Will Watch

Heads up for "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" fans: Will Shortz will be appearing in the role of Expert on the program next week. The "Ask the Expert" lifeline is new to the show this season and the experts rotate roughly every week.

Merl's NYT Simpsons-Related Puzzle

Transparently, it is your basic Merl Reagle puzzle... but I recommend you do this puzzle before watching the show to enjoy all the surprises of this puzzle.

http://query.nytimes.com/premium/xword/Nov1608.puz (Subscription to NYT Premium Crosswords required)

FOX Publicity For This Week's "Simpsons"

I'll leave it to you to figure out which one is Merl and which one is Will.

And does Matt Groening still draw all these himself after 450 or so episodes?

Reworking Galleries

We are reworking the galleries plus adding a few events we didn't have galleries before. We are now in the process of publishing these and if you see little red X's, don't worry, we're taking care of it.

"The Simpsons" To Spoof The Crossword World

In an episode airing on Sunday, November 16, "The Simpsons" will delve headlong into the world of crosswords. "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words" casts Lisa as a whiz at crosswords, so she enters a local tournament. Meanwhile, Homer sees the seamy side of crossword tournaments with its underworld betting scams, and winds up having to bet against his daughter in another tournament. Will Shortz and Merl Reagle will provide their own voices for the episode.

According to some reports, there will be a tie-in with that day's New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle.

Huang Crowned Sudoku King

Veteran puzzler Wei-Hwa Huang has won the second annual Philadelphia Inquirer Sudoku National Championship. He bested first-year champion Thomas Snyder on the final puzzle by a margin of 26 seconds. Here's a report from Marketwatch.

S&S 3 Now Out

Simon & Schuster has just now published the third volume of the Mega Crossword Puzzle Book. The Puzzle Brothers (well, one of them, anyway) have now entered the pantheon of S&S creators, with a puzzle by Dave called "Stretching Reality" - it's a 19x, which is a size unique to S&S. Buy it, if not for Dave's puzzle, but the 299 other puzzles you get in the book. There will be more puzzles to come from both Dave and Bob in future volumes of the Mega.

"Sun" Subscriptions Now Available

Hot steamin' deal! The New York Sun crossword puzzles are now exclusive to the Web, and the first flight of puzzles, through late February, is only $12.50 at the newly-designed Cruciverb website.

12th Westchester Crossword Tournament

BOB MACKEY MAKES HIS A DOUBLE

Bob Mackey makes room for another trophy on his increasingly crowded mantel as he has taken his second straight Westchester Crossword Tournament. Jeffrey Schwartz placed second, and Elaine Lippman was third.

Elaine finished the stage puzzle - next Thursday's New York Times puzzle, constructed by Doug Peterson - first, but left one letter blank, giving Bob, who finished perfectly in second place, the win. Jeffrey Schwartz finished not soon after Bob.

Taking a cue from past ACPT winners, Bob didn't react to Elaine's call of "Done" - he just kept plugging away at his puzzle. Even after he walked over and saw the one blank square on Elaine's grid, he still didn't realize he was the winner until Elaine was announced in third place.

The tournament program was the same as in previous years - the first three puzzles were the Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday puzzles from the ensuing week's New York Times. (Brace yourselves for an unusually shaped grid for Monday's puzzle by Patrick Blindauer - that's all I'm going to say.) The first place finisher from each puzzle goes on stage to complete Thursday's puzzle. Elaine was first on the Monday and Tuesday puzzles; Bob got to the podium by finishing second on Tuesday by the slimmest of margins. Jeffrey was in third place on Puzzle 3, getting in by benefit of first-in finisher Ken Stern having one wrong square, and second place on that puzzle was Bob. (Thanks to Ellen Ripstein for the correction.)

Stan Kurzban acted as head judge, and other judges included Pat Merrell, Ellen Ripstein, Nancy Schuster, Frank Longo, Patrick Blindauer, Tony Orbach, Deb Amlen, Ashish Vengsarkar, Mike Nothnagel, Caleb Madison (who became the youngest NYT constructor ever this past year), and - much to the relief of the elite solvers - Howard Barkin.

As always, the tournament was held for the benefit of the Pleasantville Fund For Learning, with our hosts supplying coffee and pastries for our enjoyment. All in all, a great night - and we're already looking forward to next year.

Westchester Tournament Tonight

Just a reminder... this evening at 7:30 is the Westchester Crossword Tournament, at St. John's Episcopal Church, 7 Sunnyside Avenue, Pleasantville, New York. The tournament is run by Will Shortz and benefits the Pleasantville Fund For Learning. $30 to compete as a single, $45 for a team, payable at the door. Bob and I hope to see you there tonight.

"Sun" Puzzles Will Continue!

According to Kevin McCann's Cruciverb website, the New York Sun puzzles edited by Peter Gordon will be available free for the next few days, then by subscription thereafter. This comes in the wake of the cancellation of the Sun print newspaper, which as of today (October 1) is no more. I hope you continue to take advantage of Mr. Gordon's skills as an editor, which are quite enormous.

Sun Done?

Unless something miraculous happens - and frankly, there's a lot in New York that could use a miracle right now, right, Mets fans? - The New York Sun will publish its last issue on Monday, September 29.

Crossword? Right now, there's nothing on their crossword pages on their website. That can't be a good sign. However, if you access the Sun directories via Will Johnston's Puzzle Pointers, Peter Gordon has puzzles locked and loaded through the end of next week (Friday, October 3).

I suggest you pull down these files while you still can before The Sun takes its servers offline. And please show your love for Peter and his very hard work by making a donation to Peter Gordon, 15 Shadow Lane, Great Neck, NY 11021, or pokefun@optonline.net. Thank you.

"Sun" Going Down?

According to this media report, the New York Sun newspaper - home of one of the most challenging daily crosswords in the country - may fold within weeks, if new cash is not found.

The modern incarnation of the New York Sun, based on the name of a newspaper that folded in 1950, began publication in April 2002. Soon afterward, the paper began its daily crossword, edited by Peter Gordon. The newspaper itself has a smallish paid circulation and gives many of its copies away, but Gordon's crosswords have become known far and wide as one of the only worthy challengers to Will Shortz' daily dominance - and many find Gordon's work as editor to be top notch and the most challenging daily solve of all.

Second US Sudoku Championship Announced

Thomas Snyder will try to regain his title at the 2nd Annual U.S. Sudoku Championship, sponsored by the Philadelphia Inquirer and hosted by Will Shortz. It will take place from October 24-25 at the Philadelphia Conference Center. Top prize in the expert bracket will be $10,000. More information in the link at the sidebar.

12th Westchester Tournament Announced

The Pleasantville Fund For Learning has announced its annual evening of crosswords, and this year it's a little earlier (shades of the ACPT!). The 12th annual tournament hosted by Will Shortz on his own turf will be Friday, October 3, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Format should be the same as in years past - three preliminary puzzles (October 6, 7 and 8 NYT puzzles) with the podium puzzle being Thursday's.

Last year's tournament was won handily by our own Bob Mackey. Will he repeat? Come on out to the St. John's Episcopal Church on October 3 and find out - and if you can't be here, we'll be sure to let you know.

An Eight Letter Word For Table Tennis....

An April 5, 2008 peek into the world of competitive table tennis, featuring a man who claims to play table tennis for the same reasons many solve crossword puzzles.

The Undersung Crossword Hero

Clearly, the constructors get all the glory. But what about the undersung heroes of crossword making? Such as the guys who ink in the diagrams?

Howard Barkin Wins "Lollapuzzoola"

Full report here.

NYT Black Square Record Broken

Kevin G. Der broke the record for fewest black squares with Friday's New York Times puzzle. The new low-water-mark is 18, beating Manny Nosowsky's old record by one.

NYT 8/22 puzzle (requires subscription to NYT puzzles)

"Lollapuzzoola" This Saturday

"Ryan And Brian" of the blog "Ryan And Brian Do Crosswords" (http://crosswords.ryanfacestheworld.com) are throwing their own crossword tournament. "Lollapuzzoola '08" will be held on Saturday, August 23 from 12-4 at the Community Church, 81-10 35th Avenue, Jackson Heights. The constructors will include Mike Nothnagel, Brendan Emmett Quigley and Ashish Vengsarkar.