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.
D&D goblin, third edition. Image courtesy of Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast.
Goblins aren’t just a threat in roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, they’re also an annoyance at the offices of OpenAI, stewards of ChatGPT, according to this article from The Wall Street Journal.
Now, my opinion on generative AI has been clear for quite a while now. I think it is morally abhorrent, creatively bankrupt, artistically insulting, and environmentally disastrous. It is intellectual theft, pure and simple.
But this news story is too funny not to cover.
There is an open source line in ChatGPT’s base instructions for its coding assistant that now reads:
“Never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures unless it is absolutely and unambiguously relevant to the user’s query.”
This is because the AI chatbot has been bringing up goblins for no apparent reason in conversations with users.
D&D goblin, fifth edition. Image courtesy of Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast.
For those who have never interacted with ChatGPT — keep on doing what you’re doing, you’re awesome — it has different “personality” types that users can select from a series of instructions in order to make their interaction with ChatGPT more convincing, memorable, engaging, whatever.
And the “nerdy” personality just loves GOBLINS for some reason. OpenAI reported that mentions of goblins in one edition of the AI program increased 3,881% from previous versions.
Man, it really loves goblins.
And despite the claim that OpenAI eliminated the “nerdy” personality option back in March, ChatGPT still loves it some goblins.
Which led to that open source line I mentioned above.
Wild.
D&D goblin, second edition. Image courtesy of Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast.
Now, can we look at that list again?
“Never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures…”
I get the nerdy connection to goblins, gremlins, trolls, and ogres, sure.
How did raccoons and pigeons get on the list?
Because the venn diagram for all these creatures isn’t quite venning.
If we’re talking fantasy creatures, you’ve got those four, but the real-world animals don’t fit.
If we’re talking annoyances associated with mischief, then goblins and gremlins and raccoons still fit, but pigeons, trolls, and ogres don’t. Any D&D player worth their salt knows ogres are far from idle caperers. They’re a genuine threat.
I suppose they’re all nuisances in some way, but boy, is that casting a wide net.
Crap, wrong goblin. Image courtesy of Marvel/Sony Pictures.
I do have another theory.
There are plenty of Dungeon Masters and other game runners out in the world who use generative AI to give them adventure ideas, create artwork for their games, etc.
It’s entirely possible that one user or a handful of users accidentally trained the “nerdy” personality to associate these things with general queries.
And if that’s the case, please tell me about the raccoon- and pigeon-related adventures you’re running in your games that puts them on the same threat level as ogres, trolls, gremlins, and goblins.
Inquiring minds like mine want to know!
In the end, I guess people will have to go elsewhere for their goblin-centric AI content. And with Ask Jeeves officially gone, where are the people to go online to ask about goblins OR be told about goblins when asking unrelated questions?
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.
A farmer with a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage must cross a river by boat. The boat can carry only the farmer and a single item. If left unattended together, the wolf would eat the goat, or the goat would eat the cabbage. The farmer must help them all cross the river without anything being eaten.
This is known as a river crossing puzzle, and there have been many versions over the years. In fact, the earliest known variation, printed in Propositiones ad Acuendos Juvenes (Problems to Sharpen the Young), dates back to the 9th century!
Depiction of the riddle from the Ormesby Psalter, dating back to 1250-1330
Sometimes the puzzle features missionaries and cannibals crossing a river, and you cannot allow the missionaries to be outnumbered at any point on either shore, lest they be eaten. Sometimes it features jealous husbands crossing a river with their wives, where none of the men will allow his wife to be alone with either of the other men. Sometimes it is knights and squires, and the squires are afraid to stay with the other knights.
I’m going to ignore the racial and misogynistic energy of those examples and focus on the wolf, goat, and cabbage version, which is the one people are most familiar with. (Although the animals do change from riddle to riddle. Sometimes it’s wolves, sheep, and cabbages, other times it’s foxes, chickens, and grain, or foxes, geese, and seeds.)
The traditional answer works for any variation:
you take the prey (goat, sheep, chicken) across
you come back with the boat otherwise empty
you take either the predator (wolf, fox) OR the prey’s food (grain, cabbage, seeds) across
you come back with the prey in the boat
if you took the predator first, you bring the prey’s food this time. If you took the prey’s food first, you take the predator this time. Either way, you leave the prey behind on this trip
you come back with the boat otherwise empty
you take the prey across
It’s fairly simple as brain teasers go, but the main trick is realizing that you can bring things back with you.
Now, logistically speaking, I have to ask something. Whether it’s a goat or a chicken or a sheep, whether it’s a wolf or a fox, they can all swim, so why not tie a rope to one on one side of the boat, a rope to the other on the other side, and tow them along as you row the grain/seeds/cabbage across?
Yeah, I am one of those all-the-groceries-in-one-trip guys. How did you know?!
The impracticality of this has crossed the minds of others as well. My friend Krud wrote on Twitter:
The folks at XKCD also found a simpler way while asking a very reasonable question:
In an episode of the TV show Fargo, the riddle was posed involving a fox, a rabbit, and a cabbage, and one of the characters immediately gets stuck on the details before offering the following solution:
Pepper: A Turducken. Budge: A what’s that now? Pepper: He stuffs the cabbage in the rabbit and the rabbit in the fox, and he eats all of them. Budge: That’s not the answer. Pepper: It’s an answer.
Someone online noticed that Martin Freeman’s characters have encountered this riddle twice between The Office and Fargo:
I also found a post online where someone suggested this delightfully impractical solution: “He puts the fox and the seed in the boat and pushes it to the other side. Then he finds the nearest ledge and glides across with the chicken.”
You know what? It’s innovative. I’ll give ’em that.
This riddle has naturally made its way into pop culture. (Apparently it even appears in a Peppa Pig cartoon!)
In The Simpsons episode “Gone Maggie Gone,” Homer must solve the river crossing riddle. Santa’s Little Helper can’t be left with Maggie, or he’ll chew on her favorite stuffed animal. Maggie can’t be left with the jar of poison because it looks like candy.
Naturally, they manage to create their own variation on the riddle and lampoon the original all in one fell swoop:
In an episode of Dropout’s Make Some Noise, they actually reference the river crossing puzzle WHILE making fun of the Riddle of the Two Guards:
And of course, sometimes the wolf-sheep-cabbage problem escalates with the introduction of more factors to be considered.
XKCD shared how complicated the river crossing becomes with a few more unexpected additions:
An episode from the 2010s Powerpuff Girls TV show also dealt with a more elaborate version of the river crossing riddle. In the episode “Splitsville,” Bubbles tries to solve the riddle while dealing with further complications like tourists, a robber baron, and the Raptor King:
At this point the river crossing riddle has essentially become pop culture shorthand for any problem that is getting out of hand through overworked analysis.
Writer Cleolinda Jones referenced the problem while discussing the abject ridiculousness of The Twilight Saga:
Yeah, it’s like, Bella wants to be a vampire but she doesn’t want to be a vampire before she’s had sex as a human, and Edward doesn’t want her to be a vampire but he wants to get married, but Bella doesn’t want to get married unless she can be a vampire, but Edward won’t have sex with her until they get married, and then you put the fox and the grain in the boat and you leave the goose back on the riverbank.
XKCD has similarly used the problem as a punchline to a comic strip about overthinking things:
As you can see, while most of us will never encounter a real-life use for the river crossing puzzle in our lifetimes, at least we’re prepared for the possibility.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get this beaver, this kite-eating willow tree, and my favorite kite across the street to the park in time for the picnic. See ya!
The TV show The Simpsons is part of the fabric of American culture at this point. It has been on for decades, and although the show doesn’t put out banger after banger like they did in their heyday, they can still be counted on to put out fun shows and the occasional home run.
As part of their cultural influence, naturally puzzles have featured prominently from time to time.
We get a glimpse of a Wordle game in episode 2 of season 37, entitled “Keep Chalm and Gary On.”
Supernintendo Chalmers is fired from his job, and ends up working at the Nuclear Power Plant with Homer. After seeing how hard Chalmers was working, Homer teaches him how to APPEAR like he’s working hard.
During this montage, we get a glimpse of Chalmers playing Wordle.
But this was actually the second instance of this exact same Wordle game appearing on The Simpsons.
A few seasons earlier — episode 2 of season 34, entitled “One Angry Lisa” — Lisa finds herself on a jury, and is annoyed when she spots Judge Constance Harm playing Wordle during court.
Lisa points out that she’s playing games on the bench, and the judge realizes the answer word is, in fact, BENCH.
Wordle is also mentioned in episode 8 from season 36, entitled “Convenience Airways.” The pilot is making announcements:
Just a reminder, folks, the call button is only for real emergencies, like if you’re down to your last guess on Wordle.
You get hints — are they the same gender as your guess, older or younger, related to your guess, or had more or fewer appearances than your guess — in order to deduce the character’s identity in six tries or fewer.
It’s a good time, depending on your familiarity with the show. I’m a huge fan, so I managed to guess Kearney (one of the older bullies/miscreant kids in town) on my sixth guess.
(There was actually another Simpsons-inspired Wordle game at one point, Doh-dle, but it no longer appears to be active.)
And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a personal anecdote involving puzzling and The Simpsons.
I was removing a repeat from a Penny Press crossword grid, and as I was working on the puzzle, I thought I’d found the perfect quick fix to fill the space.
I showed Patti Varol, future editor of The LA Times Crossword, my correction, and she pointed out that my fix, EMBIGGENS, despite being a perfectly cromulent word, wouldn’t be accepted.
It had not even occurred to me that EMBIGGENS wasn’t standard jargon. We both lamented that fact, and I got back to work on the grid.
Still, it shows the cultural impact of the show in general. From “Yoink!” and “meh” to “saying the quiet part out loud” and “old man yells at cloud,” it has literally changed how we speak.
And that goes for how we puzzle as well.
Do you have any favorite puzzly Simpsons moments? Or puzzly moments from other TV shows? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.
I mean, a little more legibly than this, if you don’t mind…
So I was delighted to see another example of album art with a crossword motif while scrolling social media a while back.
This time it was “Cardiac Arrest” by the band Madness.
Madness is a British ska band who made their name in the 1970s and 1980s as one of the prominent ska bands during the revival of two-tone ska.
Although they have more than a dozen songs in the UK Top Ten, you probably know them from their song “Our House,” which reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100:
But it’s their controversial song “Cardiac Arrest” that interests me today.
Written by band members Chas Smash and Chris Foreman (aka Chrissy Boy), the song highlights the dangers of overworking yourself, as the song focuses on a workaholic who suffers a fatal heart attack on the way to work.
The band was known for writing humorous songs about the trials and tribulations of everyday life, reflecting the working-class backgrounds of the band members. But the darker tone of this song would have repercussions for the band.
Some listeners took issue with the song’s tone and subject matter, and the title itself hurt its chances at regular radio replay as well.
It’s sad, because I doubt the people who complained were actually listening. The song is a warning, hoping that people will not follow in the footsteps of the song’s doomed main character.
In an interview, Chas Smash defended the song:
It was born out of concern. The message was, ‘Relax darling, don’t get stressed.’ As the Arabs say, ‘Walk through life, don’t run.’
I reached out to the band — who is still touring with six out of their seven original members! — to see if I could get some background on why they went with a crossword-style design to promote the album, and Chrissy Boy himself responded!
He said that the crossword design was an intentional nod to some of the song’s lyrics. Not only do they mention crosswords directly — “Ten more minutes ’til he gets there / the crossword’s nearly done” — but there’s also a cryptic / British-style clue in the lyrics:
Think of seven letters Begin and end in c Like a big American car But misspelt with a d.
Like a big American car (Cadillac) but misspelled with a D. That’s CARDIAC.
Naturally, I had to solve the puzzle itself for the full experience.
In fact, I solved BOTH versions of the “Cardiac Arrest” puzzle and I very much enjoyed them. They’re absolutely packed with trivia about the band’s songs and performers, including instruments and nicknames. Plus they mixed American-style cluing with cryptic cluing!
“Check over an animal doctor” for VET is a perfect double-definition cryptic clue and “Lies about a little island” for ISLE has an anagram-clue mix.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that another ska band used a crossword pattern, since the mix of black and white squares in crosswords is very reminiscent of the checkerboard pattern that is synonymous with both two-tone ska and third wave ska.
PuzzCulture 