Take us through an interesting, unusual, or finicky process you have in place at work. So I can look up previous clues to answers and, if possible, avoid repeating them. The website contains every New York Times crossword answer and clue back to the first Times puzzle in 1942. Will working on a puzzle (Photo: Courtesy of Will Shortz) What’s your favourite shortcut or hack? A computer at the side is for typesetting the Times puzzles as well as corresponding with contributors. My desk is surrounded by dictionaries and other references. I have a second-floor home office, looking out on a quiet suburban neighbourhood with hills and trees. I know my books so well that it’s often easier to look something up in a book than to do an internet search. What’s your workspace setup like? In some cases books are more accurate than websites besides. But I know my books so well that it’s often easier and faster to look something up in a book than to do an internet search. Nowadays, of course, most information can be found online, and I spend a lot of time on the internet. I have hundreds of references on almost every subject you can think of. What apps, gadgets, or tools can’t you live without? I don’t think any other puzzle in the country goes through such rigorous editing and testing before publication. All together, ten test solvers see every Times crossword before publication. They all call or write in with their comments and corrections.
#Hobby of nytimes crossword editor will shortz pdf#
Basically, I don’t use any clue that my assistant and I don’t both like.Īfter each puzzle is edited and typeset, a pdf is sent to a group of test solvers, one of whom rechecks every word and fact after us. Altogether we changed about 60 per cent of the contributors’ clues.
That’s appropriately challenging for a Sunday Times puzzle, while still being on target and fair. We changed it to “Anchor, e.g.” - as in the anchor leg of a race. For LEG the contributor proposed “Something to stand on,” which we felt was obvious and not particularly clever.
We changed it to “Business that has cut prices.” We felt that had nice misdirection, while still being accurate and fair. I don’t think any other puzzle in the country goes through such rigorous editing and testing before publication.įor example, for the answer SALON, the contributor suggested the clue “Business that really blows?” That seemed nonsensical, besides being a little rude. The theme was clever and the fill was excellent, but most of the clues were either too easy, too ordinary, too obscure (involving trivia that made me go “Who cares?”), unclear, or not good for some other reason. The Sunday crossword, unfortunately, required a lot of work. We edited a Sunday crossword, a Sunday variety puzzle page, and two weekday puzzles (Monday and Tuesday). Will’s office (Photo: Will Shortz) Take us through a recent workday. For the past 25 years I’ve been at the Times.
For 15 years I was an editor (and eventually the editor) of Games magazine. I hold the world’s only college degree in Enigmatology, the study of puzzles, which I earned through the Individualized Major Program at Indiana University (1974). I started making puzzles when I was 8 or 9 and sold my first one professionally at 14. One word that best describes how you work: Playfulness First of all, tell us a little about your background and how you got to where you are today. He talked to us about his custom college degree, showed us his editing desk, and named the website that stores every Times crossword answer in history.Ĭurrent gig: Crossword editor, The New York Times Shortz gave us a detailed look into the editing process for a Times crossword, which involves rewriting about half the clues. He’s also the founder of the World Puzzle Championship, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, and owner of the Westchester Table Tennis Center. As editor of the daily New York Times crossword, he has worked on every puzzle since 1993. Will Shortz is the most prestigious name in crosswords.
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