Occasionally I go into crossword puzzle geekery here in my blog. Here’s some more.

Today’s New York Times crossword had unusually few black squares, and I wondered if it might be a record. So I checked. It turns out that it doesn’t break, but it does tie, the record for fewest black squares used in a typical daily 15×15 grid: 18 black squares. The record was set about two years ago.

Here’s the grid:

On the New York Times crossword blog, puzzle creator Joe Krozel discusses how he created the grid.

Thank you, New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz, thank you!

Q. I enjoyed the film “Wordplay,” but was a little put off by the emphasis on speed in solving the puzzle. I guess that has to be the criteria when one has a competition. Still, for me the pleasure in crosswords is in the solving, not in some stressed-out rush to fill in the puzzle as quickly as possible. When you complete a puzzle, are you always trying to do it as quickly as possible?

[Will Shortz responds:] Rushing to solve a crossword is like stuffing a fine four-course meal down your throat as fast as you can. It doesn’t make much sense. In a tournament, of course, the way to differentiate the best solvers from the rest is by their speed. In everyday solving, though, take all the sweet time you want.

I speed through Mondays and usually Tuesdays. I go more slowly the rest of the week, even though I could go faster if I really wanted. I never time myself, though. Doing crosswords isn’t about speed — it’s about enjoying yourself.

Meh. I did a few and got bored. Crosswords are much more interesting and entertaining.

Did anyone catch “The Simpsons” last night? It was all about Lisa discovering a love of crossword puzzles and entering a crossword tournament. As a crossword lover, the episode hooked me. But the most amazing moment occurred at the end.

In the last few minutes, Lisa did a crossword that happened to be yesterday’s actual New York Times crossword.

And it turned out that while that puzzle was a regular themed Sunday puzzle, it also had two independent references to last night’s episode. The letters along the northwest-to-southeast diagonal, and the first letters of every clue read in order, both had special messages from Homer to Lisa that figured into the plot of the episode and were mentioned in it. Frickin’ amazing.

Also, New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz and the creator of yesterday’s puzzle, Merl Reagle, both appeared in the episode.

Here’s how it all came about. More here.

Today’s New York Times crossword may not be a big deal except to crossword aficionados like me:

The reason it’s a big deal is because it breaks the record for the lowest number of black squares used in a regular 15×15 grid. The puzzle, by Kevin G. Der, a Stanford Ph.D. student, contains just 18 black squares. I thought there was something unusual about it when I first looked at it last night, so I counted.

The previous record of 19 squares was set by prolific crossword constructor Manny Nosowsky on March 11, 2005.

Here’s more about today’s crossword.

And here are pictures of the 100 NYT puzzles with the fewest numbers of squares. (It contains the answers, including today’s, so be careful if you plan to do today’s crossword and haven’t done it yet.)

Oh, and when I got excited about this last night, Matt rolled his eyes at me.

Yesterday I saw Wordplay, the new documentary about crossword puzzles and the people who love them, featuring Will Shortz, New York Times crossword puzzle editor, and including appearances by Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton and others. (The trailer is on the website.) Crossword nut that I am, I’d been waiting for this to open. Happily, I enjoyed it as much as I’d hoped.

Even though this is opening weekend, the theater was nearly empty – there were 10, maybe 12 people in the audience. Perhaps there’d been more people at the premiere the night before. The small number was actually great, because the director, one of the producers, and one of the cast members (Ellen Ripstein) were there to take questions after the movie was over. I asked how they got Bill Clinton to be in the movie – it turns out that on a trip to Stanford, they met someone who knows him, and he conveyed to Clinton their desire for him to appear in the movie. By the time they made their formal request to his office, he’d decided to do it.

The heart of the movie, though, isn’t the famous people, but the people who attend the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford, Connecticut. There’s Ellen Ripstein, the “Susan Lucci of crosswords”; Tyler Hinman, 21-year-old two-time tournament winner; Jon Delfin, pianist and multiple tournament winner (we get to see him performing as an accompanist at theater auditions); Trip Payne, crossword constructor and multiple winner; and others.

I was most interested to learn that Trip Payne is gay. I was familiar with his name – he occasionally has crosswords published in the Times, and he appears in Marc Romano’s 2005 book, Crossworld. The movie was the first time I’d ever seen him, though. It was odd – I was looking at him on the screen, and there was something about him that ever so slightly triggered my gaydar. So I looked at his finger – no wedding ring. Then I noticed there was a little bit of highlighting in his hair. In the next scene, we see him playing pinball with another guy. Then Trip addresses him as “dear.” Dingdingding. Then we hear that he’s Trip’s partner and that they’ve been together for a few years. They smooch. It’s cute.

I was surprised to learn that he was gay. Then I was surprised that I was surprised. The thing is, even as a gay man, I’m used to hearing about gay people in a gay-related context: gay rights, gay bars, the theater. I usually learn someone is gay before I know anything else about them. So it was cool to learn about someone being gay in the context of crossword-puzzle enthusiasm, of all things. It’s like when I was younger and I used to think pessimistically that there was nobody else like me. Then suddenly there was.

The first audience member to speak after the movie told the director that he hates crosswords even though his girlfriend and his ex-wife were both crossword fans. But he said he loved the movie, because he used to be a prizefighter and he felt that the movie captured the same sense of excitement and competition that he used to experience in the ring. It was a great comment – the director loved it.

Anyway, Wordplay is highly entertaining. I may have to attend the tournament next year. But I have a feeling attendance is going to be WAY up after this movie.

This past week I read a new book, Crossworld: One Man’s Journey into America’s Crossword Obsession. While I don’t think very many Americans have a crossword obsession, I have one, at least when it comes to the New York Times crossword, which I do religiously. (My favorites are the hard ones, Thursday through Saturday.)

It was a flawed but enjoyable book (here’s the first chapter), and it prompted me to take a step toward something I’ve always wanted to do: construct my own crossword. It’s been a mini-goal of mine to someday get a crossword published under my name in the Times, so I may as well start trying. Plus, it’s just fun.

I found and read some great crossword-constructing tips from constructor Tyler Hinman, and I’ve already begun making a puzzle. I’ve come up with a punnish theme and several theme entries, but my fill doesn’t seem to be working so far, so I might have to reposition the theme entries and start again.

This is something I’m doing for the sheer enjoyment of it, and it feels good.

Today’s New York Times crossword, by Manny Nosowsky, sets a new record for the fewest number of black squares in a regular 15×15 crossword grid: 19. The previous record, 20, was set by Joe DiPietro in 2001; before that, the record had been 21, set by the above-mentioned Manny Nosowsky in 2000.

I wonder how long until this one gets broken.

The word “GAYDAR” appears in today’s New York Times crossword. The clue is “Special intuition, in modern lingo.” It took me a while to figure out the answer.

Nice one.

Update 4/15/05: My website is getting a lot of Google hits today for “special intuition modern lingo.” Was there a news article or something? If you come across this page through such a search, can you drop me an email to tell me why you were looking for the phrase? Thanks…

One of my anal-retentive habits is that I must do the New York Times crossword puzzle every day. Seven days a week. I haven’t missed one in months. If I don’t get a chance to do a particular day’s paper, I save it for the next day. Sometimes I let them pile up and have to do three or four of them in a night. I pride myself on (usually) finishing the Friday and Saturday crosswords, the hardest puzzles of the week. (Not that it’s easy; I usually do the Saturday puzzle for a while, set it aside, and come back to it a few times before finishing it.) Oddly, New York Times crossword puzzle editor (and former Games Magazine editor) Will Shortz is, like me, a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. Maybe there’s a career for me yet.

Anyway, to acknowledge the “web” in “weblog,” here are some cruciverbalist links.

New York Times Crossword Reference
The Cru
Ray Hamel’s site
Cruciverb.com

Have fun.

I’m at the end of a four-and-a-half-day vacation. I had today off for Columbus Day, and I took Thursday afternoon and all of Friday off as well. It’s all gone by way too fast.

Matt has a really good post about what we did on Saturday. It’s true, Matt needs a little help with chopsticks… but he did get the food into his mouth, so I think that counts as a success.

I also got to see Matt use his PDA a lot, and it only made me want one even more. I spent several hours yesterday researching PDAs online. I found a Sony Clié comparison chart and a Palm comparison chart, and there’s also the T-Mobile Sidekick, which seems amazingly cool. I could tool around Manhattan, stop into a coffee shop, and IM with my friends. Amazon.com is offering a great rebate on them right now.

But I’m also thinking, if I get one of these, will I really use it? I don’t know. Maybe I should just get a low-end Palm or Clié to start. I’m also thinking, maybe instead of a new gadget I should get a new bed. I have a cheap mattress, and hey, you spend a third of your life in bed, so if we’re talking about value per dollar spent, that would be lots of value.

Other things I did this weekend:

– Saw the doctor again. Even after a 30-day course of antibiotics, I’m still having issues, although not quite as bad as before. Apparently there’s no more bacteria — just residual inflammation. So I’m taking an anti-inflammatory drug, and apparently it might take another week or two until I’m completely better. They still don’t know what caused it — apparently doctors don’t know a whole lot about the prostate. This isn’t all that fun when it flares up — I’m tired of it already. Hopefully it will be over soon.

– Bought Will Shortz’s Favorite Crossword Puzzles, and I’ve done about a third of them already. I enjoy the New York Times daily crossword, so I figured, why look forward to just one per day when I can curl up at home and do as many of them as I want? Will Shortz, the New York Times crossword editor, is a hero of mine: like me, he has a law degree from the University of Virginia, but unlike me, he enjoys what he does, and his career has nothing to do with the law. It just goes to show what you can do with a law degree.

– Bought Tend Skin, which supposedly works wonders for ingrown hairs and razor bumps. Shaving is really hard on my neck, and I hope this helps.

God, I’m usually not this consumeristic. (I’m not even sure if that’s a word.) But I guess we all go through phases.

Puzzled

Apparently the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is this weekend. Among other things, the official website has a short biography of its director, Will Shortz (he’s also the editor of the New York Times crossword); a sample tournament puzzle; and a Brief History of Crossword Puzzles. Enjoy.