Will Shortz is the crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times and puzzle master on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, and he is the world’s only enigmatologist, the only academically accredited puzzle master in the world.
The Hustler: How’d you get into what you’re doing right now?
Will Shortz: I started making puzzles when I was eight or nine. I sold my first one when I was 14. I went to Indiana University where they have a program called the individualized major program; if you’re accepted, you can major in anything you want. I had always dreamed of having a career in puzzles eventually. Didn’t think it was possible, but I devised an entire curriculum in puzzles for myself at Indiana. I went on to law school, but after law school, I became a puzzle magazine editor, and that’s what I’ve done my whole life.
TH: What draws you to puzzles?
WS: I love the intellectual stimulation of puzzles. They take you into every field of human knowledge — you know history, mythology … classical music and so on … up to TV, music, sports, rock ’n’ roll — I love the playfulness of them, the way puzzles twist your brain. I like the feeling of solving a mystery. Every problem you solve is a mystery — it’s a problem to be unwound. And I think the thing I like most about puzzles is the people I come in contact with because the people who do puzzles tend to be smart, well-rounded, often humorous people with flexible minds. And whatever you talk about, they’re interesting people
TH: What sparked your interest?
WS: I think my first book of puzzles was on my sister’s nightstand. It was called “We Dare You to Solve This.” I remember once when my sister was away at school, I borrowed the book for one day, and a little bit later, I borrowed the book for a couple of days, and then I borrowed it for a week, and eventually, I just took it, and those are the first puzzles that I remember doing.
TH: How does it feel to be the only person to have a degree in enigmatology?
WS: I think most people, when you graduate from college, say six months after you graduate, no one ever asks you what your college major was. And here I’m 57 and still talking about my college major.
TH: Did you receive any inspiration in the form of friends or family?
WS: Nobody in my family solved puzzles when I grew up, so I’m not sure where this puzzle bug came from. I think it came a little bit from my mom who was a writer so we were always interested in words around the family dinner table. I just picked up puzzles myself. I think it was a way to procrastinate from school, actually.
TH: How do you like Vandy?
WS: The campus seems beautiful. I’m excited to hear that most of the audience tonight is students. Sometimes when I speak at universities, the audience is mostly faculty or community members, but students have turned out tonight, and I’m excited.
TH: Why do you think that is?
WS: I have no idea. Puzzles have this reputation for being for old people and that’s not really true. Last spring, I did an Ivy League crossword tour where I went to Brown, Harvard and Yale on successive days conducting a crossword tournament at each school, and lots of kids came out and they just had a blast, so I know that there are puzzle solvers at all ages.
TH: Did you ever think you might want to work for The New York Times?
WS: No, I didn’t. First of all, I thought it was too intellectual for me. It never crossed my mind. But the job became open in 1993 when my predecessor died. I applied for it. I was told I had the best resume. So I got the job and I just love it. I love how… I learn something new every day. I get the best puzzles submitted to me from all over the country, and I think I probably have the most intelligent group of solvers of any newspaper. If I were to edit the crossword puzzles for the USA Today or the Chicago Tribune or any other paper, I would edit the puzzles differently than I do. People who read The New York Times, I know these are smart, educated people.
TH: What all does your job entail?
WS: The biggest part of my job is correspondence. I get about a hundred submissions a week, and I look at them all and everyone gets an answer “yes” or “no” and if there’s time, a comment about the puzzle, what’s good or not good about it. That’s the biggest part of the job. Once I accept puzzles, I edit them for the right level of difficulty. First of all, I edit them for accuracy because it doesn’t matter how clever or interesting the puzzle is if the clues are wrong. The puzzles get harder as the week goes on. The puzzle starts out really easy on Monday and gets very hard Friday and Saturday. And I want the clues to be fresh, interesting, fun, novel, just something that you as a solver will enjoy and want to keep doing.
TH: How do you decide what’s a Monday clue as opposed to a Saturday or Sunday?
WS: When I’m editing a puzzle, I put myself in the solver’s shoes. I know what I know and what I read in the papers and what I encounter in life. Monday, I’ll use mostly familiar vocabulary, mostly a familiar theme. Wednesday and Thursday, it’ll be a trickier puzzle. Friday, it’s probably going to be a wide open diagram with lots of white squares, very few black squares, lots of long answers and the clues are going to be harder. They’re going to explore the niches of the English language, and there’s a lot of punning and trickery that goes on in the Friday and Saturday puzzles. I love virtually any kind of puzzle. I’m not good at 3-d stuff so I can’t solve a Rubiks Cube, but I love Sudoku, any kind of word puzzle, the British crossword puzzle, cryptic puzzles, brain teasers. Just you name it, if it’s a puzzle, I probably like it.
