1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:07,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:11,240 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, we have a subset of folks around 3 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:14,920 Speaker 1: the office who love crosswords. It's a favorite happy hour 4 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:18,000 Speaker 1: pastime for a few of us. Solving these puzzles can 5 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:20,720 Speaker 1: be relaxing, fun to do alone or with a buddy, 6 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: and research shows that it's good for your brain and 7 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:27,720 Speaker 1: pushing eighty years old. The New York Times Daily Crossword 8 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:32,080 Speaker 1: in particular, is an American institution. Strangely enough, The New 9 00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:35,640 Speaker 1: York Times was the last major metropolitan daily newspaper in 10 00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:39,040 Speaker 1: the country to start a crossword. When the crossword puzzle 11 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:42,040 Speaker 1: craze gripped the United States in nineteen four, the paper 12 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:46,440 Speaker 1: publicly condemned the fad, publishing a scornful editorial in which 13 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:49,360 Speaker 1: it called crosswords the latest of the problems presented for 14 00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:53,680 Speaker 1: solution by psychologists interested in the mental peculiarities of mobs 15 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:57,000 Speaker 1: and crowds, which was a pretty sick burn. Back in 16 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:02,760 Speaker 1: Simon and Schoose published the first crossword puzzle book that year, 17 00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:06,279 Speaker 1: and most American newspapers started a cross word between nineteen 18 00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:09,480 Speaker 1: twenty four and nineteen twenty six. The holdout of the 19 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:11,360 Speaker 1: Times might have had something to do with the fact 20 00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 1: that it had never done comics or entertainment features of 21 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:18,360 Speaker 1: any sort. All that stuff was considered frivolous by its editors, 22 00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:22,400 Speaker 1: but the crossword had staying power, and at the beginning 23 00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:24,760 Speaker 1: of World War Two, the then editor of The Times, 24 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 1: Arthur Sulzberger, decided it was time for the paper to 25 00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:31,200 Speaker 1: start its own puzzle. We spoke with the current New 26 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:35,560 Speaker 1: York Times crossword editor Will Shortz. He said, the probably 27 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:38,880 Speaker 1: apocryphal story is that Saulsberger was tired of buying the 28 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:43,000 Speaker 1: competing New York Herald Tribune to get their crossword. It 29 00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:44,840 Speaker 1: was the start of World War Two and it was 30 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:47,120 Speaker 1: thought that people needed to take their minds off the 31 00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:50,520 Speaker 1: grim war news. So the Times had the good sense 32 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:53,960 Speaker 1: to ask Margaret Ferrar to be the crossword editor. She 33 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,639 Speaker 1: had co edited all the Simon and Schuster crossword books, 34 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:00,000 Speaker 1: going back to the very first one in four. Margaret 35 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: immediately raised the quality of the crossword above anyone else's, 36 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:07,400 Speaker 1: the intellectual caliber of the puzzle, the cultural references, and 37 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:10,960 Speaker 1: just the quality of the puzzle, making more interesting vocabulary 38 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:16,040 Speaker 1: and fresher more on target definitions. Farrar was the Times 39 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:19,320 Speaker 1: Crossword editor for twenty seven years from nineteen forty two 40 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:22,440 Speaker 1: to nineteen sixty nine, and the puzzle evolved a bit 41 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:25,040 Speaker 1: over that time. At the start, she was given the 42 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:27,760 Speaker 1: directive that the puzzle should reflect the information that the 43 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:30,200 Speaker 1: reader was picking up in the pages of the newspaper. 44 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:32,959 Speaker 1: So if you go back to those early puzzles, you'll 45 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:36,480 Speaker 1: see a lot of war references. But Farrar thought the 46 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:39,959 Speaker 1: crossword should distract people from the harsher aspects of life, 47 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:44,480 Speaker 1: which is why over time she began to include more entertainment, literature, 48 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:49,400 Speaker 1: and non news subjects. Farrar was succeeded in nineteen sixty 49 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:52,040 Speaker 1: nine by Will Wang, who was the head of the 50 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:54,519 Speaker 1: Metropolitan desk at The Times before he took the job 51 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:58,360 Speaker 1: of crossboard editor. Wang was an old fashioned newsman, but 52 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:01,640 Speaker 1: he had an abiding love crosswords. He had been creating 53 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:04,200 Speaker 1: puzzles for The Times for years before he became editor. 54 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:08,640 Speaker 1: Shorts said his greatest innovation for The Times Crossword was humor. 55 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:11,040 Speaker 1: He was a genuinely funny man, and his sense of 56 00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:14,400 Speaker 1: humor came through in the puzzles. When retired in nineteen 57 00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:18,480 Speaker 1: seventy seven and was succeeded by Eugene T. Moleska. I'd 58 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:20,560 Speaker 1: say the word play in the crossword themes became more 59 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:23,880 Speaker 1: varied and sophisticated. Under Moleska, it became more a word 60 00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:27,440 Speaker 1: game than in previous years. But Moleska was a staid guy. 61 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:30,320 Speaker 1: He had been a school superintendent in the Bronx. He 62 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:32,880 Speaker 1: loved opera and classical music, and his puzzles had a 63 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:37,520 Speaker 1: more serious tone than will Wang's. Schwartz became Crossword editor 64 00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 1: in ninetee when Moleska died, and one of his goals 65 00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:44,160 Speaker 1: has been to modernize the puzzle to include more current 66 00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:48,400 Speaker 1: cultural references, more update language, and more playful themes. And 67 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:51,880 Speaker 1: the audience has broadened under Shorts. He said, it used 68 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:53,880 Speaker 1: to be you'd think of cross words as being mainly 69 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:56,680 Speaker 1: for older people, and I think that was true before 70 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,160 Speaker 1: I became editor. I can tell how the audience has 71 00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:01,760 Speaker 1: broadened just of the people who contribute to the puzzle. 72 00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:05,560 Speaker 1: In the whole history of the puzzle, before Shorts became editor, 73 00:04:05,800 --> 00:04:08,840 Speaker 1: only six teenagers had gotten puzzles published in the Times. 74 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:12,640 Speaker 1: In Shorts's twenty five years as puzzle editor, he's published 75 00:04:12,680 --> 00:04:15,760 Speaker 1: thirty seventeenagers and lots of twenty and thirty some things. 76 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:18,760 Speaker 1: The average age of contributors has come down by about 77 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:22,160 Speaker 1: fifteen years from the early fifties to the late thirties. 78 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:25,719 Speaker 1: The youngest person Shorts has published was thirteen, and the 79 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:29,800 Speaker 1: oldest person was a hundred and one. Shorts said, it's 80 00:04:29,839 --> 00:04:32,839 Speaker 1: an extremely diverse group of people who make the Times Crossword. 81 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:37,400 Speaker 1: It reflects the Times readership itself. Shorts, you might have gathered, 82 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:40,480 Speaker 1: does not construct the puzzles himself, though he does create 83 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 1: variety puzzles, unique and new variations in crosswords. Shorts and 84 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:48,000 Speaker 1: his two assistants get between seventy five and one hundred 85 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:51,320 Speaker 1: puzzle submissions every week, which they look through call to 86 00:04:51,360 --> 00:04:55,839 Speaker 1: select the best ones, then edit for publication. These days, 87 00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:59,400 Speaker 1: most crossword puzzles have themes, which means the long answers 88 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:03,520 Speaker 1: tied together in some interesting way. When creating a puzzle, 89 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:06,960 Speaker 1: you put your theme answers in a grid, first, plotting 90 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:10,320 Speaker 1: black squares around those, which divides the grid into sections, 91 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:13,599 Speaker 1: which are then filled with words. When you've polished the 92 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:16,240 Speaker 1: puzzle to the best of your ability, you write the clues. 93 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:20,520 Speaker 1: The Time's Crossword gets more difficult as the week progresses. 94 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:23,159 Speaker 1: Monday is the simplest, and the puzzle turns up the 95 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:26,279 Speaker 1: heat a little each day until the Saturday puzzle, which 96 00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:30,000 Speaker 1: can seem nion impossible. The Sunday crossword is bigger, but 97 00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:32,960 Speaker 1: as far as difficulty goes, it's like a hard Wednesday 98 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:36,560 Speaker 1: or easy Thursday. Sunday is the biggest circulation day of 99 00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:39,120 Speaker 1: the week, so Shorts wants to make sure the crossword 100 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:43,480 Speaker 1: is accessible to the broadest possible audience. When Shorts started 101 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:47,120 Speaker 1: his job in virtually all the puzzles were created by 102 00:05:47,279 --> 00:05:49,920 Speaker 1: hand on graph paper, and all of them were solved 103 00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:52,120 Speaker 1: with a pencil or pen if that's the way you 104 00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:56,520 Speaker 1: roll hot shot. These days, however, most crossword constructors use 105 00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:59,239 Speaker 1: computer software to build their puzzles, and lots of people 106 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:04,279 Speaker 1: solve the puzzles online or otherwise electronically. Short said, you 107 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:06,640 Speaker 1: have to subscribe to solve the online version of the 108 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:09,440 Speaker 1: Times Crossword. Even if you subscribe to the printed or 109 00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:11,839 Speaker 1: online versions of the paper, you have to pay extra 110 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:15,599 Speaker 1: for it. These days, or hundred and thirty thousand people 111 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:18,839 Speaker 1: subscribed to just the crossword. It's become a significant source 112 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:21,280 Speaker 1: of income for the company, and it can be a 113 00:06:21,279 --> 00:06:24,440 Speaker 1: significant source of income for the writers. A successful cross 114 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:27,159 Speaker 1: word contributor can make between five hundred and two thousand, 115 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:30,039 Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty dollars per puzzle, depending on the 116 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:32,600 Speaker 1: day of week and how many previous puzzles they've had 117 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:40,839 Speaker 1: accepted for publication. Today's episode was written by Jesslin Shields 118 00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:43,000 Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clay. For more on this and 119 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:45,320 Speaker 1: lots of other not so puzzling topics, becasit how stuff 120 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:48,200 Speaker 1: works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I heart Radio. 121 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:50,359 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i 122 00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:53,000 Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 123 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:53,800 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.