cross Word PuzzleBook.

Crosswords had been running in the NewYorkWorld since December 21, I9l3,butabookof them was anovelty. Suddenly, peoplebecame obsessed with filling in the blankson the black and white grids that seemed topop up everywhere.

Hoping for a modest. success, S & S hadinitially printed 3,600 copies, which weresnatched up immediately. Subsequent cop-ies from additional printings fared even bet-ter and by the end of the year 400,000 puzzlebooks had been purchased.

Moreover, crosswords appeared innewspapers, magazines, cartoons, editori-als, gossip columns, Broadway plays, collegecurriculums, and Sunday church services.Sales of dictionaries and thesauruses sky-rocketed and the crossword motif was evenreproduced on clothing and jewelry.

By the end of the craze it was estimatedthat there were 10 million crossword solversin the U.S. alone.

One of the people who remained immuneto the hoopla was l7-year old Will Weng."My next-doorneighbors had thefirstcross-word book," he recalled. "I would try tosolve the puzzles when I went to visit them,but they were too difficult for me. I gotalmost nowhere with them." Clues werefactual and used primary definitions:

"Legislatlve bodiest' ..Senates"

his skills on the word rebuses, anagrams,charades, and versified puz zles in AmericanBoy and other popular magazines. Eventhough he didn'thop on thecrosswordband-wagon at the outset, he did start to solve thecrosswords in the N ew Y o rk H erald Tribunein the1930s at about the same time he startedworking for its rival,T he N ew Y or kTime s, asa reporter.

After a year of covering bridge matches,testimonial dinners, and "whatever elseneeded to be reported," Weng was offered ajob as a copy reader. "The head of the deskremembered that I had had practice writingheadlines at Columbia University's SchoolofJournalism so he corralled me. I got stuckon tle desk and never went back to report-ing."

Weng credits his headline-writing expe-rience as an appropriate apprenticeship forhis puzzle-editing job, for both.require theability to condense lots of information intopithy, punchy phrases.

(Continued on Page 7)

ttPronountt

ttChoosett

..lt t

ttElecttt

Or constructors unearthed words that hadremained successfully hidden for years inobscure dictionaries:

('Albumln fromcastor-oil bean" "Ricintt

"Volubletalkativeness', .,Blether,'ttThe bow of Vishnu" ..Sarantt

Weng did solve puzzles as achild, honing

March/Aoril 1991 CROSSW RD Page 5

Wynner (from Page 5)

Weng spent 30 years on the Times copydesk, including a stint as a censor ofpressdispatches during World War II and as thehead of the metropolitan desk.

He started constructing crosswords dur-ing the 1950s when his desire for a crosswordwith jokes in it led to his willingness rodevote the necessary time to creating one. Ittook him "forever" to construct ("It was likepulling teeth"), but he finally sent the fin-ishedproduct to MargaretFarrar through theTimes interoffice mail. After he made herrequested changes it was published. Cluesincluded:

"Lament of a land-

locked marinerrt "I ong time no sedt"Penalty for

bigamy" "Two mothers-ln-law"

Weng became a regular contributor toFarrar's inventory and found his puzzlesappearing often in the daily and Sundaypapers. His "The Pun's the Thing" cross-word in 1967 broke new ground as the firstpunny Sunday puzzle with these clues:

"Large, tlresome

animals" ..Colossal boars""Subway for Bugs

Bunny,perhaps" ..Rabblttransitt,"Summonses to a

desserttt t'Mousse callst,ttRodentts

cussword" "Beaver damn,,"Where some

. animals play golP' "Publlc lynx""What author

Virginia got

as a girl" .,Wmlf utristled'

Weng's regular bylineinThe Times wasa contributing factor to his being chosen asFarrar's successor. After being namedcrossword editor in 1969 he didn't have a lotof clues as to what his responsiblities en-tailed. Weng recalled those first days in a1982 micle for The Four-Stqr Puzzler, anow-defunct offshoot of the temporarily-defunct Games Magazine: "I put tlte firstpuzzle in front of me, looked at it helplessly,and then asked myself, 'What do I do now?'Margaret Farrar had left me a couple ofpuzzles to get started with-already editedby her. These gave me an inkling of what itwas all about.

"The definition 'move through water'(for SWIM) had been changed ro 'do rhecrawl.' And 'glide on ice' (SKATE) hadbeen changed to 'emulate Hans Brinker.' So

far, so good. I now knew how to defrne swimand skate. But what about the words thatwere in front of me? I still drew a completeblank."

Weng made almost no changes for thefirst few weeks. "I tried to imitate Margaretfrom beginning to end, but it was very hardto think how other people think. Gradually,I did my own thinking, for I knew I'd have tosink or swim this way."

Soon the crosswords started to reflectWeng's witty style:

"Yuletide itinerant" ,,Caroler"

trombones"); Roman numerals ('Life be-gins atXL"); musical symbols ('Becky#');visual fill-ins (eggs, stars, flags) and one ina class all by itself, William Lutwiniak's"Spot Announcements."

Lutwiniak had used an old National Puz-zlers' League invention, the word rebus, toclue his main entries as literally-correct,abbreviated expressions:

..NE t

..ELrt

..TTrt

..ACrt

"A\T"

"End of the line""Bottom of the barrel"t'Heart of the matter""Center of attraction""Center of gravity"

Nominations for the wynner awards were open to constructors, solvers, editors,31d ryembep of the pubtc. Because many peopie received ttreir issues of volume I,Number I of CROSSW RD in December, there was insufficient time for us to receivea lar- ge quan_tity of submissions, and for us to examine all of a year's worth of puzzlesin dozens of different books, magazines, syndications, etc,

What we therefore did for the first annual Wynner awards was invite suggestionsand then reach a consensus among the editors of cnossw RD. In the award areasin which we were unable to reach a consensus, we decided not to give an award for1990. The fact that awards were named in certain categories and not in others is thusnot a.reflection.on rhe quality of the puzzles publishJd in 1990, but only upon o*inability to reach a consensus.

This excuse of insufficient time and lack of consensus will not work in 199 I . Thus.we invite your submissions throughout the year for wynners in the followimgcategories:Best Crosswotd, daily ppcr - consrrrrctarBest Crosswords, in a book or magaTine -

edilarBest Crossword, ilaily paper (yeafs work) - BestNontmswordWoilpuzh _corrsfrwcbt

How We Chose the Wynners

Be st Ameriun Crygic Crosword * consbuctarBest Ctoswotd,S utfuy ppcr (yeaf s vor*) -

edilor

egf.furnsmaybeobainedbysendingasamped,self-addressedenvelopeto:WynnerAwards, c/o CROSSW RD lvfagazine, P.O. Box 909, Bellrnore, N.y. I1710.

edilorBest Crossword, by a new consbuctorB e st C tosswotd,S wtday ppr - conslmdor

Best Crossword, in a hok or magazine -construclor

Crossword Prqfu Penon of thc ycar

During Weng's eight-year tenure, solverssaw puzzles with Arabic numbers ("76

..WHE' "The mlddle of nowherett

Weng was unprepared for the "mass mis-understanding" of the solvers. "They wereable to finish the puzzle, but they couldn'tunderstand what it was all about." Lettersflowed into rheTimes offrce and some werepublished on the Letters page. One reader,protesting that editor Will Weng threw solv-ers "a real curve ball," demanded to knowthe meanings of "all those apparently mean-ingless initials."

Weng thought that the answers were "ob-

vious," but responded diplomatically: "The

letter clues were supposed to give ttre literaldefinitions of the complete answer. Thus theclue WIIE yielded the answer 'Ttre middleof nowhere,' and the middle letters of the

(Continued on Page 9)

"Takes an ungalnlyposition"

"Old King'ssalad edict?"

"Place a statuteon the table?'

"Hand-y statute?tt"Grade B

Olymplan""One-horse city?"ttltts often starr€dtt"Place for a coup""Prolific Irish

inventortt"One with a

checkered past?"

ttSprawlst'

ttColets lawtt

"[,ay down the lad'"Rule of thumbtt

t'Demigodtt

ttTroYtt

t'Sapphirett

"Etat"

6'Pat pendlngtt

..cabrt

March/April 1991 CROSSW RD Page 7

Wynner (from PageT)

word 'nowhere' are WHE."Weng even took liberties with the dia-

gram by printing a puzzle with an extra boxappended to the top ofthe grid and answeredby "stick out like a sore thumb.', Wengrecalls no "frantic calls" or "poison-pen let-ters" from solvers about this plzzle.

Before Weng retired from Tlv Tinus tppenned a farewell column summing up thepleasure he had received during his career andinroducing his successor, Eugene T. Nfalesla

Fans again responded with letters, manyof which were printed in the paper on March20,1977. Typical of rhe warm feeling fromsolvers were tlese words: "Will Weng hasprovided eight years of perfectly splendidpuzzles-more than 3,000--managing al-ways to keep them challenging but, never,well, hardly ever, exasperating."

Actor Eli Wallach thanked Weng for allthe pleasure he had given him and expressedhis delight at often seeing his name in thepuzzle. "I never ceased to be excited when Isaw: 34 Across, Actor _ Wallach. Myname used to leap outofthepage. Italso put

me in a hallowed class with Whitney andYale, and, even at times, a Biblical prophet.,,

Weng pursued his two main hobbies-playing duplicate bridge and swimming atthe New York Attrletic Club while conrinu-ing to edit The Time.r crossword books(collections of updated puzzles from theSunday paper). He also constructed puzzlesfor Farrar's Simon & Schuster books andappeared at some puzzle competitions. Hiswitty clues and themes continued.

a

In "Wenging It" the theme was puns:"Fare for a

conductortt"Snippet of

dialoguett'(Antiquett

In "The Paper Chase" he used a newspa-per theme:

"Collector's itemt,

"Conversatlon piece',"Thing of the past"

"Behind the Times"

"Financial pagesrt

't,lewspaper income,in awaytt ..Daily bread,t

"Important

newspaper times" .,Banner days,t

In 1981 his leisure time was drasticallyreduced when two advertising executives,Nob Hovde and Jonas Gold, desiring to"bring Will Weng out of retirement," inho-duced The Crosswords Club. They offeredsubscribers four (later five) brand-new Sun-day-size puzzles edited in the inimitableWeng way. Puzzles were printed on qualitypaper and included comments on difficult ortricky clues or answers.

Gold wanted Weng to use a'.gotcha!"attitudewhenchoosinghiscomments. Wengdemurred, thinking it would be..quite un-seemly" and suggested that he confine hisremarks to "the words that gave me a littletrouble-authors I never heard of, or some-thing I didn't know much about.,,

Ownership has changed, butWeng is stillinvolved in the club, now in its tenth year,and continues to use his own experience as ayardstick for the comments. He elaborated

(Continued on Page I0)

"Like a NewYorknewqpaper investor,In away"

"Wall St. runners,In a way"

PICTURE PERFECT by shrrrey sorowayACROSS

1 Dueling memento5 Source of roe9 In this condition

13 Pasty14 Lyric poem15 Western'monster"16 Segments ol history17 Hearsay18 From scratch19 Friendship among the

paparazzi?DOWN

1 Glasses, for short2 Jeweler's unit3 You must remember this4 Takes exception lo5 Tater6 Four-bagger7 Pay homage to8 Ridicule9 _ Khan

10 Concerning a racy film?11 _ Three Livesl2 Lumberyard tools14 Evidence of error20 Duesenberg

contemporary

22232426283134

s738

3941424445464850535759

Ames and McMahonMonolithsCash inGo sightseeingGofer's jobThings to be curedNeil Young's _ NeverSleepsPrefix lor collegiate"The check is in the mail,',oftenHumiliate"_ Little Teapot"Kind of circle or tubeBoot bottomHighlanderSinger SheenaKin of etc._ ls Not a Home (1964 film)Cook the actorEbenezer's exoletiveBasics of photo develop-ing?

212527293031323335

SpookyEnding for north or soulhToupees, slangilyNautilus captain'Darn!"

Nastase of tennis fameDirector WertmullerHelps with the focusing?Hit-show sign

616364656667686970

Richard or WalterAttackRoly-_Lunch favoriteTinker-Chance middlemanFencing weaponActress LamarrSpanish muralistFender damage

363940434547495152

AccountsagCatches the scent ofArchaic verb endingLost one's footingAdministers TLCRing greatStrainerSet foot in

54555657586062

HillsideLegendary beautyThus farLittle Women characterFlu symptomBitingNegative vote

(Solution is on Page 29)? , I l t 0 1 1 2

l 3 1 4 t 5

tt 1 7 a

I l 1 z2

a3 a4 a5

a(5 a / a6 29 t0

, 1 t2 t3 ,4 J5 t6 , /,6 t9 l0 +1

+z t3 t4 15

t6 +7 {0 l9

t0 t1 )Z t3 A t5 )ti

t7 )U )9 'J

)2 )J t4

i5 i6 )7

'B i9 to

fMarch/April 1991 CROSSW RD Page 9

Wynner (from Page 9)

on Buffalo Bill Cody by explaining that he"furnished buffalo meat for train construc-tion crews in 1867 and 1868."

Re theentry"R.E. Lee"Weng noted thatthis "would have been unthinkable in theearly, unimaginative days of the crosswordp]uzzle. But a crusading editor, MargaretFarrar, expanded the puzzle to allow the useof word combinations and phrases, and inthe process added to the zest of solving."

Weng edits and constructs from his apart-ment in Manhattan. He works on puzzles fora while, goes out, returns, and compleles abatch. His philosophy is *If I can't make aclue better, I won't change it." He sendsbatches ofpuzzles to his associate, IlarriettWilson, who double-checks his material foraccuacy.

He is so "overwhelmed" with submis-sions from constructors that he has puzzlesfor the club scheduled a year and a half inadvance. After recently undergoing majorsurgery, Weng doesn't plan to edit any morebooks, but. will continue to edit the puzzlesfor The Crosswords Club.

Weng chats and corresponds with con-structors and meets several of them for lunchin Manhattan sporadically where they "al-

most never talk shop." But he has almost noconcact with subscribers and doesn't reallyknow whothey are. "Solvers aremore vocalin newspapers where there's an immediacyto the puzzle."

Barry Manilowresponded:'WillWeng

for President!'However, two well-known subscribers

became known to him in different ways.When the owners of The Crosswords Clubasked selected subscribers if their namescould be used !o promote the club (their listis confidential) singer Barry Manilow re-spondedpositively with this message: "Will

Weng for President!" And when hotel ex-ecutive Leona Helmsley's finances werebeing exposed in the press, much mentionwas made of the fact that she had used

corporate dollars to purchase a membershipin The Crosswords Club.

Weng never seemed to take his job orhimself too seriously. In the aforementionedF our-Star P wzler arttclehe talked about hisediting: "My fingers got itchy once on adefinition for NEVER NEVER LAND. Iforget what the original definition was, but Ichanged it to 'Locale for Peter Pan.'

"Afew days lateralettercame telling methat Peter Pan had only one NEVER in hisland. I hadn't read the book, and hadn'tplanned to, but I was so sure I was right thatI got a copy of the book and read it. Andnever, never was I so wrong."

And never, never does Will Weng viewthe crossword as anything but apleasurablevehicle.

When asked by an interviewer, "What isyour main aim wittr a crossword ptzzle-inother words, what is its purpose?" Wangre.plied emphatically,'Entertainmenr Any edu-cational value would be incidenal.' tr

HELENE HOVANEC, atthor of C r e ativ eCruciverbalists, is a writer and puzzle con-structor.

APT ACTRESSES by Atex vaushnACROSS

I Loose as a_6 Righetti or Brubeck

10 Electricallyversatile14 Shell-game participant?15 Ham's cousin16 Mao's main man17 Star ol Bobin Hood?19 Tugboat greeting20 Luxuriate21 'The Way"22 Metaphysical poet23 Star ot Slap Shoft26 DoctoralWork3b Korean history name31 Birdie beater32 Beatles' 'Let

_'34 Suflix37 Star ol Basket Case?41 Hearthe case42 Olive family members?ttil Unabridged44 _doble (bullfighte/s

march)46 Hit in the head47 Star ol Afterthe Fo/?52 Walking _ (elated)53 Sheared she54 Glasgow garment58 Eavesdroppingdevice59 Star ol The Sound ot

MusiC?

66 First or last name of a -

Hall-of-Fame pitcher67 Riga residents

DOWN1 Kind ol bag2 Chaplin, nee O'Neil l3 Has title to4 Go after5 NOWgoal6 Vehicle for Mr. T7 Detest8 Neckline shape9 Flub

'10 Moss Hart's autobiography11 Half of the "Basketball

Jones" team't 2 Lorna of literature13 More buttonlike?18 1and66 :Abb r .22 Bomb doing stand-up23 L'Hommeupstairs?24 Sign on tast-food row25 'That's a relief!"26 Blue-book occasion27 Pilgarlic's lack28 Like ouiche29 _-mo replay32 Peter Framplon's' l 'm _"33 Phone abbr.34 Dingdong organization?35 Take out ol the text36 Scott of legal note38 _ Hashanah39 lt'll hold water40 Solve/s shout44 Toolbox item

5556575960

61

45464748495051

54

Firth of Clyde port"lt's the _ knees!"Bookstore sectionTear-jerker?SCTV's sleazy JohnnyDweebishChubby CheckerspecialtySnerd's seat

'Have _ news for you!"

Fast timeOver dos?_-di-dahContrary-soundingsingerOut of commission

(Solution is on Page 29)

625364

65

The PGA has onelfs/buts go-betweenSergio of spaghettiwesterns fameSkinny numerals

I 0 z 3

4 5 t 6

t 8 l 9

t0 21 ,-2

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n ,2 tit t4 ]5 '6

t7 l6 l9 t0

I I +2 t3

t4 t5 t6

v ta i9 d) ) 1

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ta )Y ,U i 1

t2 t3 t4

t5 )o ) l

Page 10 CROSSW RD March/April1991