A Tragedy, an Urban Legend-turned-Real, and a Mysterious Crossword: 100 Years Later

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Trigger warning: discussion of suicide

Yesterday marked a sad anniversary in the history of crosswords, but one that I think is worth talking about.

On March 4th, 1926, a 25-year-old waiter in Budapest, Hungary committed suicide at the Emke Kávéház (the Cafe Emke or the Aero Cafe), near the corner of Rákóczi út (Rákóczi Way) and Erzsébet körút (Elizabeth Boulevard).

His name was Antal Gyula. He had come in just after midnight. He ordered a coffee, and used the cafe’s telephone to call the same number repeatedly, without success. Approximately an hour after he entered the cafe, the cloakroom attendant heard a loud bang sound from the bathroom. She opened the door as a second bang noise rang out. She found Gyula lying on the floor, pistol in hand.

That was the sad end of Antal Gyula, a young man who had, in his own words, lived in “misery and unemployment” for some time. He was already struggling with depression, and had been evicted from his apartment a few days earlier. His landlord claimed Antal left his clothes behind to help settle his debts.

In most cases, that would have been the end of the story. A young man’s life ended far too soon. Sadly, this was not an uncommon occurrence in Budapest at the time, as Budapest had earned a reputation as a suicide hotspot. (On the same day, a newspaper reported 10 other attempted suicides.)

But Antal’s story persists a century later. Why?

Well, the detail that pushed this event from a sad footnote into the territory of urban legend was what police found on Antal’s body.

A suicide note accompanied by a crossword puzzle.

According to the note, the crossword would offer more of a glimpse into Antal’s fatal choice: The solution will give you the exact reasons for my suicide and also the names of the people interested.

(Before realizing Antal had constructed the puzzle, the police had originally surmised that he had ended his life because he couldn’t solve the puzzle. Which is an absolutely insane conclusion to draw.)

The crossword was taken to police committee headquarters, where detectives worked on both the crossword and the case for a month, but apparently they failed to solve it or decipher Antal’s intended message. Supposedly the police then asked the public for help solving the crossword, but there are no records to indicate anyone ever solved the puzzle, nor is there any sign of a copy of the puzzle itself in publicly available records.

Although Antal’s story floated around newspapers and the world of crosswords for decades, it was long believed to be an urban legend, one of the curious anecdotes about the mania of crossword fandom in the 1920s.

That was the case until Marinov Iván, a Hungarian urban legend enthusiast, explored endless strips of microfilm and unearthed the original article about Antal’s death in Az Est, an evening daily newspaper that ran from 1910 to 1939.

Antal’s sad tale was true. Sadder still, unless that crossword turns up in some police archive, none of us will ever know what he meant, or why exactly he chose a crossword as his final missive.

Maybe it was just for the notoriety. I would probably never have come across his name if it wasn’t connected to crosswords. It could have been deliberate, a curiosity designed to ensure that people would know his name, that the ripples in the water he left behind would last longer, travel farther. (A mention in Thomas Pynchon’s novel Shadow Ticket cynically suggests just that.)

Whether he intended to or not, he has succeeded in this regard.

“Why?” is a question that invariably follows in a suicide’s wake. Having lost several dear friends and loved ones to suicide myself, I’ve spent countless hours trying to understand why they made that single, irrevocable choice.

As T Campbell quite eloquently put it, “we may never know Gyula’s last message to the world. And that’s the real tragedy of suicide—all those chances to explain or continue one’s own story, snuffed out.”

Suicide leaves a crater in the lives of those left behind. Unanswered questions, unresolved feelings, persistent doubts about possible wrong turns and other choices that could have been made, the soul-crushing wish that you could have done more to intervene, to avert, to help. We don’t know who mourned Antal after his death. Maybe they were among the people named in his crossword.

But I do know this… I’d rather still have the person than the mystery.

Sources:

These Puzzles Fund Abortion 6!

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Crossword season is here and all sorts of events for solvers are approaching fast. The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is a little more than a month out, registration is open for Westwords, the preseason puzzle for the Boswords Spring Themeless League was launched last night, and the Spring Themeless League starts in earnest next Monday!

But it’s not just tournaments that are gearing up. Crossword-fueled charitable organizations are hard at work making puzzles and encouraging fundraising efforts for wonderful causes.

There’s a long history of activism and advocacy through puzzles. Women of Letters, Queer Qrosswords, Grids for Good… these are just a few prominent examples of constructors and creators donating their time and puzzly efforts to benefit the world at large.

And These Puzzles Fund Abortion is one of the most important.

They’re hoping to raise $50,000 to support safe, affordable, and accessible abortion care with the sixth edition of TPFA. You can make a donation and preorder your puzzle packet right now!

These Puzzles Fund Abortion 6 contains 21 puzzles centered around social and reproductive justice themes, all for a minimum donation of $25.

If you donate $50 or more, you will also receive the puzzle packs for the previous five years of TPFA.

It’s a very worthy cause and I hope you find it in your heart to contribute to the health and safety of others.

Happy solving, puzzlers!

The Continued Uncertainty of Tariffs on Board Games

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The ongoing stupidity, insanity, and outright graft involving the US’s approach to tariffs has been one of the most unpleasant subjects to cover in this blog.

The implementation of broad global tariffs on a whim (or based on a slight, real or imagined, against the gilded tinpot dictator who occupies the Oval Office) has made it challenging at best, and absolutely untenable at worst, for many game designers and manufacturers in the board game industry.

In the year since those tariffs were enacted, hundreds of board game projects have been canceled or drastically simplified to manage costs. Some brands, like Tokaido, have been sold to other companies to minimize costs. Print runs were lessened, and prices increased.

Image courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.

Companies like Greater Than Games and Final Frontier Games, as well as outlets like Boardlandia, have shut down entirely. Other companies like Cephalofair Games have been forced to fire or furlough staff, while games like Underdog Games have shut down operations temporarily in the hopes of weathering the tariff storm.

The tariff’s impact was put plainly by the owner of Avalanche Press, who stated that tariff costs would have covered the production costs of two additional games this year alone. Essentially, he was taking 3 copies of every game and throwing them in the dumpster.

Some game designers, like TinkerHouse Games, have sued the government in the hopes of clawing back those tariffs.

While the EuroGames industry thrives, the US has become such an unreliable trade partner that it’s unknown how many of those games will even reach American shores.

There was a brief bit of sun amidst the dark clouds last week as the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariffs as unconstitutional.

“Relief!” said Jamey Steigmaier of Stonemaier Games. “Relief that the tariff taxes can’t skyrocket on a whim tomorrow, a fear I’ve lived with every day since April,” he told Polygon via email.

Immediately, speculation ran rampant in board game spaces. Hopes that shipping and importing would become cheaper again, and that those game companies in hibernation could return.

Unfortunately, the long-term effects of the tariffs would still be evident. All those companies that folded because of the tariffs are still gone. All that inventory that cost two or three times as much as expected to ship… those costs still need to be covered.

All those more expensive game components, all those attempts to find US-based manufacturing for these games — a manufacturing infrastructure that is no closer to existing than it was a year ago when the tariffs were haphazardly implemented.

All that tariff money that those companies will probably never see back.

Image courtesy of wilsoncenter.org.

The board game industry has been decimated, decades of growth wiped out in less than a year.

But sadly, only one avenue for applying tariffs has been closed to Trump.

He has since spitefully announced an increase in global tariffs instead through another governmental mechanism, and the industry must wait again with bated breath to see how bad it will be when the latest tsunami hits.

It’s exhausting to watch as a board game fan, so I can only imagine how absolutely brutal it must be as a game designer or employee of a game company.

I can only hope this very public defeat is the first of many in favor of independent creators.

In the meantime, support puzzle and game creators whenever and however you can. It’s more important than ever to find small joys wherever possible, whether it’s inside a black-and-white grid or at the table with friends, rolling dice.

Happy playing, friends.

The Results from the 14th ORCAS Awards!

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The ORCAS are the Oscars of the crossword community, dedicated to celebrating excellence in crosswords, and that was certainly the case during last night’s awards ceremony!

Clocking in at just under an hour, this was an event at breakneck speed, opening as all online award shows should: with technical difficulties.

David Kwong offered some anagram suggestions for other award shows and then passed the mic to Rich Proulx, whose bowtie game was ON POINT.

Rich’s intro was delightful, particularly when he shared that over $15,000 had been raised for the Trevor Project through the ORCAS puzzle packet!

With 97 people in attendance — including many nominees and puzzle luminaries in the chat — the first award was preceded by a tough trivia puzzle celebrating all of this year’s presenters:

After the solution was revealed, Ophira Eisenberg joined David in the hosting duties before inviting our first two guest presenters to handle BEST META CROSSWORD and BEST EASY CROSSWORD.

Aimee Lucido (author of Words Apart) read out the nominees for BEST META CROSSWORD.

I must confess that meta crosswords aren’t always my bag, but there’s no denying the skill and craftiness it takes to construct an effective meta. I ended up voting for “Blind Stitch” by Hanh Huynh because it felt like such a solidly constructed introduction to the concept of meta crosswords. It’s a great solve.

WINNER: Evan Birnholz for “Flying Colors”

“Queen of the Mondays” Lynn Lempel then read out the nominees for BEST EASY CROSSWORD.

Making easy crosswords is way tougher than it looks, and making easy crosswords that are still surprising and engaging is even harder. Despite that, this was a stacked category.

My vote went to Nate Cardin’s Untitled puzzle from the LA Times on February 25. Managing to find five phrases/compound words (OVERDRAFT, BODY WASH) where both parts could be followed by the word BOARD was an impressive feat of cruciverbalism.

WINNER: Jess Shulman for “Clear Up to Here?” (Lynn was the first presenter of the evening to do the “opening the envelope” gimmick for the winner.)

T Campbell and Laura Braunstein joined to present the next two categories.

Laura, one of the minds behind The Inkubator crossword, presented the EMERGING CONSTRUCTOR AWARD.

I sadly wasn’t familiar with all of the nominees in this category, so I had to go with someone whose puzzles I felt I’d had a good sampling of. My vote went to Carina da Rosa, whose work in Puzzmo and LilAVCX I’d enjoyed throughout the year.

And it turns out I wasn’t alone in my assessment!

WINNER: Carina da Rosa

T Campbell did a wonderful introduction about what separates BEST SUNDAY-SIZED CROSSWORD from the usual crossword fare before reading the nominees.

Despite the sheer ambition of “Just One Clue 2” and its crowd-sourced cluing, my vote came down to either the grid shape wordplay of Jonathan Raksin and Jeff Chen’s “Self-Starters” and the diabolic vocabulary in crosstina Aquafina and erik agard’s “themeless no. 36.”

I mean, we got SATAN WORSHIP and TWO CHEEKS OF THE SAME ASS, neither of which I’ve ever encountered in a grid. That being said, my deep affection for visual gimmicks in crosswords won out here.

WINNER: crosstina Aquafina and erik agard’s “themeless no. 36.”

Stella Zawistowski and Kim Vu were the next two guest presenters, with Stella handling BEST VARIETY CROSSWORD.

I love variety crosswords, because there are so many ways you can play with the traditional crossword formula to make something new and exciting. Rows Garden and Marching Bands puzzles are deviously designed masterpieces when constructed well, and this category showed off skill and cleverness in equal measure.

My vote went to a puzzle style I’d never seen before, as Ryan Faley’s “Nonplussed 4” combined across and down cluing with a non-traditional grid and a Rows Garden-style interior shape (pluses instead of blooms). I loved the construction and creativity, and the revealer was the cherry on top. Terrific stuff.

WINNER: joon pahk’s Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad

“joooooooooooooooooooooooooon” calls rang out both over the stream and in the chat to celebrate joon’s win.

Kim then read the nominees for BEST TOURNAMENT CROSSWORD.

Tournament puzzles are invariably bangers because they can push the difficulty AND creative envelopes, and this category was LOADED with heaps of cool ideas and challenges. (Last year’s Lollapuzzoola alone could have filled this entire category.)

The two puzzles that stuck with me the most were David Steinberg’s Westwords puzzle and Kareem Ayas’s Wild Discoveries puzzle from Lollapuzzoola. They were both wildly inventive, challenging, and above all else, memorable. This was the toughest choice of the entire ballot.

In the end, Kareem got my vote. And again, I wasn’t the only one impressed by his playful puzzling.

WINNER: Kareem Ayas for “Wild Discoveries”

A brief In Memoriam played next, offering tongue-in-cheek farewells to Deb Amlen (for ending her tenure with The New York Times), the Browser Crossword, and the free version of The New York Times Mini Crossword.

We then got a sincere send-off for influential creator and puzzle icon Mel Taub.

Our next two guest presenters were Peter Collins and Vic Fleming. They had a great little gimmick involving a swear jar and a virtual handover of $10 to celebrate the eventual winner of BEST CLUE (and my favorite of the nominated clues):

WINNER: [They might have “fuck you” money] for SWEAR JARS by Amie Walker and Amanda Rafkin, AVCX, April 18th

They next presented BEST THEMED CROSSWORD, which was another stacked category.

This category was a case of leading with your strongest contender, because Ada Nicolle blew me away with “Would You Let Me Finish” from Apple News+ on January 5th.

The grid is populated with longer entries that, when the last letters are removed, form the actual answers to the clues. So GOT THE ICK becomes GO-TH-IC, for example. It’s a great gimmick and a fun reveal when you get it.

WINNER: Untitled by Adam Wagner and Rebecca Goldstein

Rafael Musa, Ryan Fitzgerald, and Ben Gross then interrupted the proceedings for an interactive game with the audience. But first, they had a surprise award to hand out!

The Leviathan Award celebrates important contributions to the world of crosswords, so Ryan was blindsided by this award for creating the crossword software Ingrid. A video full of kind words from fellow constructors was played. It was heartwarming stuff.

Three instances of a puzzle game called Bracket City challenged the audience next. The goal was to unravel a series of crossword-style clues nested within each other, like so:

I doubt I was the first to solve this puzzle, but I was the first to post the solution in the chat: BLACK AND WHITE.

Work from the inside out with the brackets. [gun, as an engine] is REV, so you get [REVolving __] for DOOR, then [Friday with REVolving DOORbusters] for BLACK. [south of Spain] is SUR, so you get [flag raised in SURrender] for WHITE. BLACK AND WHITE is the final answer.

David and Ophira solved the first two puzzles live while the audience solved at home, and everyone was challenged to solve the third (and most complicated) bracket city puzzle in their free time. Can you unravel it?

David and Ophira continued the awards and presented the next category, BEST MIDI CROSSWORD.

As was the case with several categories, we were absolutely spoiled for choices when it came to midi crosswords. Crossword Gentleman Doug Peterson had a great one, we had ablaut reduplications from Alex Rossell Hayes, a tightly constructed foursome of BOOM-based entries from Amie Walker, and Peanuts grid art from franci dimitrovska.

But I had to go “By the Numbers” by Kaye Brown. The sheer ambition of a LOST-centric puzzle with character names reading across and aligning with the infamous numbers from the show. It’s a fantastic bit of constructing wizardry.

WINNER: Amie Walker for “Bangers”

Our next presenters were Brad Wilber and Mangesh Ghogre to handle the one-two punch of BEST CRYPTIC CROSSWORD and BEST VARIETY CRYPTIC CROSSWORD.

I have been on a quest to improve my cryptic crossword solving over the last few years, so the nominees in these two categories put me through my paces! The devious cluing was at its peak in the cryptics, and I think I spent more time on each cryptic than I did on any two or three of the puzzles in the other categories!

Amidst all the tough cluing and interesting vocabulary, it was Jamie Ding’s AVCX Cryptic and The Rackenfracker’s “High Definition” who got my votes this year.

WINNER, BEST CRYPTIC: PiGuyN for “pi guy cryptic 22”

WINNER, BEST VARIETY CRYPTIC: The Rackenfracker (JonMichael Rasmus & Sean Weitner) for “High Definition”

Our penultimate pair of guest presenters were Katie Grogg (looking glam!) and Jared Goudsmit. They presented the nominees and some great puns as well (and made a strong case for hosting next year’s awards).

The first award they presented was BEST CROSSWORD-RELATED MEDIA.

This is a new category for this year’s ORCAS, and as you can imagine, I was absolutely stoked to be included amidst a murderer’s row of excellent, insightful commentary on all things crosswords.

I quite selfishly voted for a PuzzCulture piece, as I was immensely proud of “The Curious Case of Richard Simon’s Aunt, Hedwig.” I didn’t expect to win, and was very content just for the opportunity for new eyes to find the blog.

WINNER: Adam Aaronson for “Square Theory”.

The chat was so chuffed for Adam, with several shouting out his post as eye-opening and game-changing. Congratulations Adam!

Katie and Jared then presented BEST CROSSWORD COMMENTARY.

I love the behind-the-curtain glimpses offered in columns like Rex Parker’s, Wordplay, and the LA Times Crossword Corner, many of whom have been commenting crosswords longer than some of the attendees have been making crosswords or solving them!

All of these nods are well-deserved — Deb and Malaika are brilliant, distinct voices in the crossworld — but it was “Malaika Handa and Stephen Lurie” by Renee Thomason that got my vote.

WINNER: Sally Hoelscher for “Terrors of the Deep”

Our final two awards were presented by Christina Iverson and the very dapper Andy Kravis. First up was BEST THEMELESS CROSSWORD.

This one was a three-horse race for me, with killer efforts by Paolo Pasco, guest host Christina, and Erik Agard, all chock-full of great vocabulary and ambitious crossings. I finally managed to narrow it to Erik’s August 18th New Yorker puzzle when it came to my vote, but really, any of these three would be worthy winners.

WINNER: Erik Agard’s August 18th New Yorker puzzle

Finally, it was time for CONSTRUCTOR OF THE YEAR.

I genuinely have no idea how you even narrow down nominations for this category, because there are SO MANY talented constructors. My shortlist would be 30 people deep, easy!

Each of the puzzles included in the Trevor Project Puzzle Pack represented the nominees well, but it was Rafael Musa and Adam Wagner’s puzzles that stuck with me the most. I loved the gimmick in Adam’s “Endless Loop,” but in the end, I went with Rafael Musa. Each time I saw that name in the byline, I knew I was guaranteed a terrific solve.

WINNER: Adam Wagner

Adam was there to accept and gave a very sweet speech, celebrating the welcoming crossword community and the support of his wife and family. Amazingly, he only started constructing in 2019!

You can’t complain about an award show that only takes up an hour of your time, especially when Oscar and Emmy broadcasts can last into the wee hours. And the crossword community is full of quirky, likable folks, so anytime you can get a bunch of them in a room (virtual or otherwise) together, you’re guaranteed a good time.

I thought it was a little weird that the games got more time than some of the categories, but this was my first ORCAS. Maybe that’s how the show usually goes!

Congratulations to all the winners! There were so many amazing puzzles published last year, and it was a pleasure to get to solve so many mind-bending, entertaining, and lovingly crafted cruciverbalist creations.

It was cool to see 5 out of my 15 selections get the nod (and a few other winners in my honorable mentions). And I’m already taking notes to contribute nominees to next year’s ORCAS!

What did you think of the ORCAS, fellow puzzler? Did your favorites win? Was there a puzzle you loved that you wish had gotten more of a spotlight?

Let me know in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from you!

Such a Lyrical Tease, This Fresh Crosswordese

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Ah, crosswordese. The double-edged sword of cruciverbalism.

Crosswordese is the catch-all term for those words that appear frequently in puzzles, and for the most part, only in puzzles. That’s not to say they can’t also be in common use, or part of everyday pop culture. But they definitely show up more often in crosswords than casual conversation.

In the past, we’ve featured rhyming works that attempted to highlight as much crosswordese as possible. But those are nearly a decade old, and while many of those words are still prominent in crosswords, plenty of other vocabulary words have nestled themselves in the pockets of crossword constructors in the meantime.

So I took a shot at concocting a bit of rhyming verse celebrating not just the past of crosswordese, but the present. I hope you enjoy!

We’ve seen SNEEs and INEEs and ETUIs so TWEE
ANOAs and ELANDs and the old ARAL sea.

We’ve OOHed and AAHed over AHAs and PHEWs,
ITO, UTA, and TATI, long gone from the news.

PSST, AHEM, and WHOA! Exclamations galore!
ARE SO and ARE TOO plus AM TOO and more.

OREO’s “Mountain: Comb. form” gave way to a snack,
ASHE’s namesake arena helped bring his name back.

Hurray for new RAEs, Carly _ Jepsen and ISSA
Charlotte, Norma, no more, constructors never miss a

Chance to drop some textspeak, TMI, BTW
IMO, SMH, OHO might I trouble you

for a CHAI TEA or BOBA or a hot bowl of PHO
or maybe let’s cool it, right OLAF and ELSA?

EVOO on salad, smoothie with ACAI berry,
ACELA is coming, we better not tarry.

EGO left SNL, AYO was a guest host
one-fourth of the way to an EGOT boast.

I don’t wish to ERR, RUE, or misrepresent:
is a Tolkien creature an ORC and an ENT?

So many NOOBS left out: ARIE, RHEA, ENOLA.
(India, Seehorn, and Holmes, in the footsteps of POLA.)

I suppose this endeavor’s gone A TAD bit AFAR,
maybe next time, just scribble TL;DR.

Did I manage to include your favorite crosswordese, fellow puzzler? Let me know in the comments section below! I’d love to hear from you.

A Hidden Message Word Search, with Musical Accompaniment by im sad alex!

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Who doesn’t love stumbling upon a puzzle where you didn’t expect one?

I’m sure many of us do. I certainly do!

So when musician and YouTuber im sad alex dropped a new song that included a word search in the video, you know I had to jump on that!

Alex claims all of their exes’ names are concealed in this grid, and if you find all of them, you’ll get a secret message.

Here’s a screenshot of the grid so you can take a crack at it yourself:

I wasn’t able to complete a perfect solve, but I found the following names: Patrick, David, Mark, Robert, Kyle, Chris, Sam, Greg, Joe, Eva, Leo, Chet, Pearl, Rasmus, and Cale.

It took a few tries, because there are other options like Jay, Earl, Abe, etc., but I got pretty close by solving as I tried to assemble the message hidden in the remaining letters.

The message I found read: It did not work out and I married a tall boy who loves me very very much and I love him very much too.

The only part I couldn’t resolve was the double E in the very last “VERY”.

But it was a fun challenge!

I highly recommend checking out Alex’s songs. They’re an entertaining mix of sweet and funny, and her voice is absolutely gorgeous.

I’ll conclude today’s post with my favorite imsadalex song, which is her duet with the very meme-able Dirt Man song:

Have you encountered any puzzles in unexpected places lately, fellow solvers? Let me know in the comments section below! I’d love to hear from you.