If you do n’t relish solving crossword puzzle , your friends or coworkers , parent or grandparents might . It ’s reposeful , merriment to do alone or with a crony , andresearch showsit ’s good for your brain . push 80 eld old , The New York Timesdaily crossword in particular is an American introduction .
Strangely enough , The New York Times was the last major metropolitan everyday newspaper in the land to start acrossword . When the crossword puzzle craze gripped the United States in 1924 , the paper publically condemned the rage , publishing ascornful editorialin which it hollo crossword the " in vogue of the problems presented for answer by psychologist interested in the genial peculiarities of family and bunch . " Which was a pretty sick burning back in 1924 . Simon and Schuster published the first crossword puzzle Holy Scripture that yr , and most American newspapers started a crossword puzzle between 1924 and 1926 . The holdout of The Times might have had something to do with the fact that it had never done comedian or entertainment characteristic of any variety — the fun stuff was considered frivolous by its editors .
But the crossword had staying top executive , and at the beginning of World War II , Arthur Sulzberger , the editor of The Times , determine it was metre for the paper to initiate its own puzzler .
" The plausibly apocryphal story is that Sulzberger was timeworn of bribe the competing New York Herald Tribune to get their crossword , " says current New York Times crossword editor program Will Shortz . " It was the get-go of World War II , and it was thought that hoi polloi demand to take their minds off the grim war news . So , The Times had the right common sense to askMargaret Farrarto be the crossword editor . She had co - edit all the Simon and Schuster crossword puzzle leger going back to the very first one in 1924 . Margaret immediately raise the quality of the crossword above anyone else ’s — the intellectual quality of the puzzle , the cultural references and just the quality of the puzzle - qualification : more interesting vocabulary and freshman , more on - target definitions . "
Farrar was The Times crossword editor for 27 year , from 1942 to 1969 , and the puzzle develop a bit over that fourth dimension . At the starting time , she was given the directive that the puzzle should reflect the entropy the reviewer was pick up in the pages of the paper — so if you go back to those former puzzler , you ’ll see a fortune of war references . But Farrar thought the crossword puzzle should distract people from the rough aspect of living , which is why , over metre , she began to admit more entertainment , lit and non - news subjects .
Farrar was succeed in 1969 byWill Weng , who was the head of the Metropolitan desk at The Times before he took the job of crossword editor in chief . Weng was an onetime - fashioned news man , but had an abiding passion of crosswords — he had been create puzzles for The Times for years before he became editor program .
" His greatest innovation for The Times crossword was body fluid , " says Shortz . " He was really a funny humans and his sense of humour come through in the puzzler . Weng withdraw in 1977 and was win by Eugene T. Maleska . I ’d say the wordplay in the crossword themes became more varied and advanced under Maleska — it became more a word game than in late old age . But Maleska was a staid hombre — he had been a school superintendent in the Bronx , he lie with opera and classical medicine and his teaser had a more serious tone than Will Weng ’s . "
Shortz became crossword editor in chief in 1993 when Maleska died , and one of his goal has been to develop the puzzle — to include more current cultural credit , more up - to - date speech communication and more playful theme . And the audience has broadened under Shortz :
" It used to be you ’d believe of crosswords as being mainly for sometime hoi polloi , and I think that was true before I became editor program . I can tell how the audience has broadened just by the people who kick in to the puzzle . "
In the whole account of the teaser before Shortz became editor program , only six teenagers had drive puzzle write in The Times . In Shortz ’s 25 years as puzzle editor in chief , he has published 37 teenagers and lots of 20- and 30 - somethings . The intermediate age of contributor has come down by about 15 year — from the former 50s to the late 30s . The youngest person Shortz has issue was 13 , the old person was 101 .
" It ’s an extremely diverse group of people who make The Times crossword puzzle , " say Shortz . " It reflects The Times readership itself . "
Shortz , you might have assemble , does not construct the puzzle himself , though he does create variety puzzles — unique and new variation in crossword . Shortz and his two assistants get between 75 and 100 puzzler submission each week , which they look through , reject to take the sound ones , then edit for publication .
These days , most crossword mystifier have theme , which means the tenacious answers draw together in some interesting way . When making a puzzle , you put your root answer in a control grid first , plotting black squares around those , which divides the grid into sections , which are then filled with actor’s line . When you ’ve polished the puzzle to the right of your power , you write the clues .
The Times crossword get more difficult as the week work up : Monday is the simplest , and the puzzle ferment up the warmth a little each day until the Saturday puzzle , which can seem nigh - on impossible . The Sunday crossword puzzle is self-aggrandizing , but as far as trouble go , it ’s like a voiceless Wednesday or well-to-do Thursday . Sunday is the biggest circulation day of the week , so Shortz want to verify the crossword puzzle is approachable to the broadest possible interview .
When Shortz started his line of work in 1993 , nigh all the puzzles were created by hand on graph newspaper , and all of them were solved with a pencil ( or pen , if that ’s the fashion you roll , whizz ) . These days , most crossword builder utilise computer software to build their teaser , and mess of people puzzle out the puzzles online or electronically .
