This event is being held both in-person and online, with four themed puzzles and two themeless/freestyle puzzles to challenge solvers. The list of constructors for this year’s event is quite impressive: Andrea Carla Michaels, Byron Walden, Mark Axel, Rebecca Goldstein, Sarah Sinclair, Sophia Maymudes, Mallory Montgomery, and Zhou Zhang.
The event itself is happening on July 26th in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, and is sure to be a great time.
Man, we’ve got Westwords in June, Boswords in July, Lollapuzzoola in August, and Midwest in October! Tournaments galore!
International Day of Play!
June 11th marks the third annual International Day of Play!
The United Nations, through UNICEF, created International Day of Play in 2024 to raise awareness of how important the act of playing is to the development and well-being of children.
This year’s theme for International Day of Play is “Protect play, protect childhood.”
Play is so important for all of us. It fosters relationship building and cooperation, reinforces friendly competition and concepts of right and wrong, and maintains that childlike love and whimsy that comes with play that so many of us, young and old, must hold onto at all costs in a world that is so often unkind, unfriendly, and unfair.
You can find out more about International Day of Play on UNICEF’s website.
Free RPG Day is coming soon!
Last, but certainly not least, Free RPG Day is Saturday, June 27th.
The concept behind Free RPG Day is simple. All over the world (but mostly in the United States), local game shops, hobby shops, and other outlets team up with RPG publishers to distribute new, fresh, and most importantly, free material for all sorts of different roleplaying games, systems, and settings.
Sometimes they’re quickstart versions of the games to introduce new players. Sometimes they’re exclusive adventures or modules to play either in-store or at home. Othertimes, they’re entirely new games, free of charge.
Not only can you receive a wealth of new ideas and playing options in one fell swoop, but it serves as a terrific way to meet fellow roleplayers and build a community of game enthusiasts.
You can click this helpful link to find local spots near you that are participating in Free RPG Day, and I would highly recommend searching online for local game shops, game cafes, and even community centers like your local public library to see who is participating.
These shops will often be running demonstrations of games, tutorials on how to play, hosting raffles and contests, and offering terrific sale prices to encourage you to find the game that fits you best.
Every year, dozens of companies get involved, not only to encourage the growth of the game world, but to promote their own products. And what better way is there to get people hooked than with free exclusive materials begging to be tried out?
Keep your eyes peeled for this year’s edition of the Level 1 Anthology, offered by 9th Level Games. It’s a collection of new games by up-and-coming and established RPG creators, all centered around a particular theme. Last year’s edition was all about the end of the Wild West. This year’s is about Stand Up.
This project is close to my heart because I had games featured in the previous two years’ Level 1 collections, and I also have a game featured in this year’s collection!
At this point, Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a comedy institution.
This simple idea — a man and his robot pals watching movies with the audience and gleefully poking fun at them — has spanned decades and generations.
And it’s been a good year for MST3K fans.
Not only has a copy of the last lost episode of the show been found — the KTMA-era version of Star Force: The Fugitive Alien 2,” which hasn’t been available since its original airing in November of 1988 — but the RiffTrax team of Bill Corbett, Mike Nelson, and Kevin Murphy have successfully crowdfunded a new quartet of episodes, MST3K: The RiffTrax Experiments.
A glimpse of the new set!
Over the years, this show has gone from local cable to Comedy Central, then to the Sci-Fi Channel. It left terrestrial cable for a while, until crowdfunding resurrected it. Then it streamed on Netflix, and moved to its own private streaming platform (The Gizmoplex, which is sadly shuttering soon). Along the way, it has toured with live shows, inducted new hosts and new robot voices into the cast, and now has constant livestreams running on YouTube.
It has spawned spinoffs like The Film Crew, Cinematic Titanic, and most famously RiffTrax, and new generations of fans are continuing to discover the show. (Plus a very lucky few joined the writing crew in some of the latest seasons.)
And new episodes on the horizon aren’t the only reason to celebrate.
Today marks the start of Halfway to Turkey Day!
Thanksgiving marathons have been an MST3K tradition going back to the ’90s, and the Turkey Day Marathon is so beloved that fans simply can’t wait until November to celebrate.
So Halfway to Turkey Day was born. A marathon of all the previous Turkey Day events, Halfway to Turkey Day starts today and will run through June 2nd. It’s available on Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, RokuChannel, the CW app, plus Samsung, LG, VIZIO and Google Smart TVs and more.
And I’ve been working on a puzzle celebrating Mystery Science Theater 3000, so what better day to share it than today, I ask you?
I hope all of the MSTies out there delight in a puzzly little journey through the history of one of my all-time favorite TV shows.
I’ve tried to make it as inclusive as possible, so no matter who your favorite host is or what your favorite episode is, there should be something for you to enjoy. (Plus I couldn’t resist coloring in a few black squares when I spotted Gypsy/GPC in the grid.)
Happy puzzling, MSTies! And Happy Halfway to Turkey Day!
[Thank you to Jennifer Cunningham, Troy Bond, and Crossword Gentleman Doug Peterson for your testsolving and input!]
During my extensive dive into crossword history in preparation for my Braille Crosswords post, I encountered all sorts of curious tidbits and trivia about crosswords. I tucked many of them away at the time, looking forward to digging into them properly later once the piece was completed.
So, with that post done and dusted, I had some time to pour through those tidbits and trivia for blog post ideas. And I knew I had to start with this snippet from The Omaha World-Herald on Sunday, July 22nd, 1979:
Portland: February 23, 1959. Two Oregon daily papers cry “Doublecross!” Charging that their crossword contests are being “fixed” by a “nation-wide ring” headquartered in Detroit, they discontinue the contests and call in the FBI
A criminal crossword ring? Tell me more about these cruciverbalist ne’er-do-wells!
I mean, we’ve discussed criminal activity and crosswords in previous posts, but those were strictly of the fictional variety. This story, on the other hand, is an honest-to-Shortz crossword criminal conspiracy, concocted nearly 70 years ago.
Our story begins in Oregon, where publisher William W. Knight of The Oregon Journal shared his suspicions in a front-page editorial piece on February 23rd, 1959.
The Oregon Journal and The Portland Oregonian were just two of the many newspapers around the United States who ran crossword contests with cash prizes. Subscribers would send their solutions to the paper in the hopes of being the first correct solver (or sometimes, the correct solver chosen at random) and winning some money.
But Mr. Knight reported that his sources at The Oregon Journal had uncovered something peculiar. They had learned about two previous Portland winners who only kept part of their money, the rest being forwarded to an intermediary, and after that to the suspected ringleader in Detroit, Michigan.
One woman won $2600 but retained only $300. $150 went to the intermediary, and $2150 to Detroit. Another winner received $2950 but he only kept $950 and sent the rest to a “tipster” in Detroit. (Geez, even when committing the same crimes, women are still getting paid less than men!)
Knight referred to this conspiracy as a “fix and tipping” scheme.
She’s got the acrosses, now she just needs the downs to really complete the crossword look.
“Fix” in this case means illegally rigging the outcome of the crossword contest, and “tipping” means that someone was informing the “contestants” of the solution in order to guarantee a win.
But the two primary distributing syndicates — Superior Features Syndicate, Inc. and General Features Syndicate — claimed this was impossible, calling their precautions “foolproof.”
These “foolproof” precautions basically meant that the puzzle grid and clues went to subscribing newspapers, but the puzzle solution went to an associated bank “or some other unimpeachable agency.” That bank/agency would hold the solution until the contest submission deadline had passed, and then release it to the subscribing newspapers.
(This is obviously pretty foreign to modern solvers, who are accustomed to seeing the previous day’s solution published alongside today’s new puzzle.)
Despite the reassurances of the distribution syndicates, Knight had already reached out to the FBI with his suspicions, and declared that The Oregon Journal would no longer be participating in crossword puzzle contests.
His editorial went out on February 23rd, and the next day, other papers began reporting on Knight’s alleged criminal crossword conspiracy.
But the Crossword Ring’s reign of terror would be short-lived.
One month to the day that Knight’s accusations hit the front page, J. Edgar Hoover himself announced the arrest of those responsible for the Crossword Ring conspiracy.
The headline in The New York Times the following morning read “12 SEIZED BY F.B.I. IN CONTEST FRAUD; 2 in Canada Also Accused of Being in a Ring That Got Puzzle Answers.“
Knight’s suspicions were correct, but the conspiracy ranged far wider than Portland and Detroit. The actual ringleaders were based in Ontario, Canada, and they telephoned answers to agents in Chicago, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Minneapolis as well.
So, how did the ringleaders get around those “foolproof” precautions we heard about before?
In staggeringly simple fashion.
The scam worked like this:
Step One: Set up a fictitious bank, Middlesex Trust Co., complete with a fake mailing address.
Step Two: Subscribe to the puzzle distributors in the name of a nonexistent newspaper company, Suburban Publishers, Ltd.
Step Three: Receive the puzzle solutions from the Syndicate via the fictitious bank’s P.O. Box, then contact agents in the United States to submit perfect solutions to their local papers before most other newspapers would’ve even published the contest puzzle.
All it took to circumvent the “foolproof” precautions was Step One.
The Crossword Ring had raked in $45,000, which is equivalent to over half a million dollars in 2026. And the FBI operation to arrest them all took only 86 minutes.
Amazingly, this wasn’t the end of crossword contests in the United States.
Despite further allegations of wrongdoing throughout the 1960s — including bribery and extortion — the contests remained popular, and prize amounts collected by contest entrants kept rising. One New York contest winner received a cash prize of $44,000, nearly the same amount that the Crossword Ring had scammed from newspapers over the course of weeks.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to my brand-new newspaper venture, The PuzzCulture Tribune Gazette Times-Herald-Daily. More about our crossword contests soon! *a-wink*
So, fellow puzzler, what’s your favorite crossword crime, fictional or otherwise? Let us know in the comment section below! We’d love to hear from you.
Just a quick bonus post on this day, the Mother’s Dayest of all days, to spread the word about a delightful puzzly program that will be debuting on Netflix tomorrow.
It’s called The Puzzle Room With David Kwong, and it’s a video podcast series. If you don’t know David, boy, you are missing out. He’s a crossword constructor, magician, and all-around expert in baffling people with both words and visuals.
He’s consulted on film and TV projects like Blindspot, Now You See Me, and The Imitation Game, and he’s previously combined magic and puzzles for his touring show, The Enigmatist.
Now he’s bringing his linguistic legerdemain and impressive works of mentalism to one of the world’s biggest streaming services.
Sometimes solving a challenging puzzle can feel like magic. That moment when the final piece clicks into place. The gasp before you lock in your answer. After all that time sweating, you finally feel like the smartest person in the room.
In the new video podcast series The Puzzle Room with David Kwong launching on May 11, every episode promises plenty of satisfying aha moments. The renowned magician, mentalist, and New York Times crossword constructor personalizes each puzzle for a pair of celebrity guests, leading to plenty of unexpected epiphanies and clues.
“We’re in a golden age of puzzles and games, and Netflix is the perfect home for viewers to stretch their brains with The Puzzle Room,” says Kwong. “From the intense strategy of Squid Game and the surprising twists of Knives Out, to the daily challenges of Netflix Puzzled and Best Guess Live, Netflix has long been the destination for smart entertainment. Get ready to put on your thinking caps, everyone! I can’t wait to puzzle with you all.”
Produced by Pod People, the series is designed in a way that viewers at home can play along, guests and fans face off in a race to see who can answer first. As the episode unfolds, the puzzles gradually increase in difficulty, with Kwong encouraging and celebrating every breakthrough. Each episode ends with a moment of mentalism or head-scratching illusions.
I usually make brain teasers for Star Wars Day — check out these ones from 2021, 2018, and 2017 — but this year, I felt inspired to create a crossword puzzle!
Now, this 19x puzzle might be a little challenging if you’re not steeped in SW knowledge, since the theme involves bits of Star Wars-specific wordplay.
But hopefully the crossings will help you unravel what’s going on here!
After decades of movies, TV shows, novels, comic books, and all sorts of adventures, the saga of Star Wars still remains one of my favorite fictional universes. And I’m happy to bring two of my most enduring passions — Star Wars and puzzles — together again today.
The 1920s were a huge time for crosswords, and as an enthusiastic amateur crossword historian, it has been a joy to delve into the archives and look back on some of these now century-old moments in crossword history.
And this comment from a crossword trivia website definitely caught my eye:
1926: First reported instances of Braille crosswords, as newspapers mention Helen Keller solving Braille crosswords and recommending them to the blind.
Naturally, I went digging for more information about the connection between Helen Keller and crosswords for the visually impaired.
Along the way, I got to explore the fascinating history of Braille crosswords and learn some interesting and unexpected facts.
So please take a walk with me through a forgotten chapter of crossword history.
In 1925, the crossword craze was at an all-time high. There were crossword outfits, crossword songs, and even a crossword musical!
And efforts were already being made to bring the crossword phenomenon to those with visual impairments.
Image courtesy of APH.org
The Howe Memorial Press introduced their “crossword puzzle board usable by anyone acquainted with braille” in 1925. They manufactured 24 of them that year, and the one pictured above found its way into the classroom of Corrine Delesdernier, who taught blind students out of her home in Connecticut.
This 15×15 layout allows pins to be placed into one of six holes in each of the 225 perforated cells, allowing the user to create any braille letter.
This similar design was produced by American Braille Press circa 1930, and would be featured in catalogs and periodicals focusing on the blind throughout the 1930s (even the ones that couldn’t spell Braille properly).
By 1926, England’s National Institute of the Blind was already advertising numerous Braille publications, including “a family monthly (with patterns, crossword puzzles, etc.),” but it’s unclear what form those crossword puzzles might’ve taken.
I reached out to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (or RNIB, as the NIB is now known), and they were kind enough to share some of their documentation with me.
Image courtesy of RNIB.
They had a quote from a manufacturer, Peacock & Co. Ltd, citing prices for production copies of Braille crosswords, backgammon boards, and games of Nine Men’s Morris. Incredibly, a 15″ Braille crossword board was quoted at 1 shilling per unit.
In the 1930s, a new name emerged in the world of Braille crosswords: Dr. Frederick William Alexander.
He developed zinc plates upon which he could model crossword designs in Braille, but he was having difficulty reproducing those Braille patterns on paper without damaging the tactile dots that would allow sightless solvers to enjoy the puzzles.
But after numerous failed attempts with various pieces of machinery intended for printing, he found his solution in an unlikely place… a laundry appliance wholesaler.
Yes, he would roll the paper and zinc plate through a laundry mangler in order to reproduce his patterns en masse without damaging the paper.
He also produced acrostics and anagrams in Braille for solvers, and I hope further investigations might turn up one of his zinc plates, because I would love to see what sort of puzzles Dr. F.W. Alexander was cooking up.
His efforts began gaining traction in 1932 and 1933, but sadly, the crossword world would only have his puzzles for a scant few years, as he would pass away on March 14th, 1937 at the age of 78.
By the time of Alexander’s passing, Braille crosswords were growing more common, mentioned in articles about library events for the blind and ongoing efforts to adapt beloved pastimes to be played by touch alone.
The 1940s and 1950s were relatively quiet on the crosswords front, at least when it comes to Braille crosswords. But the early 1960s would see a resurgence of attention for Braille crosswords thanks to a new design.
The earliest reference to this design that I could find was on October 18th, 1963 in the Jim Thorpe Times News. They credited “engineers at the American Foundation for the Blind” with “recently” developing a braille crossword puzzle.
I put “recently” in quotes for a reason. You see, this exact same text would appear in newspapers across the country for the next year and a half. They wouldn’t always cite the AFB as the creators, but every single one would mention that you could “insert plastic tiles with braille markings into a recessed, waffle-like board to arrange the words.”
I found references throughout 1964 and into March of 1965. (Some newspapers even printed it twice, months apart. Same text and all.) “Recently” was certainly doing a lot of heavy lifting in those news briefs!
Later uses of this ubiquitous text incorporated a sales pitch into the post.
As you can see, actual details were slim. But if you go hunting, a richer story emerges, involving a collaboration between the American Foundation for the Blind and a former plastic manufacturer named Oran C. Wilson.
In 1962, Wilson retired as president of Wilson Plastics Co., and at a testimonial dinner, was awarded a plaque that declared him “World Champion Plastic Wall Tile Manufacturer.” Given the estimated 1.1 billion pieces of wall tile manufactured during his tenure, that title seems well deserved.
Wilson had already made a name for himself in philanthropic efforts after donating 20,000 checkerboard sets to the blind, and he was already preparing to develop a new Braille crossword.
Unlike the designs of the past, this one would be tile-based. (I know, shocker!) The design was Wilson’s, but he was able to fully realize it in collaboration with the AFB. They tested the design over two months with thirty blind players before distributing the puzzle.
It was formally debuted in a demonstration at the Americana Hotel in April of 1963 by AFB staff member Ruth Wartenberg, where it was celebrated as the first of its kind.
Obviously, that’s not entirely true, but it’s probably safe to say it was the first Braille crossword in this particular style. The tiles would have a Braille-patterned letter on one side and a different letter on the other, and were grouped in separate containers to make it easier to sort through and find the necessary letter for the grid.
This Scrabble-like design was an immediate hit, garnering attention across the country and beyond. I found a pair of articles about the debut of these Braille crosswords in Honolulu newspapers!
I found references well into the 1970s of a Braille crossword marketed by the American Foundation for the Blind, which I can only presume to be this design.
And funnily enough, it seems to be a recurring theme in Braille crosswords where someone touts their design as the first of its kind. Whether this is due to development being siloed / isolated, or whether one design hasn’t penetrated the market well enough to become an emblematic example, I can’t say.
The archives of the Royal National Institute of Blind People also had a letter, penned by a home teacher of the blind, D. Eldridge, hoping that his design for a Braille crossword might be of use. The Institute had introduced their own design earlier, but Eldridge waited to reach out, hoping for the assistance of a local technical college to improve on his model.
Images courtesy of RNIB.
As you can see, his design is quite similar to the American Braille Press design from decades earlier (although using a 13x layout rather than a 15x layout). Great minds think alike.
Braille crosswords would continue to advance and develop as materials improved.
He met up with Sir George Shearing, an influential jazz pianist who was also born blind. Shearing showed him several new devices that incorporated Braille, including “a folding Braille crossword puzzle.”
I can’t say for certain, but I suspect it was either this Unilet portable Braille crossword puzzle or something similar.
Image courtesy of APH.org.
Portability was clearly a big design motivator in the 1970s, as we also saw one of the most elegantly designed Braille crosswords reach the market.
Image courtesy of APH.org.
This piece utilizes smooth cylindrical spacers to serve as the black boxes for the grid, while the yellow cubes have different patterns of Braille on each side, allowing the solver to spell out their answer words.
This piece is absolutely beautiful and looks like the most satisfying tactile solving experience we’ve yet encountered in Braille crossword puzzles.
Before we journey into the 1980s and beyond, I would be remiss if I didn’t share this peculiar post from The Daily Tar Heel on July 9th, 1974, “celebrating” Gerald Ford as Vice President:
I’m not sure where they managed to source a Gerald Ford-themed Braille crossword, but I am hungry for pizza now.
In the 1980s, there are examples of several different prominent designs for Braille crosswords.
This design was still getting attention from newspapers, while another design spearheaded by Camille Petrecca, as well as the transcribers at Sisterhood, Sons of Zion synagogue, was being touted across the country in Patricia Galbreaith’s syndicated column, Hints for the Handicapped.
Camille has been an outspoken advocate for the blind for decades, particularly in the Connecticut and Massachusetts area, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to find out anything more about this particular Braille crossword she was involved in creating.
But I was able to find photos of another Braille crossword design born in the 1980s.
Image courtesy of APH.org.
Johann Renfer Sarl created a Braille crossword in 1985 that feels very reminiscent of the early programming age. You use a small aluminum stylus in each recessed rectangle, sliding metal pins in six horizontal slots back and forth to form different Braille characters across the board. It’s an updated version of the pushpin design we saw decades earlier.
You can see how this and several other Braille crosswords featured in this post actually work in this video, courtesy of the American Printing House of the Blind:
Curiously, the first reference I could find involving the use of computers to create Braille crosswords also dates back to 1985.
The Naples Daily News shared a piece about inventions created by the Exceptional Student Education classes at Immokalee High School. One of the featured ideas was “A computer generated Braille Crossword Puzzle which could be changed by the person typing in various program keys by Dorothy Palmer, senior.”
It would be fascinating to see what that would have looked like in 1985 technology!
In the modern day, not only are large print crossword books more readily available, but computers and crosswords for the visually impaired go hand-in-hand.
APH maintains their Accessible Crossword Puzzle App, which features larger boxes and characters, as well as a feature that announces the column and row number, and reads the clues aloud for you.
There are other interface programs as well, like A-Cross and Word Speaking Vocal Crossword, though APH’s seems to be the most accessible and well-maintained.
Now, at this point, we’ve journeyed through decades of Braille crossword designs, and we haven’t really mentioned Helen Keller much at all.
And that’s not an accident.
Helen Keller’s legacy of advocacy for the blind is undeniable. She fought to establish Braille libraries, tactile teaching materials, and radio sets for the blind. She demanded proper education systems for the blind.
But it turns out, she wasn’t really a fan of Braille crosswords.
I managed to find an interview with her from February of 1925, and when asked about hobbies or special interests, well…
Next to reading, she enjoys walking most. She has never displayed much interest in Braille cross-word puzzles, preferring to devote her time, she said, to something more interesting, when she has spare moments.
OUCH!
Now, to be fair, it is the funniest possible outcome. I spent days searching through newspaper archives, looking for the connection between Helen Keller and Braille crosswords, only to finally find that connection, and it turns out to be, “meh, not so much.”
I laughed out loud when I found the article.
So, where did the misconception come from?
I have a theory.
Keller served on the board of directors of World War I’s Permanent Blind War Relief Fund. The American Braille Press was born out of that organization, and it later became the American Foundation for Overseas Blind. Keller served as counselor on international relations for them. She worked with the organization for decades and met 13 presidents while doing so.
And since the American Braille Press was touting a Braille crossword puzzle design, it’s entirely possible that her work with them would’ve seemed synonymous with their work in general, including their Braille crosswords.
It’s the power of association at work.
Although she didn’t have kind words to say about Braille crosswords, she did pen a lovely tribute to Louis Braille when he died, and I’d like to share part of it with you:
Braille’s invention was as marvellous as any fairy tale. Only six dots! Yet when he touched a blank sheet of paper, lo! it became alive with words that sparkled in the darkness of the blind! Only six dots! Yet he made them vibrate with harmonies that charmed away their lonely hours! Only six dots! Yet the magic of his genius gave them the power of mighty vehicles of thought! With them he captured words that sing and dance with the joy of life — words that sigh and moan — words burning with holy fire, words that weave bonds of companionship between those who cannot see and those who can, words that bring to us the dawn, the rainbow and the splendor of sunset skies, words that, like swift ships, bear us far away from the monotony of blindness, the trivial incidents of time and place and the pain of thwarted effort! So long as the memory of brave men is cherished in the world, there shall be warm gratitude to Louis Braille who, himself blind, was a light to stumbling feet along the paths of knowledge and intelligence.
I ponder those six dots, and their simplicity, and the world they open for so many, and I cannot help but think of the similar simplicity of crosswords. Black and white squares. Rows and columns. Immediately identifiable patterns. But ones that open a world of wordplay and humor and knowledge and wonder.
A world we get to share with the visually impaired because of people like F.W. Alexander and Oran C. Wilson, D. Eldridge and Dorothy Palmer, American Braille Press and Unilet.
Happy puzzling, everyone!
My sincere thanks to Will Shortz, Deb Amlen, Mary Beth Williams with American Printing House / the Dot Experience, Justin Gardner with the Helen Keller Archives/APH/Dot Experience, and Sean Wilcox of the Royal National Institute of Blind People for their insight, access to materials, and guidance in putting this post together. It quite literally could not have happened without them.
PuzzCulture 