“On December 21, 1913, Arthur Wynne, a journalist from Liverpool, England, published a “word-cross” puzzle in the New York World that embodied most of the features of the genre as we know it. This puzzle is frequently cited as the first crossword puzzle, and Wynne as the inventor. Later, the name of the puzzle was changed to “crossword”.”
Here is that first puzzle:
I used to do a few puzzles, but that was a very long time ago and clearly I have lost any skill in that area as I had little luck with this puzzle. I suppose Doper crossword experts would obviously know off the top of their head a 3 letter word for the fibre of the gomuti palm… Not me.
Interesting. Thanks for posting that. It took me about 15 minutes to solve it. I wasn’t really confident my solution was 100% correct, because there were several words I had never heard before doh, neip, and tane, and (in this sense) sere. I still haven’t found doh in any ordinary dictionary and I looked in the OED, the Century Dictionary, and the famous 1913 Webster’s. It does appear in this dictionary of commercial products For those interested, there is a solution here
I have never seen the point in “quick” (non cryptic) crosswords. Cryptic ones, on the other hand, are uniquely satisfying, but don’t seem to be popular in America.
The better edited ones are quite fun (like the NY Times is pretty much my gold standard for well-edited, fun crosswords.) By “well edited” I mean the nature of the clues is such that it is not mostly of the “find a synonym” type, but rather more cleverly worded that require lateral thinking or strict attention to possible punnery, and that the answers generally avoid crosswordese, include pop culture references and current news, and have fun twists.
Meanwhile, cryptics drive me absolutely insane. I never could get the hang of them, even going through several tutorials that walks you through the different kinds of clues and the thinking involved in them.
