Crossword App Comes To Facebook

Crossword constructors who've gravitated to Facebook for conversation and fellowship now have a major-league puzzle application that includes tournament and head-to-head play, as well as solo play.

Crosswords by PuzzleSocial features puzzles from the AV Club, Newsday, and CrosSynergy groups, as well as custom Celebrity crosswords. The constructors and editors are all major players. So you know it's good stuff.

There are three daily head to head contests. The Celebrity puzzle at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, the Newsday puzzle at 9:30 p.m., and the CrosSynergy puzzle at 10:00 p.m. There will also be challenge solving added to the app soon so you can test your skills against a foe of your choosing. The solving app is very similar to Across Lite and worked quite well on a few test puzzles. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

ACPT 35 Registration Now Open

Registration has now opened for the 35th American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which lasts from March 16-18. The program is still being hammered into place but this year we will have new commentators for the Sunday morning puzzles: Greg Pliska and Liane Hansen.

As most of the puzzles will be solved this year on St. Patrick's Day, potential contestants must be aware of traffic delays if going through Manhattan, where the annual parade will be staged.

The cost for all events, if paid in full before March 9, is $250. Hotel rooms at the Marriott are going for $213/night. More details at www.crosswordtournament.com.

New Fan of "Wordplay"

Late to the table, but welcome nonetheless, is actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays Mitchell Pritchett on "Modern Family". He recently had "Wordplay" come up in his Netflix queue, and loved it.

Ferguson tweeted to his over 220,000 followers, "After watching the great documentary 'Wordplay' I am certain I just saw insight in to the world of the people who spell check my tweets."

We won't tell him that "in to" is one word.... will we?