MONDAY’S PUZZLE — We have two distinguished guest solvers with us today, the husband and wife team of Stefan and May Kanfer. He’s the author of the recent Marlon Brando biography Somebody and was a writer and editor at Time magazine for 20 years, including five as its first bylined film critic. She’s a consultant at the Early Childhood Center of Sarah Lawrence College, where she taught for some 20 years.
Since the bulk of their notes is not specifically about today’s puzzle, I’ll deal very briefly with that end of things, and then exit stage right.
Today’s puzzle is a step back in time, something the veteran solvers in the audience will very likely appreciate. One thing that’s certain is it’s not written by one of the young Turks we’ve been seeing recently. Although I wasn’t able to find out a lot about the constructor Randy Sowell, I do know he’s been contributing puzzles to The Times since 1994 and competed via mail in the 60s age group at the recent American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
It’s not often that a Monday solve starts off with two wrong answers, but I quickly put in a noisy “raven” at 1 Across and “rpm” at 1 Down, neglecting to notice it specified a speedometer rather than a tachometer. Of course, MACAW and MPH are the right answers.
Notes from Stefan Kanfer
I began solving crossword puzzles because of my wife, May, who has done them all her adult life. I stayed away from them for years. After all, after wrestling with words all day long (and sometimes all night long), how could I possibly enjoy a game that involved those selfsame words, plus the names of obscure Russian rivers, rock stars in whom I had no interest, and governmental agencies whose acronyms I had forgotten, if I ever knew them? Due to her encouragement, I discovered how wrong I was.
Thanks to Will Shortz, the Times crosswords grow progressively difficult as the week goes on, and potzers like me could begin slowly and grow like any other diligent student in any other field of study. I found that crossword solving used an entirely different part of my brain. It wasn’t like writing at all. It was more like solving a detective story. In that genre, mysteries and conundrums are everywhere. Enter the sleuth. By the last page, order is restored.
So it is with crosswords. In the beginning every entry offers a challenge. Answers are written neatly (in pen, in my case; pencil is a sign of weakness). In the end, the solution is there for all to see, whereupon it’s destined for the wastebasket. This detective doesn’t look back at his casebook, only forward.
Many a cruciverbalist is snobbish about the early-in-the-week puzzles. That’s pure, if understandable, swank. Even this easy Monday puzzle asks us to know the identity of two songwriters, one famous, one not so celebrated, and two very different novelists, one still read, the other somewhat obscure — and to understand what they all have in common.
What unites all crossword solvers is a love of puns, anagrams, facts, references and the odd meanings that can lie under even the shortest clues. (My favorite: “Curly poker.” Answer: “Moe,” as in the Three Stooges.)
I know there are vastly popular games involving mathematics, but even though I took a year of calculus in college I had no interest in it. I leave KenKen et al. to men and women of numbers; I prefer to remain a man of letters, and to remain a fan of Will Shortz’s crosswords now and forever.
Notes from May Kanfer
Welcome to crossword solving! No special clothing or equipment is needed for this activity, just an eraser-tipped pencil or a pen, and a willingness to engage with another mind, that of the puzzle creator.
Think decoding. Call upon the small and large bits of knowledge that you’ve accumulated over your lifetime. You know much more than you think you know! Let your mind wander over new connections. Play with proper nouns, slang, names of sports teams, mountain ranges, odd animals, words with many vowels, theme songs, trivia of all kinds.
Monday is a good place to start. Early-week puzzles, while fairly easy, usually have a helpful theme, as in today’s of related surnames. Crossword puzzles are a great exercise for the mind. Also, in contrast to our busy lives, they offer an oasis of security and surety. That boxed square contains questions, but it also contains solutions. Done properly, every answer will fit, everything will be right. Where else can you find satisfaction at such a reasonable price — the mere cost of a daily paper, and who knows? You might even want to read some of the news items therein.