In 1942, the world of word-writing was decidedly different. The New York Times’ crossword puzzles are more “journalistic” than those published by competitors and are designed to fit perfectly into its canvas. Although there is no obvious theme, the first puzzle is loosely grouped around news content from the era. In it, you’ll find references to artillery, naval bases, defense stamps, and not one but three matter-of-fact references to the Nazis, such as 103-Down: [Port on Zuider Zee, occupied by Nazis]Amsterdam Clues.
According to Shortz, Farrar actually didn’t like the instructions she received to make the puzzle an important part of the newspaper’s news coverage.
“When no one was paying attention, she started to tone down the amount of news and increase the amount of literary references and other content,” he said. He still follows this spirit by, for example, including movie titles, candy brands, and internet slang in his clues and answers. “Everything in life is fair game in the crossword puzzle these days,” he said. While Farrar prefers to avoid mentions of death, illness and taxes, Shotz believes the puzzle allows for one or two mentions of serious matters. But ultimately, “you do want crossword puzzles to be upbeat and leave people with a good feeling,” he said.
Shortz points out that there are many differences in the debut grid, which is filled with obscure names, prefixes and suffixes, and odd single-word forms, such as REDENOTES for 87-Across – e.g. [Designates again]. (An online search returned fewer than 1,000 hits for the term.) Putting entries into a modern grid such as 98-Across in GENF (the German and Swiss German spellings of Geneva) “can only be a sign of despair,” Shortz said.
A Shakespeare reference that doesn’t say it’s a Shakespeare reference is also likely to prove to be a trap for today’s solvers. That’s 81 crossover: [“I am ___ Oracle”]the answer is a line from The Merchant of Venice, without even a hint of the source. (The answer is sir.)