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DreamTeam:Hook,Reagle,
PlusAmerica'sMostCreativeGrosswords
By the Nation'sTopConstructors
A CompleatCruciverbalist
MelRosen
byAlexVaughn
CROSSW RD Magazineispleasedtoannouncethat
Mel Rosen is the official recipient of the fourth annual
Wynner award as the 1993 Crossword Puzzle Personof
the Year.
One of the nation's top editors, a clever, witty constructor,theco-authorof theunofficial bible of crossword
consffuction, and a pioneer in the use of computers in
oday,he's one of the puzzlepublishing world's busiest editors,
overseeing
contentsof severalbook
seriesfor RunningPressandof thepopular
program,TheCrosswords
mail-subscription
Club. But as recentlyas sevenyearsago,
Mel Rosen was unawarethat his career
wouldheadin anysuchdirection.He wasa
full-time computeranalystwith IBM and
hadno seriousplan to be anythingelse.
"Then, in 1987, the companystarted
offering early-retirement,inducements,"
"I wasgiven
saysthe52-year-oldFloridian.
thechanceto retire,startdrawingpension,
althoughI was still in my forties, and do
supplemental
work for IBM as a part-time
techwriter."
Rosenjumped at the offer, becauseit
meanthecouldnow switchmajortime and
energyto one of his passionatelyloved
avocations,
crosswords.However, as appealingasthecareerchangewas,it brought
nervousness
to Rosen'shousehold,he admits.Giving up the economicsecurityof
life was scary.
corporate
"On thefirst morningof my retirement,
my wife, Peggy,asked-with concernwhetherI hada five-yearplan," he recalls.
"I said,'Five years?Honey,I don't know
whatI'll havefor lunchtoday."'
But Rosen'snew livelihood quickly
He hadbeena puzzleconstrucblossomed.
torsincethelate1960s,sellingdiagramless,
variety,anddaily- and Sunday-sizecrosswordsto outletsincluding TheNew York
Times, D ell Magazines,andGamcs Magazine.His reputationas a creatorof witty,
wasalreadysolidlyin place.
elegantpuzzles
Moreover,since1981,he hadbeenediting
abookseries-simply calledCrosswordsfor RunningPress.(Times puzzle editor
him to
EugeneMaleskahadrecommended
1994
January/February
ROSENON EDITING
What happenswhen Mel Rosengets
his handson a crosswordconstructor's
work?
"Some
editorsmakea lot of changes,"
Rosensays."I try notto.Eachconstructor
hasa uniquestyle or 'voic,' and I think
this voice deservesto be heard.
"ButI'll makechanges
iflfeell must-if there'smorethanalittleobscurityinthe
puzzle,for example,or if I needto getrid
of repetitionamongthatpuzzleandones
on neighboringpages.
"SometimesI'll make
changes!o remove 'crosswordese'
suchas the seemingly inevitable ERNE, ESNE, ORR,
ATLI, andso on.
"My personalpetbugaboois theoccasionalinstancewhereaconstructor's
clue
doesn't grammaticallyagree with the
answerword. One may be a noun, the
othera verb,for example.I will always
changetheseso that clue and answer
agree.A legitimate clue for IVY is not
'Climbs the wall.' That kind
of thing
makesme climb the wall."
previouslypublishedprzzles,updatedand
in largerprint. To date,Rosen'sbooksfor
the publisher(all series)have sold more
thanonehalf million copies.
Next, as if thebook workloadwerenot
demandingenough,Rosenin 1992became
editorof TheCrosswordsClub.Theclub's
original editor,Will Weng,was in failing
CROSSWRD
Rosen(fromPage5)
to testandcheckpuzzles.
Rosen,however,haslearnedwhatevery
editor knows: No one wins every round
from Murphy's Law. The occasionalerror
creepsthrough,regardless
of prepublication
checkingand proofreading.He is crestfallenwhenthishappens."It doesn'tmatter
whethertle error was made by the constructor,by me, by a proofreader,or whoever.Theultimateresponsibilityis mine.It
happened
on my watch."
Heruefullyremembers
lapses."I learned
too late that an otter is not a rodent.I got
diastolemixedup with systole.I onceconfusedFalawith Asta.Contraryto my clue,
Mel Rosenfavorscrosswords
that have"a little somethingextragoingon" in them,
FDR's Scottienevercostarredwith Myrna
beyondthe snaightforwardtypesof themesand incidentalentries...In both my own
Loy. And once,in haste,Idid theunthink- puzzlesandthoseI acceptfromotherconstructors,I
like whatcouldbecalledgimmicks.,'
able-used the sameword asclue and anHe hasconstructed
puzzles
in
which:
swer. 'Ammo' is not a good clue for
. theonly vowelsappearingin ttregrid wereletterA,s
AMMO."
. everyletter of the alphabetappearedin ttregrid at leastthreetimes
It is Rosenhimself who most keenly
'the positionsof answen in ttre grid were thematicallyrelevant(EAST
INDIA
remembers
theseraregoofs,of course.He
coMPAhrY was at the right, where east would be on a map; sourH BEND
is a painstakingedior who prizescareand
INDIANA wasat the botom; and so on)
acctuacy.
' solvorswere challengedto carchon that they neededto draw pictures,rather
than
write alphabetletters,in certainsquares
"I onceconstructedpuzzle
Rosengrew up in and around Miami.
a
with a breakfasttheme,"hesays."Theclue,waffles' was
"Mine was pretty
a
unevenful childhood," answeredin the grid by EQUIVOcATES, the clue 'Bacon' by sHAKESPEARE
he says."I'm not sureanythingin it foreCONTEMPORARY,rhe clue 'oJ.' by slMpsoN's MCKNAME, et cerera.The
shadowedmy crosswordcareer---except unusualthingherewasthatthe themewasin theclues,not
in the answers."
thatthereusedto be a few olderkids in my
His own varietypuzzlesandthoseof otherconstructors
whichhe haspublishedhave
neighborhood
whobulliedyoungeroneson
included:
thesidewalk,and who oncesaid that they
' crosswords
in whichcluesfor eachrow or columnweregivenin randomorder(not
wouldn'tlet me passuntil I saidsomebig
necessarilyttreorder in which the answerslined up)
wordsfor them. Thatprobablymeantwords
' diagramlesses
in which the pattemsof unfilled squaresformed pictures
of two or more syllables,if I remember
' puzzlesin which morethanoneletterhadto beenteredin every
square(othereditors
thosekids."
and publishershavetheir own namesfbr puzzlesof this stylefRosencalls ttrem
"Squeezzles.")
Rosenattendedthe University of Chi"Before
cago,wherehemethis wife-to-be.
In RunningPressbooks,hehasfeatured"CorraltheClues"puzzles.After filling in all
theendof freshmanyear,PeggyandI knew
cluedentries,tle solvermustfollow additionalinsfuctionsanddererminewhichanswer
we had a future together,"he says."We
wordsareto bewrittenasecondtime,thistime in a solid.,wordsquare',(four squareswide
were married in October of sophomore by four squaresdeep,no black squares)occupyingthe
centerof the grid.
"For me,"
year."
he says,"gimmickslike thesearewhatkeepcrosswordsinteresting."
Neitherof theRosensreceiveda degree
atChicago.AlthoughPeggy'sprospective sincethe schoolwasjust turning coed."I ing a tech writer. Mel's early retirement
majorwaspre-medbiochemistryandMel' s wasoneof thefew malesin classthen,"he camein '87, and the couplehasstayedin
wasphysics,thecoupleweretoodistracted says,"so I got somefunnylooks."
Tampa.
bycompetingenthusiasms
During his years with IBM in
to pay attention
.
to labsandlibraries.TheRosenswrotethe Poughkeepsie,
Rosenlaunchedhis puzzle
Rosenwasoneof the pioneeringcrossmusic,lyrics, and book for the university constructinghobby,sellingfirstto TheN ew word constructorswho first usedcomputtheaterdepartment'sannualmusicalshow YorkTimesand thento othermarkets.
ers to design and print puzzle grid diaoneyear,leavingthemselves
scanttime for
Shortly after he becamea constructor, grams.
"In the
study.
Rosen befriended fellow IBMer Stan
early'80s,whenIBM wasintroThey left school after rwo and a half Kurzban,whomhe helpedandencouraged ducing its first desktopcomputers,
the
years.At about that time, they starteda to becomea puzzle constructoras well. companysetup anin-houselottery
because
family(theyhavetwo daughters)and Mel RosenandKurzbannotonly wereco-work- not enoughof thesemachineshadyet
been
wentto work for IBM in Illinois. "I wasin ers and kindred puzzlemakers,but also producedto let every employeepurchase
theofficeend,notthecomputerend.In fact, played duplicatebridge in an American one,"heexplains."Peggy'snamewas
drawn
computers
werestrangeandnew then.Me- Contract Bridge League club and were almostimmediately,so the first homepC
chanicaloffice tabulatingmachineswere membersof thelocalMensachapter.Even(Continuedon Page9)
GIMMICKS
ARETHESPICE
January/February
1994
CROSSWRD
Page 7
Rosen(from Page7)
weownedwasofficially hers,notmine,but
we both usedit.
"The machine
came with a dot matrix
printer-a typeof gizmothatI hadearlierseen
demonstra0ed
at a computrstore.The slore
salespeoplehad boastedabout all the neat
things the product could do, and they said,
'Justlook
at how it canprint outa calendar.'
"WelM
took one look at the calendar's
horizontalrows andboxes,andttreshockof
visualrecognitionhit me.Thedesignlooked
like a crosswordgrid! 'Wait a minute!' I said.
print theresult."
Naturally, this hrst puzzle program of
Rosen's,as well as his later, modihedversions,requiredIBM equipment.Ottrercomputer-skilledcrosswordershave developed
comparableprograms that run on Apple
Macintoshor othermicrocomputers.
Word of Rosen'sprognun soon spread
amongpuzzleconsfructors,
andsomebegan
callinghim, askingto buyit for tieir ownuse.
This show of interestqpurredhim both !o
maketheprogrammoreuserfriendly andto
add new feanres, suchas a hle that stores
definitionsfor theconstructor'sfutureuse.
takinganswerthatfollowed.
FOREHEAD
SLAPPERS
January/February
1994
CROSSWRD
Page 9