Crossword puzzle

“ Solving a cross word puzzle offers numerous enjoyments of which the uninitiated are ignorant. There is the pure esthetic stimulation of looking at the pattern with its neat black and white squares, like a floor in a cathedral or a hotel bathroom; there is the challenge of the definitions, titillating the combative ganglion that lurks in all of us; there is the tantalizing elusiveness of the one little word that will satisfactorily fill a space and give clues to others that we know not of ”

“ This deep-rooted appeal explains the extraordinary popularity of the book. When we announced in one of our early advertisements that “people do not want this book—they crave it!” we had actual proof to support this statement—frenzied fans storming the publishers’ office to get extra copies in order “to keep peace in the house.”
Six weeks after the publication of the first Cross Word Puzzle Book—May 18th, to be precise—the Cross Word Puzzle Association of America was formed at a convention at the Hotel Ambassador, New York. ”

“ You would accept groggy or fickle. Now apply this system to the solution of a puzzle.
The definitions of the words are shown in two divisions: one division is captioned Horizontal, the other Vertical. Before each definition is a number which indicates that the word defined has its first letter in the square of the same number on the pattern. For example, in the puzzle on the jacket of this book (which is Number 1 in the book itself) , we see under Horizontal, “1. stout.” This means that the word is read horizontally and starts in the space numbered “1” on the pattern. The answer is “plump.” ”

“ There are many ingenious mechanical puzzles that you cannot classify, as they stand quite alone: there are puzzles in logic, in chess, in draughts, in cards, and in dominoes, while every conjuring trick is nothing but a puzzle, the solution to which the performer tries to keep to himself. ”

“ Our sole objection to abbreviations is that they cannot be defined without practically telling what they are. Parts of the verb “to be”; prepositions; the Egyptian Sun God, Ra; Pi, em, ma, pa, i.e., e.g., so, to, go, do, are to be found in almost every cross word puzzle, and the solver gets heartily tired of them. So the better patterns avoid these two word spaces. The three letters words contain some old favorites, too. Eel, emu and gnu are among the most popular. It seems that almost nine-tenths of the puzzles we look at have a “snake-like fish” wriggling in them somewhere. ”

“ And the puzzle which that boy accidentally discovered is now in all the old puzzle books.
Puzzles can be made out of almost anything, in the hands of the ingenious person with an idea. Coins, matches, cards, counters, bits of wire or string, all come in useful. An immense number of puzzles have been made out of the letters of the alphabet, and from those nine little digits and cipher, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0.
It should always be remembered that a very simple person may propound a problem that can only be solved by clever heads—if at all. ”

“ Have the youngsters join the happy throngs of Cross Word puzzle fans! Here is a book which will captivate and stimulate them.
It begins with small three-square cross word formations, alphabetically arranged, accompanied by definitions that the average youngster will understand and enjoy.
Gradually, the puzzles, which are printed in color, become larger and more difficult, thus giving the children an excellent opportunity to improve their minds while they are having the time of their lives. ”

“ The great public following goes to the Cross Word Puzzle, which is an expanded word form in which, commonly, only dictionary words are allowed. It is this simplicity of words, together with its larger and more elaborate construction, that makes it irresistible to the casual puzzler. A cross word square, or other geometric figure, is a logical modern development of the ancient word square. The insertion of black spaces permits it to be made of any size and gives an interesting variety of inner construction. ”

“ It is extremely difficult, in the construction of cross word puzzles, to avoid the use of such “unkeyed” letters, and effort has been used to ensure the presence of common words where more than one letter is unkeyed; but the exigencies of construction will not always allow this. Nor should it always be done; allowance must be made for erudition on the part of the solver. ”

“ Puzzle No. 121 A ROSE WITH A THORN OR TWO
By Alfred A. Wicklund
Conscience compels the editors to warn the solver of several troublous words lying unobtrusively among a collection of pleasant and easily diverting ones. But that is the delight of cross word puzzling. The solver likes a little pain mixed with his pleasure. ”

“ If you are hopelessly stuck, try another puzzle. Inspiration sometimes waits for a return engagement.
A pleasant feeling of something attempted, something done, accompanies the solution of a cross word puzzle. It’s good for the inferiority complex. ”

“ If any solver had been asked, before he took [3] up cross words, to give offhand the name of Egypt’s sun-god, a three-letter word meaning island, a four-letter word for handbag, the name of a large Australian bird, or the sash affected by the ladies of cherry-blossom land, it is odds but that he would have been reduced to stammering evasions. But even a tyro at the glorious game can now rattle off by rote the words Ra, Uit, Etui, Moa, Obi. In running down the definitions of a new puzzle it is not the household words that set him scribbling frantically, but such old friends as the above. ”

“ My next move is to start working on that part of the puzzle where I have filled in the largest number of words, because it is there that I have the greatest number of hints. If I strike a snag I immediately take up my work in some other place. And so I work my way around to completion.
Some people obtain excellent results by another method. They first do all the horizontal words which quickly come to [8] mind. And then all the vertical. Thus they get an excellent start from which to work. Some solvers use the system of building up from the first word which they can guess. ”

“ The practical usefulness of puzzles is a point that we are liable to overlook. Yet, as a matter of fact, I have from time to time received quite a large number of letters from individuals who have found that the mastering of some little principle upon which a puzzle was built has proved of considerable value to them in a most unexpected way. Indeed, it may be accepted as a good maxim that a puzzle is of little real value unless, as well as being amusing and perplexing, it conceals some instructive and possibly useful feature. ”

“ Take two pieces of string or tape, and round the wrists of two persons tie the string, as shown in Fig. 19. It adds to the amusement of the puzzle if one of the persons is a lady and the other a gentleman. The puzzle is for them to liberate themselves, or for any one else to release them without untying the string. To do this, B makes a loop of his string pass under either of A's manacles, slips it over A's hands, and both will be free. ”

“ The spread eagled “X” seems to be one of the most natural ways of disposing blacks in a cross word puzzle. Do you know, by the way, that some of the most fascinating problems in cross word puzzling lie in the difficulty and ease involved in the various designs of the blacks. ”

“ The publishers and editors of the Cross Word Puzzle Books wish to record the debt of all Cross Word fans to The New York World for its pioneer work in the field. Cross Word Puzzles have been run in the Sunday World for over twenty years and their present nation-wide vogue had its origin in and received its greatest impetus from the Puzzle Page of the Sunday World Magazine. The fifty cross word puzzles in this book are all entirely new and have never been printed before in any publication. ”

“ The cross word solver becomes a collector, a connoisseur of words. They lose, to him, their mundane purpose of a suitable medium for the exchange of thoughts, and take on an esoteric significance, akin to the appeal of slip-ware to the collector of pottery or the three-cornered Mauritius to the philatelist. ”

“ Although we should always observe the exact conditions of a puzzle we must not read into it conditions that are not there. Many puzzles are based entirely on the tendency that people have to do this.
The very first essential in solving a puzzle is to be sure that you understand the exact conditions. Now, if you divided your square in half so as to produce Fig. 35 it is possible to cut it into as few as three pieces to form a Greek cross. ”

“ First a fad, then a best seller, the Cross Word Puzzle Book became an American institution, immortalized in cartoons by Briggs, prose-epics by Bob Benchley, and ballads by F. P. A. [2]
Ordinary books are meant to be read. Here is a book in which one writes—more than that, a book in which one has the supreme satisfaction of unravelling a real mystery, tracking down clue after clue. ”

“ It should be noted again that it would have been much easier to locate the cuts in the reverse puzzle of cutting the cross to form a half-square triangle.
Another ideal that the puzzle maker always keeps in mind is to contrive that there shall, if possible, be only one correct solution. Thus, in the case of the first puzzle, if we only require that a Greek cross shall be cut into four pieces to form a square, there is, as I have shown, an infinite number of different solutions. ”

“ It will be seen that every one of these puzzles has its reverse puzzle—to cut a square into pieces to form a Greek cross. But as a square has not so many angles as the cross, it is not always equally easy to discover the true directions of the cuts. ”

“ If you have never solved a cross word puzzle before, this one might be good for a starter. Captain Stewart displays an admirable taste for simple words, even though he must have his black squares to get them. ”

“ A puzzle is something to be done or solved by the individual. For example, if it were possible for us so to master the complexities of the game of chess that we could be assured of always winning with the first or second move, as the case might be, or of always drawing, then it would cease to be a game and would become a puzzle. Of course among the young and uninformed, when the correct winning play is not understood, a puzzle may well make a very good game. ”

“ A puzzle is defined as 'something which perplexes or embarrasses; a difficult problem or question; hence a toy, contrivance, question or problem designed for testing ingenuity; as a cross word puzzle.' Webster's New International Dictionary. A jigsaw picture puzzle comes squarely within this definition-'a contrivance * * * designed for testing ingenuity.' None of the articles specifically named in the statute and used in games is a contrivance designed for testing ingenuity. ”

“ Puzzle No. 135 SAFE AND SANE
By “Old Nick”
Many puzzlers will find an ideal example of what a Cross Word should be. In design, interlock, words and definitions it is very near to perfection. Constructors can learn a thing or two here. ”

“ I have already said that the ideal solution to a cutting-out puzzle is always that which requires the fewest possible pieces. We have just seen that two crosses of the same size may be cut out of a square in five pieces. The reader who succeeded in solving this perhaps asked himself: "Can it be done in fewer pieces?" ”

“ CARD PUZZLE.
An entertaining little puzzle with cards is to take the nine cards of a suit, from ace to nine inclusive, and arrange them in the form of the letter "T," as shown in the illustration, so that the pips in the horizontal line shall count the same as those in the column. In the example given they add up twenty-three both ways. Now, it is quite easy to get a single correct arrangement. The puzzle is to discover in just how many different ways it may be done. Though the number is high, the solution is not really difficult if we attack the puzzle in the right manner. ”

“ Into the construction goes the word, and the puzzle is finished. Observe that the constructor had no desire to introduce this exotic syllable; he did not even know that there was such a word in any language. If he could have written “tic,” or “tie,” or “tin,” or “tip,” or “tis,” or “tit,” he would have done so. But “til” was his sole refuge, and the Unabridged bore him nobly out. Thus, says the constructor, why should the solver rage when he discovers “sesame” among the definitions? Let him try to make one himself, etc., etc. ”

“ How are good puzzles invented? I am not referring to acrostics, anagrams, charades, and that sort of thing, but to puzzles that contain an original idea. Well, you cannot invent a good puzzle to order, any more than you can invent anything else in that manner. Notions for puzzles come at strange times and in strange ways. They are suggested by something we see or hear, and are led up to by other puzzles that come under our notice. It is useless to say, "I will sit down and invent an original puzzle," because there is no way of creating an idea ”

“ When this knight was called on to propound a puzzle, he said to the company, "This riddle a wight did ask of me when that I fought with the lord of Palatine against the heathen in Turkey. In thy hand take a piece of chalk and learn how many perfect squares thou canst make with one of the eighty-seven roses at each corner thereof." The reader may find it an interesting problem to count the number of squares that may be formed on the shield by uniting four roses. ”