![]() It was Margaret Farrar (originally an editor for Simon & Schuster, later the first puzzle editor for The New York Times) who came up with the basic rules for American crosswords to weed out the grids that she deemed were too easy to make:ฤก. The craze was so out of hand that editors were swamped with so many crappy submissions, they simply didn't have time to wade through the slush pile. They popped up everywhere (much like sudoku a couple years back), and the public's thirst couldn't be quenched. The first-ever wave crossword-mania came in the 1920s. And despite the fact that trailblazing puzzlemakers have tried to modernize the puzzle every decade, the original rules remain sacrosanct. What's also intriguing is that the basic list of "rules" involving construciton were set in place fairly quickly. (Sidebar, I believe that the reason sudoku remains so successful is that it too shares the once-you've-heard-the-oh-so-easy-to-understand-rules-you-can-solve-every-one-of-them parameters.) So astonishingly simple, it's hard to believe she hasn't been around forever.Yet within these very strict rules, a whole vast universe of variety exists. The basic rules are simple: here's the clues for all the entries going across, and there's the clues for all the down words. She stays young because she's one of, if not the most, versatile puzzle out there. Coulda fooled me, she doesn't look a day over 25. Just a quick belated Happy Birthday to the crossword - she turned 95 years-young yesterday. ![]()
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