Winners' Circles
It's all Oscar all the time in puzzledom it seems. Today's Feb. 24 nomination (answers) is from Nancy Nicholson Joline. The trick du jour makes me wonder how she ever came up with the idea. Some theme answers are better than others but they all have that property you want in a theme — it's not at all obvious at first and then when it finally clicks everything falls into place. Someone can explain, I'm sure, why "Forensic experts" are DEBATERS.
Nancy has a middle name which is unusual in the byline. She also has a first name which used to be unheard of. Before her Sunday puzzle almost exactly eleven years ago constructors only had first initials, at least in the Across Lite files. I assume the same was true in print. Will had a first name but, for example, the puzzle the day before was by A. J. Santora.
Other bloggers will give the low down on today's effort but Ms. Joline gives me an excuse to reminisce about one of her puzzles I particularly remember. Who Said It? back in 2005 asked us to guess who uttered some wonderful quotes. Here are a few I particularly recall. "I guess it just proves that in America anyone can be president" was by Gerald Ford. My favorite was "Everything you see I owe to spaghetti." Who said it? Sophia Loren. There was also a special quote for crossword solvers: "I respect a man who knows how to spell a word more than one way." The speaker? Mark Twain.
I participated in high school speech and debate tournaments. Success allowed me to join the NFL (National Forensic League). I liked the puzzle, too.
Posted by: PhillySolver | February 23, 2008 at 08:55 PM
BTW, can I have some spaghetti/spaggheti please, for my wife, who says if you don't believe Gerald, just look at who gave the last State of the Union speech?
Pretty subtle spelling spag two ways, huh?
Posted by: PhillySolver | February 23, 2008 at 08:58 PM
A.J. Santora always used his initials in his byline. Nancy Nicholson Joline sometimes uses just Nancy Joline in her byline—in the year or so since I started using Blogger tags, she'd only used the two-name byline, though I'd seen the three-name one before.
Posted by: Orange | February 25, 2008 at 10:03 AM
A. J. may have always used his initials but the point is that before Feb 23, 1997, everyone used initials only. It seemed to be Times policy.
Perhaps it's pointless data but it leaps out at me when I look at the puzzles. The inertia of tradition makes change at the Times slow (see I.B.M. with dots after the letters) so it makes me wonder what discussions happened in smoke-filled back rooms to allow the full names. I like to think it was increased respect for the constructors.
Posted by: JimH | February 25, 2008 at 02:25 PM