In 1942, the world of wordsmithing was decidedly different. The Times’s crossword puzzle was meant to be more “newsy” than those published by competitors, intended to mesh well with its canvas. Despite having no obvious theme, the first puzzle was loosely spun together around of-the-era news content. In it, you’ll find references to cannons, naval bases, defense stamps and not one but three matter-of-fact mentions of the Nazis, such as 103-Down: [Port on Zuider Zee, occupied by Nazis], the clue for AMSTERDAM.
According to Shortz, Farrar wasn’t actually fond of the instructions she received to make the puzzle part and parcel of the newspaper’s journalism.
“When no one was looking, she started to downplay the amount of news and increase the number of literary references and other things,” he said. It’s an ethos he still follows, sprinkling in clues and answers that feature movie titles, candy brands and internet slang, for example. “Nowadays, everything in life is fair game for a crossword,” he said. While Farrar liked to avoid any references to death, disease and taxes, Shortz believes one or two references to serious matters are permissible in the puzzle. Ultimately, though, “you do want the crossword to be upbeat and to leave people with a good feeling,” he said.
Among the many differences in the debut grid, Shortz points out that it is chock-full of obscure names, prefixes and suffixes and odd forms of words, like 87-Across’s REDENOTES — as in, [Designates again]. (An online search returns fewer than 1,000 hits for the term.) To put an entry in a modern grid such as GENF at 98-Across — the German and Swiss-German spelling of Geneva — “would be desperation only,” Shortz said.
A Shakespeare reference that does not say it’s a Shakespeare reference would also most likely prove to be a trap for today’s solvers. That’s 81-Across: [“I am ___ Oracle”], the answer for which is a remark from “The Merchant of Venice” with not even a hint at its provenance. (The answer is SIR.)
