acrosses

Not the Party Type

PhotoThe singer Whitney Houston performed in 2011.Credit Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

FRIDAY’S PUZZLE — This puzzle is a thing of beauty, even if it did almost Nothnagel me (for those of you just joining us, to be Nothnageled means to be defeated by tricky entries in the grid. It’s named after tricky constructor Mike Nothnagel, who is otherwise a very nice guy.) We should probably come up with a name for a puzzle by Brad Wilber and Doug Peterson, because they are another team of constructors whose byline can strike fear into the hearts of even the bravest solvers.

And today is no different. We have a beautiful, open 70-word puzzle, chock-full of entries that will tax your memory and make you bow down and thank the universe that Al Gore invented the Internet so you can conveniently look things up. I had no real recollection, for example, that the low-budget Hollywood studios went by the nickname POVERTY ROW, but if I were to take a poll of my brain cells, I would surely find at least one or two of the more grizzled ones that had run across that nugget of information at one time or another. Because it’s Friday, folks. And that’s the kind of painful pleasure we get for hanging in there through the easier puzzles.

Also, see 27 Down’s “Site of the last battle of the Cuban Revolution,” SANTA CLARA.

Of course, part of the pleasure of a Wilber/Peterson puzzle is that there are just enough pseudo-gimmes to make you think you are on a solving roll, until you bump into something that will clearly require more coffee. There I was, happily filling in some of the downs in the southern portion, when I ran into what I feel is the Clue of the Day: “One-third of a triangle, maybe.” There’s that “maybe.” You thought HYPOTENUSE, didn’t you? Or something geometric, right? Not even close, unless the OTHER WOMAN was something that was taught in my high school geometry class on a day when I was out.

Similarly, I thought maps over gardening tools at 10 Down, where Mr. Wilber and Mr. Peterson define their borders with a WEED EATER. At 22 Down, my brain thought INTrovert for “Not the party type?: Abbr.”, instead of IND. for INDEPENDENT. And at 43 Across, I was thinking of a fruit relative of the avocado, not the color, which turns out to be SAGE GREEN. Very tricky, Messrs. Wilberson.

And yet, I enjoyed the solve very much. There are some constructors who can just fill and clue a puzzle (with sharp cluing oversight by Will Shortz) with some really tough entries, but you are happy to learn them.

How do they do it? Let’s learn a little about their process:

Constructor’s Notes

Brad Wilber writes:

Sometimes I get asked how Doug and I clue the puzzles we do together. I’ve collaborated with a few other constructors where one will do all the Downs and the other all the Acrosses, or one will clue all the areas where the constructing partner did the fill. But Doug and I usually operate a little differently: the one to start the cluing simply cherry-picks from both the Downs and Acrosses, with an understanding that the first guy will try to knock off a bunch of the more pedestrian (for lack of a better word) entries, and will leave some of the splashier entries alone. I’ve never had an editor ask me NOT to double-clue, either, so if each of us has a good idea on how to clue the same entry, we send it on with both intact [Double-cluing is the practice of sending in more than one clue for an entry, with the intention of letting the editor choose the final clue. — D.A.]

Usually, the fill ends up being evenly divided as well. It’s true that once in a while one of us has done the fill in toto and the other has done all the clues. Or, once in a while, someone does about two-thirds of a grid and sends the other a “Can This Crossword Be Saved?” e-mail. But most of the time it’s about half and half. Hopefully it’s pretty seamless, so that there’s a sense of mystery about where Peterson fill stops and Wilber starts. At times, each of us has picked seed entries that solvers who’ve seen a lot of our work might have expected the other one to use, so that we can turn the tables on someone who claims to KNOW who did what (sometimes they’re right, too, of course!)

Robert CARO may have written L.B.J.’s biography, but here’s my favorite CARO, who sings about her own triangle:

Your thoughts?

Merl Reagle, creator of crosswords for The Washington Post Magazine, dies

Merl Reagle, the imaginative and irrepressibly amusing verbal virtuoso who created the crossword puzzles published each week in The Washington Post Magazine and in many other newspapers, died Aug. 22 in a hospital in Tampa, Florida. He was 65.

He had entered the hospital Thursday after an attack of acute pancreatitis, his wife said.

The Sunday puzzle that appears in the Aug. 23 magazine is his work. Typically, as a result of magazine production schedules, his puzzles would be sent in three weeks before they were to appear, said the magazine’s editor, Lynn Medford.

Of the two schools of puzzle construction — one that demands an array of arcane facts and suggests a school-day quiz, and the other that assumes the aspects of playful entertainment — Reagle attached himself firmly to the latter.

A man of laughter and merriment, he laced his acrosses and downs with clues that teased and tantalized and embodied the concept of crosswords as wordplay, not to mention plays on words. He clearly fancied puns, and fans came to applaud him for it.

Creativity shone through the clues and answers, and it took a bit of time before solvers recognized who they were dealing with and how to deal with his work. But they did.

Sometimes in their cleverness, the answers might mystify for a time even after they were entered into the proper squares.

For example: “atoz.” That was the four-letter answer to the clue that read “completely.” It took a few moments before it revealed its identity as “a-to-z.”

Once, he told the St. Petersburg Times, “crossword humor” was an oxymoron.

But he added: “We’re trying to decerebralize it. We’re trying to make puzzles so that you can talk about them to other people, so they have life off the page.

“The three-toed sloths, the Malaysian canoes . . . who cares?”

“He just had a lighthearted sense of humor,” Medford said. “People loved his puns.”

The circle of those who make a living from constructing crosswords is small indeed. But the niche occupation seemed to be made for Mr. Reagle, and he for it.

“He absolutely loved his work. He had so much fun” doing it, Medford said.

It was his zest for what he did that appeared to attract his fans, who were zealous in their enthusiasm for his weekly product. “They love him,” Medford said.

He was prominent in a 2006 documentary film called “Wordplay,” which considered the world of the cruciverbalists, the polysyllabic term sometimes used to describe those who create and try to solve the puzzles.

“Merl is one of the most well-known crossword puzzle constructors in the world,” said Patrick Creadon, the film’s director.

“He’s as good as they get,” Creadon told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2006.

Former president Bill Clinton was one of the celebrity-puzzle fans included in the film. But Creadon said, “As it turns out, [Reagle] sort of steals the movie.”

Although Reagle seemed made for his work and showed an early aptitude for it, it took some time before it became his full-time occupation.

He was born in Audubon, New Jersey, on Jan. 5, 1950. As a boy, he moved from New Jersey to Tucson, Arizona. He attended high school there as a teenager and sold a puzzle to a magazine for youths. In addition, he distinguished himself in his teens by becoming, shortly before he turned 16, the youngest person ever to sell a puzzle to the New York Times.

He went on to the University of Arizona, where his interest in words led him to journalism. He was a copy editor for the campus paper and spent three years as a copy editor for the Arizona Daily Star.

After that, according to the Daily Star, came a stint in San Francisco, where his day job, or perhaps his night job, was as assistant manager at a movie theater. But he kept at his freelance puzzle-making.

In 1979, he headed for Santa Monica, California. There he wrote for television game shows, including “The Home Shopping Game” and “Couch Potatoes,” about TV trivia.

By 1985, Reagle, in his mid-30s, came closer to his true calling. He became the maker of the weekly puzzle for the San Francisco Examiner and then for the Chronicle. Editors at other newspapers began to buy his work.

In 2006, he appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s show, “Oprah.” He constructed an O-shaped puzzle just for her. It wasn’t easy, he told the Daily Star. “Every single answer had to be about Oprah.”

Two years later came an appearance as an animated character in an episode of “The Simpsons.”

The Washington Post hired him in 2008.

His weekly puzzle went to about 50 papers, the Tampa Bay Times said.

Survivors include his wife, Marie Haley; his father, Sam Reagle; and a brother, Sam Reagle.

Social media offers hope as Kerala wades through flood crisis

File photo from July 2018 shows children enjoying a rainy day in Mumbai, India. Kerala state is currently facing its worst flood crisis in over a hundred years. Source: Shutterstock

INDIA’s southwestern state of Kerala is facing its worst flooding in 100 years. The death toll has risen to nearly 400 while many still wait for rescue.

More than 800,000 people have been placed in approximately 4,000 relief camps across 14 districts. As flooding continues to wreak havoc for two consecutive weeks, call for prayers have transformed into calls for help, action, and support.

This YouTube compilation video by TLOI Academy depicts the severity of the disaster:

Many victims trapped by the heavy rains have already received support from people from all around the world, thanks to organisations who have rallied volunteers and donors to activate donation pick-up points in cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Bengaluru.

SEE ALSO: 5 ways the global hydropower boom is displacing millions

Using social media to promote and spread awareness, they are calling for collections of food supplies, toiletries, baby products, menstrual kits, and dry clothing. This campaign received a boost from social media celebrities, film actors, and comedians who sent appeals for generous support.

Keralite actor Nivin Pauly posted an appeal for people in Bengaluru (Bangalore):

Calling all my friends in #Bangalore for support! Our friends are collecting these items on Tuesday and Wednesday to distribute it to various relief camps in #Chengannur! Please spread this! @twtnishad #KeralaFloods#StandWithKerala#KeralaFloodRelief pic.twitter.com/A02JMGjmlE

— Nivin Pauly (@NivinOfficial) August 20, 2018

Platforms such as PayTM and Amazon.in have initiated facilities to enable users to donate to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Relief Fund:

We are happy to share that we have crossed INR 30 Crore in contributions in under 4 days, from over 12 lakh Paytm users for #KeralaFloodRelief 🙏

Let’s keep going.#IndiaForKerala 🇮🇳

— Paytm (@Paytm) August 20, 2018

Netizens have been using Facebook’s Fundraiser tool to raise money for the Kerala Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

SEE ALSO: Was climate change a factor in the Laos dam disaster?

As reported in Global Voices, Google tracking software allows rescuers to locate victims by highlighting locations where rescues are needed:

Our thoughts are with those in Kerala. Help track missing people with #personfinder: https://t.co/8EECLFpCqv #KeralaFloods pic.twitter.com/mo9VM3Uph4

— Google India (@GoogleIndia) August 16, 2018

Some organisations released online forms asking victims to identify which essentials supplies they needed along with details on where those supplies could be delivered.

Buzzfeed’s Dialogue produced a video explaining ways to help those trapped and affected by the floods in Kerala.

Kerala's flood heroes: Meet the team that managed an 8000 strong relief camp in Aluva. No power, not much food, no water. How did they manage? https://t.co/mpVvdrwvQf

— Dhanya Rajendran (@dhanyarajendran) August 20, 2018

As the death toll continues to rise, organisations and individuals have made efforts to save pets as well.

The Humane Society International, an animal welfare group, has put up posts asking people to inform them of locations where animals are trapped in Kerala so that rescue teams can find them:

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. – Aesop #KeralaFlood pic.twitter.com/rFv2MgkX6G

— Psychedelic Pictures (@PsychdelicPics) August 20, 2018

Kerala fishermen have been providing boats during rescue operations. In a tweet, the Office of Chief Minister of Kerala declared that these fishermen would be remunerated including the cost of damages:

CM Pinarayi Vijayan announced that the Government will honour fishing workers who were part of the rescue mission. All boats will be granted ₹3000 for each day of their work. Government will also bear the repairing costs of boats damaged during the mission. #KeralaFloods

— CMO Kerala (@CMOKerala) August 19, 2018

The Indian government declared the floods a “calamity of severe nature.” As the Kerala state government continues to rescue the thousands yet stranded, they have also begun rehabilitation efforts for those rescued and now displaced.

Tuesday, Aug 14, saw the first commercial flight landing on the Cochin International Airport airstrip after two weeks of slow-down and shut down of air traffic. Certain airline companies have arranged relief flights from the naval base in Cochin.

SEE ALSO: Why is India denying 4 million people their citizenship?

The subsiding of water from surrounding areas has left an onslaught of debris and waste accumulated acrosses bridges and roads.

Just as Kerala’s rains have begun to dissipate, fake news and fake donation websites have cropped up, adding to the confusion of properly delivering aid to those who need it most.

In a widely circulated video, a man dressed in army fatigues claims to provide information about military rescue operations carried out in Kerala. The Indian army’s Directorate General of Public Information released a tweet explaining that the man is not an official army officer and that the video has been spreading false information:

Imposter wearing Army combat uniform in video spreading disinformation about rescue & relief efforts. Every effort by all & #IndianArmy aimed to overcome this terrifying human tragedy.Forward disinformation about #IndianArmy on WhatsApp +917290028579. We are at it #KeralaFloods pic.twitter.com/ncUR7tCkZW

— ADG PI – INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) August 19, 2018

Kerala is striving together as a fraternity to overcome the catastrophic flood. However, we have noticed that some are trying to malign this great effort with misinformation in the form of fake messages on social media. #KeralaFloods pic.twitter.com/1dVXF0gyot

— CMO Kerala (@CMOKerala) August 20, 2018

Concern over the unregulated sharing of personal account details posing as a fund, collection points for the Kerela Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund has also confused the donation process. In one such case, the Kerala police have initiated legal action against a man spreading his personal account details for people to transfer money.

While rescue operations are underway, the Indian Meteorological Department has lifted red alerts from most of Kerala state. Rain has receded in certain areas but weather forecasters predict downpours will continue in four districts throughout the week.

That smile ! :) With a confidence and poise! He has lost everything,But still believesHe can stich together,A new life ! 💫 #KeralaFlood pic.twitter.com/3gzMWqgGiG

— $ushilkhairnar (@sushilkhairnar) August 20, 2018

This article by Devika Sakhadeo first appeared on Global Voices.