Word: shortz
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Dates: during 1998-1998
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...Shortz, who boasts a degree in "enigmatology" from Indiana University, a special concentration he says is historically unique, has been responsible for bringing up to date what many perceived as a stodgy puzzle. He began adding in clues from television (He's from Ork) and pop culture (Singer Sonny____) with the more traditional references to the Apostles and the dates of Nero's reign. Shortz explains his perspective on the crossword's evolution: "In the early days, puzzles were just words in a grid, definitions were basically out of a dictionary--bookish sounding. Today's puzzles usually have themes, generally...
...every crossword puzzle is deserving of such epic compliments as those lavished above. In discussing "the crossword puzzle," I am thinking specifically about a particular puzzle which is the standard of all solvers, that published in the New York Times. According to the Times's puzzle editor, Will Shortz, the Times first published a Sunday crossword in 1942--the last of the big general interest newspapers to do so--and began the daily puzzle in 1950. He credits the ironic success of the late-arriving Times's puzzle to the newspaper's current status and to the innovations...