Download e-book for iPad: Gridlock: Crossword Puzzles and the Mad Geniuses Who Create by Matt Gaffney

By Matt Gaffney

ISBN-10: 156025890X

ISBN-13: 9781560258902

In the spirit of observe Freak and looking out for Bobby Fischer, Gridlock is a chronicle of the quirky way of life of America's crossword puzzles. millions of american citizens resolve crossword puzzles usually, yet few comprehend something approximately their genesis. Who writes crosswords, how—and for God's sake, why? Matt Gaffney is considered one of dozen those that earns a residing as a cruciverbalist. In Gridlock he offers an insider's examine the folk who placed that puzzle on your paper each day. With verve and gusto, Gaffney lines his personal starving-artist fight to discover paying puzzle gigs, together with advertising hip crosswords to the Gen-X marketplace. He then strikes directly to themes just like the impression of pcs on crossword writing, together with a guy as opposed to computer conflict he levels to determine who writes higher crosswords; the ever-evolving crossword puzzle ebook marketplace, the place a top-selling sequence now has books formed like a bathroom seat; and a visit to the yank Crossword Puzzle event, the place the "Cru" (collective slang noun which means "the crossword puzzle writing community") hangs out in individual every year. Gridlock additionally gains an interview with crossword rock big name Will Shortz.

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Additional info for Gridlock: Crossword Puzzles and the Mad Geniuses Who Create Them

Sample text

I'm riding an Amtrak train headed to Stamford, Connecticut, for the 29th annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, the largest such contest in the country, and making my way to the cafe car. As I negotiate the swaying aisles, I'm counting the number of passengers solving sudoku and the number solving crosswords. As a professional cruciverbalist, I'm depressed by the results: my beloved crossword puzzles are getting totally shut out so far. The two teenaged girls I found especially galling-even the cool kids in high school are solving sudoku now.

In mathematics from the University of Colorado, and I vow to look up later what "modulo" means. He's just turned thirty and looks like tennis champ Boris Becker, and carries the slightly haughty demeanor of an ultra-bright math junkie who generally assumes his audience knows words like "modulo," even if they don't. Most people at the crossword tournament probably will, though; somewhat counterintuitively, math-based professionals are wellrepresented among top crossword constructors and solvers.

The top two teams, each of whom answered thirty-eight of the forty questions right, then take the stage for a College Bowl-style smackdown moderated by Jennings, who speaks so quickly that I can't understand several of the questions. The audience, which probably numbers modulo zero nonJeopardy! fans, is thrilled with Jennings' appearance, and they line up to talk with him after the contest. The schmoozing carries on at the wine and cheese reception; later, groups of two or eleven or five stake out far-flung corners of the main ballroom.

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