You Are Never Too Old to Construct a Crossword
“I’m always impressed by how young some people are when they have their first puzzle published in The New York Times. At the other end of the spectrum, my sister and I are longtime crossword enthusiasts and aspiring constructors, but likely won’t have time to engage with this aspiration for years yet, as we currently care for both children and parents, as well as meeting all the other responsibilities of living a productive adult life and ideally contributing something of value to society. Which leads to our question: What is the oldest age at which someone has had a first puzzle published in The New York Times? We’re wondering if maybe we can set a new record for that!” — Audrey from Seattle From Christina: The New York Times doesn’t have public data on the ages of constructors, so I can’t answer this question definitively. However, the crossword resource XWord Info has a list of the oldest Times constructors by their age when they published their most recent puzzle. The list is a work in progress, so it’s possible that there are holes in the data, but the birth dates and publication dates are verified. It’s based on the research of Philip Koski, a crossword constructor and hobby genealogist who has used tools like Ancestry.com to track down the ages of published constructors, especially prolific constructors from the 1940s to the 1990s. I reached out to him over email to hear a little more about his research. While doing research on prolific constructors of the mid-20th century, Philip noticed a constructor, Reginald Johnson, who was nearly 93 years old when he published a puzzle. Philip wondered whether that was a record — it wasn’t! The question led him to compile a list of the oldest known Times crossword constructors. After the list was published online, a few people reached out to Jim Horne, who runs the website, to let him know of their own ages so they could be added to the list. If you’re curious, Bernice Gordon holds the record for oldest constructor to have a puzzle published, at the age of 100. She published her first puzzle at 39, and went on to publish 147 puzzles in her career. Most of the constructors on the list have published dozens of puzzles, and were much younger at the time of their debut than at the time of their most recent publication. I used this list to deduce that the oldest constructor to make a debut in The Times was Joe O’Neill, who was 81 years old when his first puzzle was published. Joe’s puzzle just happens to be one of my favorites of all time! I emailed Joe to see if he had any advice for older constructors trying to break into the crossword industry, and he wrote, “The idea for my NYT debut, a goofy play on Frost’s lovely ‘Stopping by Woods …,’ came to me while hiking a nearby forest during a snowfall. I wouldn’t, however, recommend that elderly newbies rely on such inspiration only. My ideas for others that I’ve published all came to me while solving NYT, WSJ, LAT and New Yorker puzzles. But the most important characteristic or resource I drew upon was patience. The NYT rejected dozens of mine before I got one published.” Next week I’ll talk more about the youngest published constructors on record.
Solve Friday’s Crossword on Easy Mode!
For expert hints on today’s puzzle, read the Wordplay column. Were you able to solve the Friday puzzle with Easy Mode? We want your input! Share your experience with us by email. Easy vs. HardIn today’s puzzle, 4-Down has the clue [Things that come with waffles?]. This isn’t talking about food that is served with waffles, but rather words that might accompany someone who is waffling over a decision. For Easy Mode, I went with [Hosp. areas with triage centers], which defines the entry as an abbreviation rather than a word.
How are we doing? Thanks for playing! Subscribe to New York Times Games. If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can sign up to receive it regularly here. P.S. The answer to Easy vs. Hard is ERS.
|
