[ Man ] What's a crossword tournament? Most people don't know.
[ Man #2 ] Give me spaces that need to be filled in, and I wanna fill them in.
[ Man #3 ] This is the longest-running crossword puzzle tournament in the world...
and there's nothing like coming here for a good snowy weekend.
Well, Will is the progenitor. He started the whole thing.
Without Will, there never would have been a tournament like this.
[ Man #4 ] Everything leads up to the tournament, because there's one of these a year.
There aren't too many people my age who do crosswords at all, let alone as fast as I do them.
It's sort of utter panic. Each puzzle, I think, ''Oh, my God. What if I can't do this?
What if I make a mistake? What if I leave something out?''
[ Man ] Is everyone ready?
On your mark, get set, go.!
[ Man Singing ] ''Adjectives on the typewriter''
''He moves his words like a prizefighter''
'' The frenzied pace of the mind inside the cell''
'' The man on the street mightjust as well be''
'' The man on the street mightjust as well''
'' The man on the street mightjust as well be''''
[ Woman ] All right, here we go. From the beginning.
From NPRNews, this is Weekend Edition.
I'm Liane Hansen, andjoining us is puzzle master Will Shortz.
- Hi, Will. - Hi, Liane.
My name's Will Shortz. I'm the crossword editor of the New York Times.
When you're in grade school, you take aptitude tests...
to find out what you're good at and what you want to do in life.
I remember- This would have been fourth, fifth or sixth grade.
I took this test, and, when I was done, I turned over the paper...
and looked through the list of professions to find out how I scored in that category.
And not surprisingly, puzzle maker was not one of their listed professions.
[ Hansen ] Now, are you a puzzle player?
[ Man On Phone ] Uh,yeah. I'm an avid Scrabble player...
and I like word games and puzzles.
I'm blessed to work for the two greatest news organizations in the country-
The New York Times and National Public Radio.
And I know that whatever puzzle I throw out there...
for an intelligent, cultured audience...
is gonna be understood and appreciated by them, and they're my kind of people.
[ Hansen ] Daniel, it's time to meet Will, and it's time for everyone to play.
Well, Daniel, I'm gonna name some categories.
For each one, name something in that category...
that begins with the same first two letters as the category.
For example, if I said Planets, you might say Pluto.
Number one is Auto Makes.
- [ Daniel ] Auto- Uh, Auto Makes. Audi. - Audi. Excellent.
Well, of course, I've spent my whole life on puzzles.
I've been making puzzles since, uh, I was eight or nine.
And I sold my first one when I was 1 4.
When I was a kid, I used to joke about majoring in puzzles when I got to college.
Well, I was lucky enough to go to Indiana University.
And if you're accepted, you can major in anything you want.
I found this old-fashioned word called ''enigmatology''...
that was in the unabridged dictionaries...
and I convinced the people that puzzles were a serious field of academic inquiry.
I devised an entire curriculum for myself in puzzles.
I figured from the beginning that it would mean a life of poverty...
because puzzles don't pay much.
But I wanted to do puzzles so badly, I was willing to live in poverty to do it.
Excellent. Capitals of States.
- [ Daniel ] Um, Carson City. - Oh, that was good.
Snow White's Dwarfs.
- Oh, boy. Uh... - [ Chuckling ]
- Snoopy? Is that one of them? - No, not Snoopy. No.
[ Hansen, Laughing ] Snappy's not one of them either.
So when I took over thejob at the Times in 1 993...
I thought I really understood puzzle solvers.
It's addressed to ''Mr. Will Shortz, the smartass crossword puzzle hero.''
''This one last Saturday was ridiculous.''
''You should be hanged by your cojones for this Monday puzzle.''
'' Give me a break.'' ''I couldn't solve it even with the answers in front of me.''
''Dear Sir or Madam.''
''It's Monday, Mr. Shortz, not Friday.''
''This is both idiotic and completely unfair.''
''This kvetching thing that's going on- I can't seem to get a grasp on it.''
''Who in the hell ever heard of three letters in a single box?''
''The kvetchers cry: 'Oy vey'? I don't get it.''
''How is it used? Is it a Northern thing?''
''Frogs hop, sir, but toads do not. They waddle.''
''You have managed to take all the fun out of it. Congratulations.''
''No wonder William F. Buckley stopped doing these puzzles.''
''You are sick, sick, sick indeed. Sincerely''-
The best part of the week for me is reading the mail.
''P.S. You're sick, sick, sick.''
Hearing from sobbers is the best part of the job.
You don't do this for the money or for anything else.
Those are all secondary things.
The biggest thing is to stretch people's brains and bring joy to their lives.
[ Man ] ''La-la-la la-la la-la''
''Auctioned again.'' Come on.
You tryin' to trick me so I have to think about ''auction''?
But it's not really about that. It's just about selling, isn't it?
My name is Jon Stewart, and I tell dumb jokes for money.
To-do. Come on! To-do!
I am a, uh-a Times puzzle fan.
I will solve in a hot- a hotel a USA Today...
uh, but I don't feel good about myself when I do it.
Uh, you feel like you're doin' one of them circle things...
where you find the word when you're on a plane.
''These are all flowers.'' Uh-huh.
So, uh, the Times puzzle is the one for me.
''Asps.'' Come on, Shortz! Bring it!
''Pileup''!
When you imagine crossword guy, you imagine he's 1 3 to 1 4 inches tall...
uh, doesn't care to go more than five feet without his inhaler.
And yet, uh, he's a giant man.
He's the Errol Flynn of crossword puzzling.
But meeting him in person, I definitely thought...
''Geez, I was planning on taking your lunch money...
but now I believe you could best me in a physical joust, if you will.''
So I, uh- I backed off immediately.
I- I respect, uh, very much those that create the puzzles.
I don't know- I don't know how they do it.
Quite frankly, I don't know why they do it.
[ Man ] ''Dunkin'Donuts. ''
Put the ''D''at the end, you get ''unkind donuts. ''
Which I've had a few of in my day.
[ Woman Chattering ]
My name is Merl Reagle. I'm a syndicated crossword puzzle constructor.
[ Shortz ] Merl is a great guy. We've been friends for years.
He's like me in many ways.
He was a puzzle head from when he was a child.
He started making crosswords when he was in his teens.
Normally I'm either thinking of puzzles...
or cluing them here or cluing them there...
or thinking of themes for puzzles.
Noah's Ark right there.
You switch the ''S'' and the ''H'' around, and that's ''No, a shark.''
And hopefully, there is part of the day available...
for me to actually do normal things with the people I love.
Every crossword is a collaboration between the puzzle maker and the editor.
I get 60 to 75 puzzles submitted to me every week.
So,you know, I go through the mail and pick out the ones that I like best.
On average, about half the clues in the Times crossword are my own.
And I change clues, first of all, for accuracy...
and as a matter of style- New York Times style.
But I'm also making the clues fit the intended level of difficulty.
So if I've determined something is a Monday puzzle...
I'm gonna try to make all easy clues.
If I've determined this is a Friday or a Saturday puzzle...
I'm gonna try to make everything challenging.
[ Reagle ] When crossword puzzles had begun in 1 9 1 3...
they eventually got so popular that an editor had to be hired to do it every week.
Margaret Farrar wanted to do real journalistic things in her life...
but she was told, okay,you have to edit the crossword puzzle from now on...
which she didn't want to do.
So she finally thought, okay, I'll sit down and actually do this.
And by doing that over the course of a couple of years, she standardized puzzles.
It's amazing what we still use today from those days.
The rule about one sixth of the diagram can be black squares.
The fact that it's all-over interlocked.
You can't have little islands of words separated from everything else.
No two-letter words.
Symmetry- the fact that if you turn a crossword puzzle upside-down...
the arrangement ofblack squares stays the same.
And there's word-choice rules.
You can't use, usually, bodily functions in puzzles, you know.
''Urine'' would bail me out of a corner a million times a year.
Same with ''enema.'' ''Enema''- talk about great letters.
But you gotta keep those words out of puzzles...
because it doesn't pass the ''Sunday morning breakfast''test.
I mean, there are people solving, on Sunday morning, the big Sunday puzzle.
They've waited all week for this.
They're sitting there relaxing, and here comes, you know-
''Rectal''? I don't think so.
As a result of these rules, she became, like, the first lady of crosswords.
When the New York Times decided to start running a crossword puzzle in 1 942...
she was the one they picked to do it.
[ Woman On Phonograph ] ''Broadway papa''
'' You sure do puzzle me''''
[ Man ] Cities are where we leave the imprint ofhuman interaction.
What the city offers, particularly this city-
especially this city- is a sense of grids.
You know, it's all about boxes.
You live in a box, and you ride in a box to go to work in a box.
And we have this wonderful newspaper that's boxy shaped...
that has in it this page which is my favorite page in the whole newspaper.
And there are a set of boxes in which you kind of practice...
the wordplay of this particularly exquisite language.
You know, I don't drink coffee. I don't smoke cigarettes.
I don't need to have a drink at the end of the day.
What I need to do is do the New York crossword puzzle, in ink, every day.
[ Reagle ] It's almost like going home.
You know how your parents always live one place for an eon?
Well, the Marriott in Stamford has been the place where it's always been held.
[ Shortz ] Two, one. Start your pencils.
[ Male Reporter ] Crossword puzzles.
And this is the first crossword puzzle tournament in the United States.
They hope the first annual.
[ Shortz ] The crossword tournament in Stamford started in 1 978.
I got together a few friends of mine- crossword-constructing friends- to be the officials.
1 49 contestants showed up that first year.
[ Reporter ] Will Shortz, the 25-year-old tournament coordinator...
has a degree in enigmatology- the study of puzzles.
I spend 1 0, 1 2 hours a day on puzzles...
either making puzzles or solving puzzles.
[ Shortz ] It was just a wonderful and exhausting event.
[ Reagle ] It's an institution now.
If Will hadn't have wanted tojust, basically meet other puzzlers-
I think that's the reason he started it-
just to have some fun with all ofhis friends.
I mean, it's a-it's a labor oflove.
[ Man ] ''Really go for. ''Five letters.
''Boffo review. ''Four letters.
''Director Craven. '' Three letters.
My name's Al Sanders. I'm from Fort Collins, Colorado.
I work at Hewlett-Packard as a project manager there in an R& D lab.
We have three kids- Matthew, Grace and Connor.
Ages 1 4, 9 and 1 1.
[ Woman ] He's a very good dad,yeah.
I think that,you know, I think they've grown up...
with a very nice, loving relationship with their dad.
And I think that that will help them, you know, when they become parents too.
[ Sanders ] Growing up, I was an only child...
so I spent a lot of time,you know, reading and that kind of stuff.
I used to love to watch game shows. Always loved trivia.
So I always did pretty good, you know, in a kind of testing situation.
In some ways, I think that's why I still enjoy puzzles so much.
'Cause the school environment, it's very structured...
and it's very, um, artificial in a way.
At the end,you get your report card, and you did great.
You got your straight A's or whatever and,you know, cool. That was great.
In real life, it's obviously a lot more complicated than that.
It's kind of late tonight, so I'm a little tired. We'll see if I can do it, but-
We'll see if we can get at least below 2:30 on this one.
So, okay? So, ready, set, go.
I got the long entry there, so that's good.
This is about cheese, it looks like, so everything has to do with cheeses.
Um. I'd better stop talking and keep goin' here.
I'd say crosswords to me are probably an obsession.
Um, certainly in the couple of months before the tournament...
I kind ofhave this phase I seem to have worked my way into...
where everything leads up to the tournament.
Because there's one of these a year.
Down. See? I had to stop. Bad news.
I think I've got a chance.
I-I've been in the finals for a number of years...
and I know people must think, ''Oh, great. Al's in the finals again.
There's another third-place finish. ''
So I kind ofhave a little something to prove there at least.
You know, the whole puzzle calendar pretty much revolves around Stamford.
And, um,you know, there's nothing else like it in the crossword world, so you gotta be there.
They always talk about the winners.
They announce the former champions at the beginning of the tournament.
Sure, comin'in the top three for five or six years in a row...
it's great and it's really cool, but there's just something special...
about actually being a champion that, uh-
And it's not like,you know, winning a major in golf or something, but it's-
But in the crossword puzzle world, it kind ofhas that same cachet.
So it would be somethin' that you'd remember forever.
So I really hope sometime in the next few years...
I-I can- I can close the deal and win one of these things.
Oh. 2:02.
I can never get under two minutes. Dang it. [ Laughing ]
Someday, I'm gonna get a 1 :59 outta here...
but that's my second-fastest one ever, so-
I didn't stop and check, but I do have it all filled in so-
Yeah, that was a pretty good one there. So-
We're doing a puzzle that is about the word ''wordplay.''
The way I thought we would get into the puzzle-
Since ''wordplay'' is an even number of letters...
and crossword puzzle diagrams are almost always an odd number of squares on a side.
Since you can't put it in the center of the diagram...
what we'll do is, we'll put it as clo-
We'll put it like this.
One of the great things about the Times crossword...
is that it's made by many different people.
Each year, I publish about 1 1 0 different constructors.
And I think the puzzle is much better than if I made all the puzzles myself.
First of all, it takes a long time to make a great crossword.
And with so many different voices, so many different constructors sending puzzles to me...
I get lots more diversity.
The puzzle wouldn't be nearly as good if one person made it.
The basic idea of this puzzle is that I wanted to think of words or phrases...
that contain the word ''word'' in a nonword context.
And I wanted to think of words that contain the word ''play'' in a nonword context.
I thought of words like ''Playa del Rey''...
the area of California where I'm- I used to be from.
''Playa del Rey'' starts with the word ''play''...
and has nothing to do with the word ''play'' in English.
And ''cross swords,'' as if to start dueling with somebody with swords.
''Cross swords'' has the word ''word'' in it also...
and it actually looks like ''crosswords'' with an extra ''S.''
So that was the idea- that we could somehow do a wordplay puzzle...
about the words ''word'' and ''play'' that did not involve the actual words themselves.
''''[ Folk Rock ]
[ Man ] What's it feel like to actually be in the puzzle?
Oh, man. That's- Call it a pinnacle of our career.
[ Laughs ] It was a thrill, a total thrill.
[ Ray ] I was actuallyjust surprised.
'Cause I always thought of us as being pretty underground...
and not really in the intellectual set.
But, um, it was exciting, flattering.
''Bikini parts'' has to end in an ''S,'' I think, so maybe ''odyssey'' is spelled wrong.
- Maybe it's not ''odyssey.'' - Feels like it's ''odyssey,'' but-
[ Ray ] I definitely started equating crossword puzzles with songwriting.
And it really helped my process, because I think what it did...
is it gave me this sense of faith that writer's block is not really real...
and that if you sit there and work on it long enough...
just like when you do a crossword, something's gonna come out, you know?
It's the same thing that Emily's talkin' about when you stare at a clue...
and all of a sudden the answer just pops up, and you're, like, ''I didn't even know I knew that.''
[ Saliers ] I mean, for me, writing a song, you wanna make it general enough so that people can relate to it...
but also specific enough so that it's interesting.
So there are all those things you can play with-
obscurity, clarity, generalization, specificity.
And those are things that you sort of grapple with as you're writing a song.
''I'm tryin'to tell you somethin' about my life''
''Maybe give me insight between black and white''
'And the best thing you've ever done for me ''
Right from the start, Merl loved the idea of making puzzles...
with as few black squares and as many wide-open white squares as possible.
I have now put my theme answers in...
where they will go for maximum use of the space...
so that the diagram still breathes a little.
And now I'm just looking at it...
to see if the down possibilities have any problems.
You want to sniff out these tough areas immediately when you're constructing.
And the only spot I have here that's even remotely like that...
is this blank-Y-blank-blank-Y.
Right there. I mean, there are words that go in there.
''My way.'' ''Pygmy.'' A couple of other things.
But the thing is that this word next to it- A-blank-blank-A-blank.
If-All the ones I've said for here, this is a consonant.
''My day.'' That's a ''D.'' ''Pygmy.'' That's a ''G.''
Uh, so if that's a consonant...
this has to be a vowel.
And how many vowels can you think of that go A-vowel-blank-A-blank...
and still are gonna bleed into this really important area...
so that words can come down?
And the only one I can think of for this is a fragment like ''by any.''
I need that to be a vowel. Like ''by any means possible.''
Then from here- consonant-vowel- then almost anything I want.
This is gonna be almost anything- I'm just gonna make sure that I can come down from here.
So what I'm thinking of is that this is gonna be a word that ends like this.
And that this is gonna be a word that either ends with ''S'' down here.
Or it could be something rather colorful. I'm not sure.
But this is gonna be like- something like a ''G''...
and maybe this is gonna be an ''E'' also.
Um, I just thought of something that's gonna work nice.
[ Woman ] Nine-letter word for ''cocktail with a cherry. ''
Fifteen-letter word for ''resistant to moisture, ''say.
Five-letter word for ''clued in. ''
- [ Groans ] - [ Beeping ]
Great. Oh.
I'm Ellen Ripstein. We're in the back of Park West Village.
I went to the very first tournament in 1 978, and I came in in the thirties.
So really,just at the tournaments, as I gradually started getting better...
you know, I guess I realized, ''Gee, I must be really good at this.''
But it still sort of amazes me, 'cause when I see a Saturday Times puzzle...
and I do it in 1 0 minutes, and then on the forum...
they're saying it took all afternoon, that just seems so strange to me.
What was their problem? Why couldn't they do the puzzle?
Or I guess I've just accumulated a lot of useless knowledge...
that often is in the puzzles.
For 1 8 years in a row, I was so close to the top.
I was in the finals, I think, 1 1 times- the top three- and didn't win.
So then, every year,you know, I kept not winning...
until finally, um, in 200 1, one of the contestants was having lunch...
with a friend of his who worked for the Wall StreetJournal...
and telling him about this tournament he was about to go to.
So the Wall StreetJournal did a front page piece on me...
a week before the tournament with a picture and everything.
And this is just mind-boggling. I'm just a little nerd girl...
and here I am on the front of the Wall StreetJournal.
This tournament, we had ABC News, CBS-
uh,you know,just tons of press.
So the top three were me, Al Sanders and Patrick Jordan...
who are all really good.
But it wasn't people who've won.
So Patrick finished the puzzle first...
and they were saying that all the air just got sucked out of the room.
Because Patrick is nice, and people would like him to win...
but, God, you know, they really wanted me to win already. And then-
-[ Man ] Patrick's in- -[ Reporter ] But hold on a minute.
[ Man ] With a mistake. With a mistake.
There was a bad crossing, and he had made a mistake.
So,you know, everyone's just holding their breath.
-[ Man ] Oh, she's so close. She is so close. -[ Clock Ticking ]
She's lookin'it over. The second hand- It is comin'up.
I fill in the last letter and turn around and-
I'm crying just even thinking about it. And the place just went totally nuts.
They're going, ''El-len! El-len!''
A guy pulled out a banner that said ''R-R-R-Ripstein. This is your year. ''
And I was going, ''Are you sure? Are you sure? Would you check the puzzle?''
And they were checking. ''No, no. It-''
And I was just sobbing. It was so great.
[ Male Reporter ] In a dramatic, come-from-behind, last-second victory...
Ellen is the winner.
-Are they sure? - Hollywood couldn't have scripted a better finish.
- Are you sure? - [ Cheering, Applause Continue ]
You know, it is a kind of nerdy thing, but it's-it's neat.
Although, I had a boyfriend once who was just-
You know, he would sort of try to put me down...
and I would say, ''Well, what are you the best in the country at?''
You know? At least, I'm... worth something.
Mmm, let's see.
Let's say ''trysts.''
This can't be a ''U'' anymore. Um.
Is ''redtop'' a word? ''Redtop''?
Well, I think it's a word, but I'm sitting in here.
In a second, I will go in the other room and look it up just to see.
[ Grunts ] First we'll look in the little dictionary.
'Cause that's where we want it to be.
If it's common enough to be in a little dictionary, then it's-
Then we got somethin'.
''Redtop.
''A grass grown in the cooler parts of North America...
for hay, pasturage and lawns.''
I'll bet you our lawn guy knows that word.
I'm going to show you something that I don't show many people.
And this is only because you asked very, very politely.
Since March 2 of 1 997, I've been keeping a record of my time every day.
And I do this... because I'm an obsessive creep...
and I do this because I'm a nerd, and I do it because I'm competing with myself.
But I'm also doing it to kind of measure my mental deterioration-
to see how much slower I get over the years...
uh, to see how close I am getting to actually losing my marbles.
From December of 2003 until June of 2005...
I was the public editor at the New York Times.
Um, that's a job that's called the ombudsman at many other papers.
The Times being the Times, they have to have a more pretentious title, so I was Public Editor.
I can say this more easily now that I no longer work there.
I think I can say with more credibility, the Times is the most important news medium in the world.
There's nothing else like it, and the puzzle fits into that.
There's no other puzzle like it.
I don't think you would find anybody- If you walked into that room in Stamford...
and you asked any of 500 people there, ''What's your favorite puzzle?''
They'd all say the Times, because it's the gold standard, as the way that I think the newspaper-
Although the newspaper may do many things wrong...
it's the gold standard of American newspapers too.
One of the things that was interesting to me once I started going to Stamford...
was realizing what was the nature of the person who is really great.
I don't mean good, like me, at an amateur level, but really, really great.
And overwhelmingly, the two professional groups that seem to dominate...
are musicians and people in the math professions.
And by that I mean computer programmers, actuaries, auditors and such.
I've asked people, ''What would you think- Who would you think would be the best?''
And they say, oh, copy editors or history teachers or English teachers.
But, no, it's these two groups.
What I think it is is their ability to assimilate...
a lot of-of-of coded information instantly.
In other words, a piano player, likeJon Delfin...
the greatest crossword puzzler of our time.
He sits down, and he sees three staffs of music, and he can instantly play it.
He's taken all those notes, and he's absorbed what they mean instantaneously.
And if you have that kind of a cast of mind...
and then add to it a lot of,you know, a wide range of sort of ordinary...
and extraordinary information- and if you can spell-
you'd be a really great crossword puzzler.
Four minutes and 20 seconds. No. Four minutes and five seconds.
That's pretty good.
[ Man ] One across. A three-letter word. ''Doberman doc. ''
Four across. A four-letter word. ''Antony of antiquity. ''
Eight across. A five-letter word. ''Match play''?
''''[ Piano..Standard ]
Whatever image that I had of myself when I was younger...
about what I would be at 50 or in general as a grown-up...
it's not what happened.
Um, I was on the academic track when I was in school...
and-and I was supposed to be a lawyer or a teacher or an accountant.
And-And somehow I'm a piano player. [ Chuckles ]
How did that happen?
I've been solving puzzles since I'm a kid.
Give me spaces that need to be filled in and I want to fill them in.
I started competing in 1 985...
and did okay.
The year after that, I made it into the final...
and I've been there every year since.
You give the accompanist your music.
''Here you go. I will be singing 'Gimme Gimme' from Thoroughly Modern Millie. ''
- ''On My Own'' from Les Miserables. - ''Rock of Rages'' from Leader of the Pack.
''Where the Boys Are'' by Connie Francis.
''La Isla Bonita'' by Madonna.
''Crossword Puzzle'' by Maltby and Shire. It's from Starting Here, Starting Now.
''I am sitting here doing the Sunday Times crossword puzzle''
' Somehow the words won't come '
''I am staring at squares but my eyes never focus''
''And my mind's feeling strangely numb''''
[ Delfin ] It's sort oflike dealing with puzzles.
Because I'll show up in a room like I am today...
and people will hand me a piece of music that I may have never seen before...
or heard before or even heard ofbefore...
and I have to play it for them right away.
I don't get to rehearse it. I don't get to even think about it.
So I get to solve this little puzzle for 90 seconds.
''''[ Piano ]
[ No Audible Dialogue ]
[ Delfin ] A lot of sitting at the piano and playing for people when they walk in...
a lot of that is really craft and-and-and-and trickery.
But I was in a room one day and somebody came in...
and brought in one of my favorite songs- ''It Might As Well Be Spring. ''
She started to sing it. I could tell that she knew the song...
and she really knew what she was doing.
So I started to reharmonize it a little bit.
And she sang the song like we'd been doing it for years.
And when we were finished...
she turned away from the people at the table...
and she said to me, ''That was beautiful.''
'' [ Piano ]
When there's no rehearsal...
when a stranger walks into a room with a piece of music that I've never heard...
and puts it in front of me and I play it and the singer sings it...
and we manage to connect...
I- I resist the word ''art, '' but it's art.
I like this puzzle. [ Laughs ]
Well, it's not one of my funniest puzzles in the world...
but I think if it's, um-
I think it's fine for a Monday or a Tuesday.
[ Shortz ] A great puzzle is based on an original idea.
It takes that theme. It's fresh, it's novel, it's fun.
It carries the idea through to its limit, whatever that limit is.
Just one more note about projecting the presidential results...
before all the polls are closed.
For a while today, before any polls closed...
we thought the New York Times had been particularly flagrant.
Take a look at the Times crossword puzzle.
The clues is the same for numbers 39 and 43 across.
Thirty-nine across- ''Clinton. '' Forty-three across- ''Elected. ''
But surely the Times wouldn't go out on a limb like that.
No. The crossword editor is much too diabolical.
So rearrange a few words and the answer to 39 and 43 across is-
''Bob Dole elected. ''
In this, uh, election day '96 puzzle...
uh, to make it clever...
it was blank ''elected. ''
And blank is seven letters, and it could be ''Clinton''or it could be ''Bob Dole. ''
And it turns out it can be both, because they figured out seven...
down-word answers...
where at each point, the corresponding letter fit the clue.
So in the first one, it could ''B''or ''C''...
and the second could be ''O''or ''L ''...
the third one could be ''B''or ''I''...
the fourth one would be ''D''or ''N. ''
I mean, that's an amazing thing,you know, just to be able to think of that.
Half the time I do these things just to see what people are thinking about.
So I worked it and I made a copy and sent it to Dole...
after calling him and telling him we both won after all.
[ Man ] Of course, the whole election of'96 was a puzzle to me.
I got the early edition of the Times that day, and I won.
So, of course, I liked the earlier edition.
But then he got the regular edition...
and he also got four more years in the White House.
[ Clinton ] The Sunday Times crossword puzzle had a reputation ofbeing formidable.
And at some point in my life, we began to get the Sunday Times.
And when I was president, I think I worked more than ever before.
I worked no telling how many hundreds and hundreds of crossword puzzles.
Well,yeah, I find it very relaxing, you know.
And I- I really found it relaxing in the White House.
Because, you know,just for a moment you just take your mind of whatever you're doing.
I sometimes did them at lunch if I was eating alone.
Sometimes you have to go at a problem the way I go at a complicated crossword puzzle.
Sometimes I picked up the Saturday New York Times crossword puzzle...
and I'll go through way over half the clues before I'll know the answer to one.
And then you start with what you know the answer to and you just build on it.
And eventually, you can unravel the whole puzzle.
And so, I rarely work a puzzle of any difficulty...
from one across and one down all the way to the end...
in a totally logical fashion.
And I think a lot of difficult, complex problems are like that.
You have to find some aspect of it you understand and build on it...
until you can unravel the mystery that you're trying to understand.
Nearly anybody can learn nearly anything they need to know.
Nature has something to do with it, but I think nurture has something to do with it.
I mean, I think nature made Einstein's massive brain...
and made him what he was.
But nurture can make nearly everyone seem to be above average intelligence...
if they have the right sort of nurturing early...
as well as the right kind of formal schooling and academic challenges...
and adults who believe in them when they're children.
I really believe it's a little bit of both, but I think most of us are, um-
we're all capable of doing more than we think.
Thirty-one. ''Animal on a Florida license plate.''
That's a manatee. I know that.
[ Man ] ''Member of the E.U. '' Three letters.
A four-letter word for ''a Syrian foe. ''
Eight-letter word for ''a pizza order. ''
Average time for a Sunday New York Times...
I'd guess on the six to eight minute range.
Let's rock. Go.
I'm Tyler Hinman here at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
And, uh, we got coming up in three weeks the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
I started out in puzzles way back in the day.
I had a magazine called Children's Fun Puzzles, you know...
where you had rhymes you had to figure out- a fat cat rhyme, something like that.
Fill in the blanks of those words.
And then in ninth grade, I got handed a crossword during a study hall.
I did it, failed miserably and I was hooked.
[ Man ] Artificial intelligence is the attempt to engineer machines...
- that are as smart as we are. - Is there a computer program...
that can solve the New York Times crossword puzzle?
- Not perfectly. - What do you mean, not perfectly?
Because there's a lot of- They try to get in new fresh clues...
and they use wordplay, which is obviously very difficult for a computer.
- So your answer's no. - Right.
I would suspect that people who are really good at crossword puzzles...
do these under severe time constraints, do them very rapidly.
Uh, these are probably very, very intelligent people.
Yeah, if you reference pop culture or something like that...
or if you use wordplay or pop culture, it's very difficult for a computer to figure out.
-[ Man ] It does slow you down as well, right? - A little bit, yeah.
If I hadn't heard of it, that would probably be, ''Oh, I don't know that one.''
- You can solve it perfectly. - [ Hinman ] Most of the time.
- So in this particular arena, humans are still superior to machines. - Indeed.
There probably is an element of what we would call ''fluid intelligence. ''
[ Hinman ] Why puzzles?
I don't know. [ Chuckles ]
It's, uh,just the way it worked out. It's kind of the way I'm wired.
Like with video games and that kind of thing...
I tend to get a little, uh- I guess psychotic is the word.
Like if I- if I don't do well in something and I feel like I should be doing well...
then, you know, I- that really gets to me.
Anyone who spends their life doing something they genuinely enjoy...
whether it's for a lot of money or not...
especially if they're living hand-to-mouth, having trouble making a living...
as long as they're doing what they like, I have great respect for that.
I think everyone should do that.
[ Bringsjord ] Being rational creatures, we-we arejust intrinsically driven...
to solve these kinds of problems.
And, uh, I would suspect the most rational among us...
tend to be even drawn to them like an addiction.
[ Hinman ] Yeah, I guess it's kind of a gift, but it's one I've worked for.
I got good predominantly because I practiced...
and I just- I care about it and I had the drive.
- Done. - [ Beeps ]
Hey, Merl, this is Will. Are you there?
I think this is probably a Tuesday rather than a Monday.
Uh, but that's perfectly fine.
And you know, if you'd, uh, um, want to send me a few clues that are slightly harder...
so I can run this on a Tuesday, that's great.
But really, this is just, uh- it's just great work.
And, uh, so the answer is yes. Turn off your plans to do another puzzle.
And, uh, I'll talk to you later. Bye-bye.
Uh, this is a Merl Reagle, and he's very, very good.
He's one of the very best constructors. But this is a waste of his talent.
He should be a Friday and Saturday guy 'cause he's really so clever.
Using Reagle on Tuesday is like using Barry Bonds in Little League.
[ Announcer ] His on-base percentage now is better than.560.
Little will argue now that he's the game's best player.
Three balls, two strikes and one out.
Here's the pitch from Mussina. Swung on and missed.! Strike three.!
Mussina strikes out Bonds.
[ Man ] Pitching is probably more than 50% mental and the rest being physical.
I think I first started doing 'em in college.
The school paper actually had a puzzle in it.
And that's how we got started working on 'em.
And, uh, at the beginning, obviously, uh, I knew very little, and it was hard for me to do.
And you just have to keep doing 'em. And it's been now 1 5-plus years.
And now, uh, I try to do one as often as I can.
[ Announcer ] A brilliant performance by Mike Mussina.
A complete-game shutout. Yankees win 5-0.
[ Mussina ] Well, every time I go out on the mound, I want to finish the game.
It only happens occasionally, and those games are really special.
Puzzles can be the same way. You can go through it to a certain point...
and then you bring in help from behind you to help close it out.
Those days are fun too. Sometimes we'll sit down as a group...
and try to plow through it as fast as we can.
So whoever's doing the writing doesn't even get to look at the clues.
Theyjust- They're writing so fast because three people are leaning over your shoulder...
firing out answers at you.
The puzzle, whether it's the Times or any other puzzle we get to pick up, is...
for me, a ball-season thing.
And, uh, the Times puzzle is the ultimate puzzle.
It's the one that everybody who does puzzles tries to get to the level that they can do this one.
If you can do this puzzle...
I can tell you you can probably do any puzzle they throw at you.
[ Man ] ''Former Yankee Grba, ''three letters.
''Ace, '' 1 1 letters. ''Sole attachment, ''five letters.
- [ Whirring ] - [ Man ] What's a crossword tournament? Most people don't know.
It's hard to go back to the gym and people say, ''What'd you do this week?''
And you say, ''Well, I won a crossword puzzle tournament.''
And they go, ''Oh, yeah. So, uh-''
People don't know how to respond to that.
So I was working near Times Square before the ''Disneyfication''of it...
I was going to work and working on puzzles all day.
And then I was coming home and I was doing puzzle work on the side...
to try and earn some extra income.
So my life was pretty much nothing but puzzles for about a year and a half there.
I needed more of a non-puzzle scene in my life.
And I thought the only way I'm gonna force myself to get that...
is to move back to where there is no puzzle scene.
So I moved down here to Fort Lauderdale where I already had some friends...
and I liked the weather and so forth.
And I've been very happy here. And I plan to stay here, you know, indefinitely.
- Oh. - That wasn't pretty.
- All right. - Good ball.
Go get 'em, dear. Don't steal my multi-ball.
I'm Brian Dominy. I grew up in Dublin, Georgia.
I met Trip about two years ago.
We hit it off pretty quickly after we met.
And, uh, we started dating immediately.
And we moved in together towards the end of 2004.
[ Payne ] You wait. He's gonna win this game.
- Or not. - Now you jinxed it.
Good. You deserved it after that last one.
- All right, well, that was a rare victory. - Well done.
- Yes. Well, done, dear. - Yes.
He's just an incredibly driven and focused person.
When he sets his mind to something, he's relentless.
He does all that he can to make sure that he wins. I mean, it's all about winning.
He really wouldn't be doing this ifhe didn't want to win so badly.
[ Beeps ]
[ Payne ] When I won, I was the youngest person to ever win.
And, uh, at the moment, I still have that record.
I was 2 4 when I won. It was great.
It was something I'd been hoping to do for a number of years...
and, uh, it was just great to fulfill that.
[ Beeps ]
4:50.
That took me a bit longer than I expected.
It was a hard puzzle. Uh, there were a lot of very tricky clues in that.
And there was at least one entry where, after I filled it in...
I had to stare at it for several seconds to figure out what it meant.
Galionegee. G-A-L-I-O-N-G-E-E.
A man-of-war's man.
That is- That means nothing to me.
You know, if I'm going out with Brian somewhere or something...
I try to turn the word part of my brain off...
and just relax and have fun and not think about work.
But still, I mean, there's a part of me where it's always on.
I mean...
I remember the first time we went by someplace that had the word ''intercoastal'' on it.
I pointed out that that was an anagram of the word ''altercations.''
Um, it's nice being with somebody who can appreciate that.
[ Dominy ] Trip is a little intimidating at first because he is so bright.
Um, when I first met him, I admit I was a little intimidated myself.
But the more we got to talking, uh, the more I got to know him.
He's really just a genuine, uh- genuinely sweet guy.
I've always been intrigued by the letter ''Q,'' but, uh-
And some letters are just boring, you know. ''N'' is a boring letter, but-
''Q''is, of course, most commonly followed by a ''U. ''
But there are a lot of exceptions. You have to be careful about that when you're solving.
Because otherwise, you'll end up with a country ''quitar'' or Q-tips...
or something like that.
Uh, ''on the Q,T.'' Or ''I.Q, test.''
But, uh, uh, Q's a very good letter.
[ Shortz ] My predecessor was 36 years older than me.
And anytime you saw any modern culture in the old puzzles, itjust came as a shock.
''What's a TVshow doing in here?''
And really, puzzles didn't really have that.
My feeling was crosswords should have everything that's being covered in the Times.
And, of course, that's gonna be classical music and art and history...
and old subjects like that.
But it includes sports, popular music, movies, TV, cartoons, everything.
Why, there it is.
One of the things you have to do is get rid of the rest of the paper when you do this...
'cause by then, it's not important in your life any longer.
[ Man ]'' Can you find the hidden ''H'' where it's hiding''
''Is it on the ground or in the sky''
You always fold it over. You have to fold it over.
I got to tell you. I mean, I was gonna do it in- in pencil, but it's Tuesday.
Yeah, that's right. What do you think of that?
Sometimes we make our band members use pencils, I've noticed.
- Why do we do that? - 'Cause we don't trust them.
Very bravely, I'm a pen guy, actually.
Uh, and, uh, it comes back to haunt you once in a while.
- All right. - Here we go.
You know what, I'm so confident, I'm gonna do it in glue stick.
''I.C.B.M. ''is the first answer.
And his clue is ''warhead weapon briefly.'' Seems all right.
''Warhead weapon briefly''? It's gotta be ''I.C.B.M.'' Come on. Everybody goes for that.
''Warhead weapon.''
It's gotta be an I.C.B.M. or a M.R. Gotta be ''I.C.B.M.''
This is probably ''Norma Rae.'' R-A-E.
''She helped Theseus escape the labyrinth.''
Don't get- Don't get cute with me, Will, 'cause I'll come over there.
''East northeast is 737 heading, perhaps.'' And he's abbreviated ''perhaps.''
East north-
- East. - East northeast.
This is the standard crossword position.
''Never On Sunday star.'' ''Melina Mercouri.''
You have to be old like I am to remember that movie.
So you lean back, you put it on your knee and fill it in.
''Main arteries''? How can that not be ''aortas''? How can it not?
No, it's not? ''F'' it is.
Come on! Bring it!
''Cross swords.'' ''To duel with,'' yes.
- ''Duel with.'' - ''Cross''-
- ''Cross swords.'' - Yeah.
And-wait. ''Duel with'' is ''cross swords''...
which is also ''crosswords.''
So they're playing with us here. Um, that's wonderful.
''Duel''? ''Cross swords. '' See, what you've done here, Will...
if I may, the triple ''S.''
You think that's cute? That's not cute.
I can take you with your triple consonants.
[ Clinton ] It's wordplay. It's not too hard, but it's very clever.
And there's the wordplay or the word ''word'' in all the big clues, like ''Playa del Rey.''
That's what's going on here.
Now wait a minute. What the-
'' Can you find them Here they are''''
[ Reagle ] I get there, like, around 3..00 or 4..00 on a Friday.
You check in. It's usually snowing out or everybody's freezing when they come in the front door.
It's like you haven't seen anybody for a year.
Everybody's doing, ''Boy, it's great to see you.''
It's notjust the warmth of the hotel.
It's the warmth of all these people coming together,you know...
gonna be sharing in this little orgy of puzzling for 48 solid hours.
After 28 years, the Stamford Marriott is, uh, a very special place.
There are so many wonderful memories tied up in this hotel...
that it's a great place to walk into.
Without him, we'd just be at home doing puzzles like everybody else.
[ Reagle ] It's a family reunion.
It's the screwed-up crossword family getting together.
[ Delfin ] Crossword puzzle solving is such a solitary pursuit...
that when you're in a room with other people who love it the same way you do...
it's like finding a lost tribe.
[ Ripstein ] You see people that you don't see often, and it's a nice camaraderie.
I think it's friendly competition.
Although if someone's plane couldn't get here because of the weather...
I would not be that upset, you know. [ Chuckles ]
''''[ Guitar ]
[ Man ] '' The pay or play extender''
' Is ole, not ole '
'And it's ante that you want and not anti '
'When the clue is pay to play'
She's new! We got a new one here.
- So I'm sort of new. - Would you like to have dinner with us?
' But if you don't come across I'm gonna be down '
[ Dominy ] Trip is in good spirits. He's having a good time so far.
And, uh, everybody's thinking he has a good chance of winning.
Uh, there are a few unofficial side bets going on.
'Your love to me is a mystery And the clues are all around '
' If you don't come across I'm gonna be down '
[ Hinman ] I think I have a shot to win.
A lot of other people have a shot to win too. So we'll see how it works out.
[ Man ] It's the sixth time I've done this. And I'm hoping I can still make the top 1 0.
And I've placed anywhere from second through 1 0th in my last five appearances.
And I'm just trying to see if I can still, uh, get up that high again.
I get very nervous, and I think, ''Why do I go through this?''
I have nothing left to prove. You know, it's all downhill from here.
But, you know, I'm here.
'You don't come across I'm gonna be down ''
[ Reagle ] All the people who have ever felt...
''I wonder how I'd do in a contest, '' can find out.
This is that idea on a huge scale.
[ Shortz ] Well, welcome to the 28th American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
- I'm Will Shortz. -[ Cheering, Applause ]
Here are the rules of the competition. There are seven puzzles that everyone does.
There's no elimination in this tournament. Everyone does all seven puzzles.
We'll start the clock. That will be our official time.
If you finish a puzzle early, raise your hand...
a referee will come by, pick up your paper.
You get, uh, 1 0 points for every answer that you enter correctly.
Twenty-five bonus points for each full minute by which you beat the time limit.
If either you leave a letter out or you make a mistake...
that will cost you 1 95 points.
The champions generally spend a little extra time after they finish a puzzle...
looking it over, making sure that every square is filled...
and that nothing silly has been put in a square.
Everyone ready?
[ Man ] ''Saturday morning''
'' Who's gonna play with me''
'' 6..00 in the morning, baby''
''I got a long, long day ahead of me''
[ Shortz ] On your mark, get set, go.!
'' The parents are sleeping soundly''
'' The neighbors are dead as wood''
''I'm getting up and coming over''
'' We gotta rock the neighborhood''
''Nothing's ever gonna happen 'round here''
''If we don't make it happen''
''Sleep away the day if you want to''
''But I got something that I gotta do''''
[ Delfin ] I'm actually not keeping track of anything this year.
I forgot to write down my time on the first puzzle.
And I say, ''Okay, that's a sign.''
Hopefully, I didn't screw that one up, 'cause that would-Yeah.
If I did screw up, I don't want to find out about it till much later...
so I'm just not totally deflated for the rest of the tournament.
[ Sanders ] I felt good on that puzzle. I think I might have been the first one to finish.
I finished right before the minute.
So if you finish at 2:53 and you take 1 0 seconds, you're gonna lose a whole minute.
So I just raised my hand and turned it in and didn't check.
So if I made a stupid mistake on that, then it's all over. So hopefully, I didn't, but-
I had to erase too many times. I mean, obviously, one across, I think everybody-
- Which one was that one? - ''Part of Q, E.D.''
Oh, right.
[ Ripstein ] I just missed the minute.
But that's, you know, ohh!
-[ Man ] Thirty-one, right? -[ Man #2 ] 1 005. -[ Woman ] 645.
- 840. - 21 1 0.
We're entering for each puzzle...
the number of words and letters the contestant got wrong...
and the number of minutes ahead of the deadline he or she finished.
The faster you are, uh, the higher your score is.
But if you make errors, that detracts from your score.
These are done. Kindling? Who needs kindling?
[ Man ] Yes, absolutely.
Oh, here's a question. If you finished that one at two seconds-
- Shoot it up. - You would-
- You gotta. You gotta. -Just go for it.
Before I look at the clock, I check for blanks. Not for errors, but for blanks.
'Cause those are obvious. You can see those right away.
On your mark, get set, go.!
This is a 25-minute puzzle by David Kahn.
But this is the puzzle that's gonna rip your heart out.
Everyone ready? On your mark, get set, go.!
[ Payne ] Oh, a piece of cake.
- Everybody loved it, yeah. - Oh, yeah.
No hard words.
I got about two words into it and boom, my head exploded.
So it's all over for me. [ Chuckles ]
Uh, I lost time on that one. I got really stuck on one side.
So I was three minutes behind Trip and Tyler.
So right now I'd say I'm gonna have to do some catch up on 'em to make the finals.
Yeah, it was real hard. It was, uh- I mean the theme wasn't that bad. It was-
It was actually pretty gettable from the title. It was three-letter abbreviations...
for the days added into normal phrases.
So, like, ''electronic lock'' became ''electronic wedlock''...
or ''set pieces''became ''sunset pieces. ''
But the- the one for ''Tuesday''-
They changed ''batboy'' into ''battue boy''- B-A-T-T-U-E.
I've never heard of that word in my life. So I was-
When I left, I was convinced I had an error in the puzzle...
'cause there's something that wasn't clickin', but, um...
apparently there's no errors, but it was still- still slow.
[ Woman ] Oh, that one was a toughie.
Only had three minutes left. That's unusual for me.
But I just hope it was accurate.
Hmm, I think I'm okay, you know, but... I'll find out later on.
[ Ripstein ] It's always possible I made careless mistakes I didn't know about.
Uh-So I don't know.
Uh, we'll see tomorrow morning when the interim scores are posted.
Um, you know- [ Chuckles ] I don't think I'm 90th...
but, you know, you never know.
Tomorrow means everything. [ Sighs ] I am going to go in...
uh, maybe play a game, await a phone call...
and, uh- I don't know- try not to think about how little sleep I'm probably gonna get.
[ Man ] Our next performer is our-a double act..
- the Hill-Scallies. - [ Applause ]
Thanks. Oh, I just want one.
- [ Clatters ] - [ Crowd Chuckles ]
Look, we're a little verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves.
Interestingly that I see them every year, and they look the same.
I mean, you know them. They look the same from year to year...
and then I suddenly realize, I've known these people for 27 years, some of them.
They've changed. So have I, but you don't see the change from year to year.
This is hard to say. In 1 98 1 I lost my husband...
and it was on Sunday afternoon here, right after the competition.
He had a heart attack.
Some people said, ''Do you know, isn't it hard to come back here?''
But he wanted me to do it and was very proud of the fact that I have won.
And in his memory, I would not stop coming back.
But it's a little bit hard for me to walk out the front of the- front door there.
I like to go out the other way...
um, and I can still picture him coming through the door.
There were people who we've lost who aren't back, and-
I-The place is haunted. I can still see faces of-
I can still see people here who- who are no longer here.
Not an unpleasant kind of haunting for that- in that respect.
[ Woman ] ''Home is where I want to be''
- ''Pick me up and turn me round'' - [ No Audible Sound Effects ]
- ''I come home, I'm born with a weak heart'' - [ No Audible Sound Effects Continues ]
''I guess I must be having fun''
''But the less we say about it the better''
''Let's make it up as we go along''
''Feet on the ground Head in the clouds''
''I'm okay I know nothing's wrong''
''Hi-ho''
'' Got plenty of time''
''Mmm, here''
''Hi-ho''
'' You got light in your eyes''
''And you're standing here beside me''
''I love the passing of time''
''Never for money Always for love''
'' Cover up and say good night''
''Say good night''
''Home is where I want to be''
''But I guess I'm already there''
''I come home You lifted up your wings''
''I guess this must be the place''''
[ Audience Applauds ]
- I have to make up three minutes. - And I have four.
I'm just gonna verify the report I just heard.
I beat him? I'm in on- on four? I didn't know that.
Oh, my gosh, a three-way tie.
[ Man ] It's a three-way tie for first. That's gonna be epic.
[ Man ] What's your strategy now for-
Um, well, I'm going to read every clue.
- [ Payne ] This is bizarre. - What happened?
There's a three-way tie for first place right now. I thought I was a minute behind Tyler.
Apparently, I got him by a minute on Puzzle 4, which I didn't know.
So, because of the tie-break rules right now...
I'm in first, Tyler's in second, and PatrickJordan's in third...
but we all have the exact same score, and we're all three minutes ahead of everybody else.
I'm essentially tied for fourth with, uh, Kiran, uh, but I'm three minutes behind.
There's three people that are tied for first place.
All I can do is, uh, go as hard as I can to the last puzzle and- and...
you know, if somebody opens the door, great, but I don't think it's gonna happen.
[ Payne ] He is one of the people who's three minutes behind.
So that means, because of the tie-break rules...
he would have to beat one of us by three minutes on this puzzle.
Al's fast, but three minutes is a tough order for anybody.
So, as I say, I think really at this point it comes down to...
the three of us just playing defensively here, taking an extra minute and doing what it takes...
andjust, uh, hoping we don't make an error.
Well, we think Tyler's been shorted by a minute.
- On four. - We'll check it out.
We were lookin' at the scores this morning, and Trip and I and Tyler...
and everyone had all been pretty much talking last night...
and we're all pretty sure Tyler was a minute ahead...
and then Trip- and, uh, Trip was behind and-by one minute and second.
And then we knew Patrick was probably up there. We didn't know exactly where.
So then lookin' at the scores this morning, all three were showing as tied.
[ Hinman ] And, uh, I wasn't really thinking about it...
'cause I was a little preoccupied with, uh, where I actually was in the standings.
But, um, I realized this surprised me too...
'cause I'm pretty sure I finished that between the third and fourth minute.
Doug? Doug? I'm gonna talk to Doug.
Hopefully it's a moot point.
Yeah, but, you know, it's right to get- it's right to get this fixed.
Okay, so give me all the information I need to do this investigation.
He's standing right there. Ask him. You got his contestant number.
He should get one credit for one more minute on Puzzle 4.
[ Hinman ] So it's 25 points. If I get into the final, it isn't a big deal...
but if one of the two guys in fourth and fifth, uh, beats me...
by three minutes, then suddenly it becomes a very big deal.
For those of us that keep close track of it, I mean, we know very well who has what times...
and we just figured, it ought to be right.
So, um, I know it's important to Tyler, so I thought that, um...
itjust seemed like the right thing to do.
All right. I believe we're ready for Puzzle 7. Judges?
This is a 45-minute puzzle by Patrick Merrell.
[ Crowd Applauding ]
On your mark, get set, go.!
-[ Man ] So? -[ Hinman ] So, I think I got it.
I don't know. I'm about to confirm an answer, but I'm pretty sure it's right.
I gained- I finished, like, in eight minutes, so I gained a minute on Trip and Tyler.
But, um, I don't know- I don't know how Patrick did. I'm sure he was in there too, so-
Um, it wasn't-wasn't that hard of a puzzle, so I'd- I'd be stunned if anyone made a mistake.
I almost screwed that up a number of times. I left a square blank until my check, uh...
so that was good to see. [ Chuckles ]
The only thing that's working against Tyler potentially is his young age, being only 20.
I mean, the others on the stage have had so much more life experience...
plus they've just solved more puzzles during their time on Earth than he has.
- I screwed that up twice. I put ''fratern-'' - ''Fraternit-''
- That didn't work. - And then ''frat house.''
- You too? Same mistakes. - Yes.
The clue was something like, ''where a freshman might rush,'' or something like that.
And I'm like, ''Oh, that's easy. I've been there. 'Fraternity.'''
I got down to the ''N,'' and I realized, no, that ain't gonna fit.
So I erased. It starts with F-R-A, so I'm, ''It's gotta be 'frat' something.''
And I went, ''Oh, 'frat house.''' I write in ''frat house.''
That also turns out to be wrong. I mean, you gotta be kidding me.
It was actually ''frat party.''
I don't think there's gonna be any surprises. I think it's gonna be the top three.
It should be me, Patrick and, of course, Tyler.
Ah, phooey.
[ Girl Chuckles ] Yeah.
Wait. I made up the grid upside down. Wait, it's okay! [ Laughs ]
What's going on in the room right now is that people are double-checking...
the fastest finishers this morning.
-[ Man ] We're double-checking everybody that's 25 and greater right? - Correct.
Oh, I- There was another error? There was another error?
Coming up on 1 1..00 in the morning. We'rejust beginning to find out who the finalists may be.
The excitement is palpable.
It's the combination oflogic and rage.
On the one hand, everything works out beautifully, except if it doesn't.
At which point, of course, you can just tear the thing up.
Yeah, the level of player has gotten much higher. All right, Tyler Hinman-
I mean, I first met him here when he was 1 6, and you couldjust tell,you know...
he was someone that had that competitive spirit...
and had the speed- that he was gonna be up there.
He's just been absolutely phenomenal this year.
It used to be Trip. If Trip was on, nobody could touch him,you know?
And now Tyler is right there.
And then Patrick Jordan- I mean, he didn't always come here, but he's no surprise.
- Congratulations, Patrick. Well done. Good luck. - Thank you, sir. Mm-hmm.
I've been in the finals, like, the last four years, but I always come in third place.
So it's- it's kind of embarrassing, you know?
So at least this year I can flail on the final puzzle in my own, uh, private little world here.
I don't have to do it in front of- in front of everyone.
But, I mean, sure, I'd- I'd love to be up there, you know? That's always my goal, but...
you can't do it every year, you know, so-
I told Patrick, since it's not me he would be up against, he can go ahead and win.
Although I think Tyler is just like a tiger there. He is so hungry for this.
This is a very tight matchup.
Patrick came within one letter of winning this tournament once.
If he hadn't made an error, he would have won the tournament back in the year that Ellen won.
And you've seen what a hotshot Tyler is. So this really could go any way.
[ Shortz ] All right. Here are the results.
Starting in the ''A''division, the top people are all tightly packed together.
In third place at this point, with 1 1 ,840 points...
- Al Sanders. - [ Applauding ]
In second place- 1 1,890 points, Trip Payne-
-[ Woman ] Whoo.! -[ Applause ]
and in first place at this point...
with 1 1, 9 1 5 points and only 20 years old...
- Tyler Hinman. - [ Applause ]
Uh,yeah. I just had a little mini heart attack, as did Tyler, 'cause that-
when we heard that, it's like we knew somebody had blown it.
We didn't know which of the three of us had.
And, uh, it was Patrick obviously. We don't know what happened.
He must have made an error, because we think he was fast enough, so-
[ Man ] Who's that?
- That was my dad. - What'd he say?
Uh,just that they're on their way.
Well, right now the ''C'' final round is taking place.
These are people whose- are at the top of their particular skill division...
and they've got noise coming in from earphones that they're wearing...
so they can't hear anything that's being said, and it's nerve-racking.
You've got 500 people watching you, and for most people-
they're not used to doing anything with 500 people watching them...
to say nothing of a hobby they usually do all by themselves...
with nobody else looking over their shoulder.
I'm just watching Tyler hop around.
I'm still a little bit in shock. I need to- I need to just get, you know-
think about this, uh- this puzzle, and just, like, not-
- [ Man ] Nervous? - A little bit. A little bit.
Although, strangely enough, not as nervous as I was in the ''B'' final a few years ago...
and this is for much greater stakes.
And, uh- I don't know- I guess 'cause I've done it before on a lower level.
I don't know why. And I guess 'cause I know I have the ability.
[ Man ] ''Every time she walks down next to me''
''She makes my poor old heart skip a beat''''
Well, there's a difference between just solving at home...
and solving at this event and then solving on here.
There's somethin'about being up on stage solving in big letters...
with a- a pen you never use.
It's a whole different experience. And maybe it's the nerves...
or the alien nature of it-who knows?
But it's- there's some guys that just are up here in their element, and some guys who aren't.
-[ Man ] That's Trip. -[ Shortz ] Trip,you'll be on the left.
Al,you're on the right. Tyler, in the middle.
[ Reagle ] Trip Payne, he's been here before. He's very outgoing.
He'll hit himself on the head or fall down ifhe stumbles a little.
Tyler Hinman's only 20 years old. How he know so much...
to be in the top of the ''A''division is amazing.
And Al Sanders has been, like...
the leader almost every time we come into the end of this event and yet he has never won this event.
He's never even come in second.
[ Shortz ] Tyler,you'll have a two-second start over Trip.
-[ Hinman ] Yes-s-s.! - Trip,you'll have a five-second start over Al.
[ Payne ] All right.!
All right. I believe we're ready.
[ Conan ] It's a beautiful day for a crossword puzzle championship.
- [ Audience Laughs ] - Let's play too.
On your mark- Let me get the clock. On your mark, get set...
Tyler, begin.
Trip, begin.
- Al, begin. - [ No Audible Dialogue ]
[ Hinman ] To win at Stamford- I will admit...
it's gone through my head many times-
what it would be likejust to,you know, finish that final puzzle...
announce, ''Done''and turn around and see people clapping.
If I were to do it this year or in the next couple of years...
I'd have the record for the youngest champion...
I'd have the trophy, I'd- I'd have $4,000- which would be very nice-
and,you know, in small circles, fame, really.
[ Payne ] Any year that I don't win the tournament, I admit that I'm not happy about it.
I try to keep a-a smiling face on, but,you know...
there's a part of me that expects to win, even though I know that's not logical.
Nobody can win every year. There's too many good people...
and there's too many variables in the puzzles.
But there's part of me that thinks,you know, ''You're good enough to win. You should win. ''
And that part of me is upset when I don't.
[ Sanders ] You know, the big hurdle for me to get over, though, is that final puzzle.
'Cause every year it's like, ''Okay,you know, this is, like, the fourth time I'm up here.
''Surely I've gotten now to where I can, you know, get over this hump...
and get out there andjust,you know, go kick butt on this puzzle. ''
Then every time it starts off, I'm lookin'at those clues, and it's like-
I look at the first 20 clues, and I don't have any idea.
And Trip's over there,you know, writin'away, and it's like, ''Oh, God, here we go again. ''
[ Conan ] Trip and Al both got ''sit''first though.
[ Reagle ] Well, Trip is waiting to see if it's ''house-sat. ''
I mean, he's- He knows enough to not fall into that trap.
Al's got ''SteveJobs''...
and ''Ute. ''
[ Conan ] Trip is doing well in that upper left-hand corner as well.
The clue on this one- for one across- is just brutal-
[ Crowd Laughing ]
''stark and richly detailed, as writing. ''
[ Reagle Chuckles ] That screams ''Zolaesque''to me.
-[ Crowd Laughs ] - Hmm.
[ Conan ] You think they put six down in there just for us this year, Merl?
-[ Reagle ] ''Sojust shut up''? -[ Conan ] Yeah.
-[ Reagle ] No, I mean,just-sojust shut up. - Yeah. I see.
[ Reagle Chuckles ] Well, I thought the other one, the last puzzle-
[ Conan ] ''Unbeknownst to me. '' Huge breakthrough there...
by Al Sanders on the right.
No mistakes I see yet.
Meanwhile, Tyler working in the lower right-
It's hard for me to see, but it looks good.
Yes. It is good.
And Al,just about wrapping up that lower left-hand corner.
-[ Reagle ] Yeah. - He can get ''I got took. ''
[ Reagle ] And he's got the- that ''Sioux. '' That- That's just a hard word down there.
-[ Conan ] There he goes. - Yeah. Now he realized it- what the ''body work''is..short for ''tattoo. ''
- Yeah. I'm sure he's having a ''fun time''now. -[ Conan ] Absolutely.
[ Conan ] Trip is, uh, doing-
-[ Reagle ] All over the place, as usual. - Yeah, scattershot.
He's going for the words he knows and then filling in from there-
- [ Reagle ] That's good. - as opposed to trying to fight through each area.
- [ Reagle ] He's got, uh- - He's got ''ramified.''
[ Reagle ] That's the toughest word in that corner.
[ Conan ] Tyler's got the bottom done.
Hejust got ''SteveJobs'' up in that upper left-hand corner.
[ Reagle ] Yeah, but Al is just closing in. All- All Al has to do is get that little corner-
-[ Conan ] Yep. -and then figure out what the heck one across is.
[ Conan ] And he sh- Ifhe gets the ''Z''here, he's got it nailed.
- That's the hard- He's got the ''fob. '' -[ Reagle ] Good. F-O-B.. ''fob. ''
[ Conan ] ''Ramified''he's got, and... there it is.
- Done. - [ Crowd Clamoring ]
- [ Conan Shushing ] Shh.! Quiet. - [ Crowd Quiets ]
[ Crowd Gasping ]
- [ Reagle ] Oh, man. - [ Crowd Groans ]
Hmm, hmm.
Against his competition- speed being of the essence-
did not go through that last check.
[ Reagle ] Well, he had that perfect, yet he had that hard corner to do...
andjust didn't go back to check, uh, one across.
[ Conan ] So Tyler, now,just fixed from ''game show''to ''quiz show scandal. ''
So that's a big help to him. He's got that upper right he's unfinished yet.
And Trip is just having ''long 'I. '''
He's trying different letters in there, seeing what looks good.
[ Reagle ] Yeah. The clue for this is ''one of two hi-fi components''...
And, uh, he hasn't caught on to what that means yet.
-[ Conan ] Should get the ''hog''though. -And he doesn't know what ''a pole in China''is.
- Oh, good God! - [ Laughing ]
[ Conan ] ''Zolaesque''has just fallen.
- And Tyler is closing in here. - [ Reagle ] Yeah.
- [ Conan ] And one letter- He's got it. - Done.
[ Crowd Applauding ]
[ Reagle ] I can't believe that a guy that's seven years old is gonna win this.
[ Crowd Laughing ]
I mean, Hi, Tyler. How are ya doin'?
[ Payne ] Well, I hope you can read all this.
- [ Reagle ] As soon as you get out of the way, we can. - [ Crowd Laughs ]
- Done. - [ Applauding ]
[ No Audible Dialogue ]
[ Shortz ] All right. Here are the results.
In third place- finishing first but having two blank letters-
- [ Payne ] Oh, my God. - is Al Sanders.
[ Crowd Applauding ]
Second place-perfect in 1 2 minutes and 1 4 seconds-is Trip Payne.
[ Shortz ] And our new champion-
perfect in 1 0 minutes and 2 7 seconds...
the youngest champion in the history of the event-is Tyler Hinman.
[ Crowd Cheers ]
Guess where I got hung up. I got hung up here and here...
and here and here and pretty much over here.
Yeah. This was a mother.
The two downs- I had those in my head, so I- I think I thought I had put those in.
And I had said, ''Done, ''so as far as I know, I was over at that point,you know.
And... I just looked back, and I just remember grabbin' those headphones and just-
[ Grunts ] You know? Oh, I was so mad.
- What are you studying in school? - Um, I.T. major. With a-
- Where are you at? What school? - R.P.I. Rensselaer.
[ Man ] How do you feel?
Good. I feel good.
Yeah, that sums it up. Words are failin' me. I'm just glad they waited until now to do so.
A day without the puzzle?
Well, it's not like insulin. I mean, I can live without it for a day.
Crossword puzzles are something that feed into a basic human need...
to figure things out.
[ Mussina ] It allows you to be open-minded and lets you think about...
other parts of the language that maybe you weren't necessarily thinkin'about.
The regularity of it- the fact that it's always there for you-
is very, very appealing.
[ Saliers ] I think it's much more about the words than it is about the music...
but,you know, words- they connect us.
[ Burns ] Language is it. This is the-
the most powerful force, I believe, on Earth is the English language.
[ Clinton ] The ability to communicate clearly and forcefully-
I think it's profoundly important.
I think that, um- I don't know. They're fun.
I hope whoever succeeds me at the Times is someone who carries on the tradition...
of having crosswords that speak people's language...
and somebody who will use puzzles that arejustjam-packed...
with interesting, lively, juicy, fun vocabulary...
and continues to innovate.
And at Stamford, I hope, when I'm 95, that someone will wheel me in in a wheelchair...
and I'll have drool coming down the side of my mouth...
and, um, I just hope the event is still goin' on and people are having a great time.
''''[ Folk Rock ]
[ Man ] '' You know every word is made up ofletters''
''Made up ofletters made up ofletters''
''Put them together and that makes it better''
'' That makes it better That makes it better''
''I've been lovin'you''
''So long, so long''
''I've been lovin'you''
''So long, so long''
''Before you appeared life was a puzzle''
''Life was a puzzle Life was a puzzle''
''I am the stone and you are the chisel''
'' You are the chisel You are the chisel''
''I've been lovin'you''
''So long, so long''
''I've been lovin'you''
''So long, so long''
'' Truth is a place much like a meadow''
''Sun peekin'out, chasin'the shadow''
''Fill in the blanks and I'm ever grateful Then came the wind''
'' You suddenly floated away''
'' The sea was changed like that he remembered''
'' That he remembered That he remembered''
'' Winter to spring and spring into summer''
''Spring into summer Spring into summer''
''I'll keep lovin'you''
''So long, so long''''
''''[ Ends ]
[ Man #2 ]''If you don't come across I'm gonna be down''
''If you don't come across I'm gonna be down''
'' Your love to me is a mystery and the clues are all around''
''If you don't come across I'm gonna be down''''
''''[ Acoustic Guitar ]
''''[ Ends ]