"and the wynner is . . . william lutwiniak," by helene hovanec

8/9/2019 "And the Wynner Is . . . William Lutwiniak," by Helene Hovanec

1/4


2/4

N{DTHEV],TYNNER'S.,.

Wlliam

Lutwiniak

by

Helene

ovanec

dependable ontributorto editorsof massmarketmaga_

zines,

newspaper

yndicates,

nd

book

series.

Editors

have

never

been

disappointed

when

waiting

for

an

enve_

lope

oflutwiniakpuzdes

to meet

heirdeadlines.

hey,ve

been

able

to rely

on him

for

crosswords

hat require

a

minimum

amount

of

editing

while

offering

solvers

a

maximum

amount

of

enjoyment.

William

Lutwiniak

is

a

distinguished

asset

o

the

crossword

world.

We

at

CROSSW

RD

Magazine

are

proud

to honor

him.

William

Lutwiniak,

unofficially

dubbed

,the

world's

most prolific

crossword

constructor,"

is

the

official

re_

cipient

of the

second

annual

Wynner

award

as

Cross_

word

Puzzle

Person

of

the

year

for

1991.

Prolificness,

y

tself,

s

nsufficient

o win

crossword's

highest

accolade.

Lutwiniak

earned

his

coveted

award

by consistently

emonstrating

rossword

xcellence

ith

innovative

hemes

and

clever

clues.

Moreover,

ever

since

he

started

constructing

and

submitting

puzzles

Lutwiniak

has

been

an

absolutelv

standard

esponse,

About

as

ong

as

t

takes

you

o

solve t,"

is

received

ith

disbelief

v

most

questioners.

During

a 1987

crossword

ournament,

Lutwiniak

had

a

chance

o

prove

himself

publicly

by

constructing

crossword

or

contestants

s hey

waited

or

the

champion_

ship

playoff

ound

o

begin.

Describing

he

event

ater

n

his

newsletter,

oumament

i_

ector

Stan

Newman

wrote

that

Lutwiniak

"accepted

four

lO-letter

ntries

rom

he

au-

ienceandthen proceededo compleFrhe

f a l5-by-15

puzzlewith

hose

3

minutes,

seconds

that

s nota

This

diqplay

even

ncluded

he

Lutwiniakrecalls,

I

simply

ooked

teach

nd attled

off

ttre

definitions.

went

ll the

acrosses

nd

all

the

downs

as ast

as

could

alk. The

words

were

simple.

t

wasn't

any

ob

cluing

hem."

Ifrecords

were

kept

on crossword

roduc-

Lutwiniak,

he

creator

f

g,3g0

uzzles

ast

count),

would

probably

eeligible

or

heGuinne sBookofWorld

Re

ords.

is

free-lance

rossword

areer

has

worked

with

most

of

the

np

ndhas

seen is

work

appear

njust

very

major uzzle

ublication.

uring

of

these

years

Lutwiniak

also

worked

t his

real"

job

as

a cryptologist

or

National

Security

Agency (NSA).

The

orLutwiniak's

dual

careers

ere

sown

childhood

andwere

a

direct

outgowth

of

early

nvolvement

n

puzzles.

Lunpiniak

tarted

olving

rosswords

hen

he question

most

often

asked

of

Wil-

liamLutwiniak s, "How longdoes t

take

you

to

build

a crossword?"

is

he

was

12

years

old.

"I

can

emember

mv

sister howingmehow osolvehepvzleii

theNew

York

Daily

News.

think

t

was

a

13

x

13.

She

said,

You

look

at l-Across

and

think

of

a

word

hat ie

ftere

and

hen

go

o l-

Down.'

Shewalked

me

hrough

tand

heneft

me

alone."

Soon

after

trat,

I

discovered

hat

treNeil,

Y

ork H

erald Tribune

hadbetterpuzzles

nd

srarted

oing

those."

When

he

was

15

he

constructed

is

irst

crossword,

ent t

to

ilre

Tibune,

and

saw t

published.

.I

always

elt

that

t

was

a

bit

propheric

ecause

t had

one

long

word

across

the

middle

CRYPTOGRAPHICAL."

In

those

early

crossword

ays

all

entries

had

to

be

single

words.

Suffixes, refixes,

phrases,

multiple

words,quotes,

nd

gim_

micks

weren't

sAndard art

of

puzzling

et.

Lutwiniak's

paltry

paymenr

f

$5

for

the

puzzle

idn't

dissuade

im

from

continuing.

The

road

that

Lutwiniak

traveled

o

the

NSA

also

began

n

childhood

ndwas

a

direct

outgrowth

of his

avid interest

n

ttre

pulp

magazine,

etective

Fiction

Weeklv.

The

feature

hat

eally

captured

is

attenrion

as

M.E.

Ohaber's

Codes

andCiphers',olumn.

Lutwiniak

emembers

hat

it

had

i ve

crypto_

grams

and

a

problem

n

arithmetic

n

which

you

had

to

recover

he numbers

rom

ttre

letters

based

n a keyword.

solved

hose or

a while."

When

Ohaber

nn

a contest

offering

a

subscription

The

Crypto ram,

amagazine

published

y

the

American

Cryptogram

u_

sociation ACA),

as first

prize,

Lutwiniak

entered,

on

hecontest,

ndgotthe

ubscrip_

tion.

It

was

fire

16-year-old

utwiniak's

,nst

introduction

o

he

ACA,

where

ediscovered

that

his

early

code

and

cipher

work

had

pre_

pared

im

well

or

his

more

dvanced

aterial.

He

eagerly

olved

every

cryptogmm

n

every

issue,

mailed

n

his

solutions

ist,

and

sawhis

name

appear

n

the

special

completers,,

list.

He

"sort

of

built

a

reputation"

s

a

top

solver.

Healsoenjoyedconstructing

odes

ndciphers

and

panicipated

ctively

n

the

ACA

for

the

next

ive yean.

By

this

time

he

hadgraduared

rom

high

school

ndwas

working

or

minimum

wage

n

New

York

City's

garmentcenter,

ommuting

from his home n JerseyCity, NewJersey."We

were

a

poor

family;

no

one

went

on to

college."

.

However,

Lutwiniak's

cryptology

work

wasn'

destined

o emain

merely

hobby.

e

recalls

is

ntroduction

o his

ifetime

work.

"In

1

940,

with

all

hewar

clouds

he

S

gnal

Intelligence

ervice

S.I.S.)

f the

War

De_

partment.

an

outht

I

didn't

know

existed)

foresaw

he

need

for

rapid

expansion

n

the

near

uture

and

hey

aid plans

or

recruiting.,,

Under

he

direction

of

'a

very

sage

entleman

whowasknown s re atherofUnited tates

cryptology,

William

F.

Friedman,

an

effort

was

put

n

motion

o

attract eople.

One

of

these

methods

was

to

get

from

the

ACA

leadership

ist

ofall

good

solvers, referably

young.

was

on

hat ist."

When

utwiniakreceived

letter

rom

he

S.I.S.

ffering

im

thearmyextension

courses

on

cryptography

nd

cryptanalysis

o

do

at

home"

he'Jumped

t

the

chance.,,

is

ex_

tensive

ACA

solving

enabled

im

to

race

through

he ntroductory

nd

advanced

ili_

99 2 CROSSW D

(Continued

on P,

Page

5


3/4

Lutwiniak

(from

Page

5)

tary cryptography

ndcryptanalysis

ourses.

Even

beforehe

had

completed

hecurriculum

he

wasoffered

job,and

on

February

,194 ,

in

Washington,

.C.,

Friedman ersonally

welcomed

im

aboard

heS.I.S.

Sixofhis ellow

ACAmembers

ventually

followed

his same oute

o the

S.I.S.,

but

Lutwiniak

was

tre irst

to

startworking

here.

The

agency

wasexpanding

apidly

andsoon

movedts offices o Arlington,Virginia.

"About

ttrattime

enlistedn

theArmy

and

gotpickedupby

he

SignalCorps

ndusedas

a cryptologist,"he

says.He

worked n

Ar-

lington

until

he

was

shipped

overseas

nd

spent hewar

years

n

theChina-Burma-India

theater. utwiniakcelebrated

-J Day

n

New

Delhi, retumed

home

shortly

hereafter,

nd

resumedhis

areeras

civilian

ryptographer.

Overa

eriod

f ime

treS.I.S.merged

nto

the National

Security Agency

(lr{SA)

and

Lutwiniak

worked is

way

hrough

he ystem

toseniorcryptologist.

n

1981 e

was

fhcially

placed n aretiredannuitanttatus." enow

works

as

a cryptologist

our

to five hours

a

week.

"I'm

called n from

ime

o timewhenmy

corporatememory

may

be of

use o NSA.

hat

do

now

s

consult,

uide

oung eople,

andmakemyselfavailable

o

answerquestions

about

heold

times.

think I'm

the ast

active

guy

rom

WW II.'

Due

o thesensitive

ature

f the

organiza-

tion,

he

won't

discuss is

work.

"I'm

not.

going

to tell

you

anything

about t

because

'Never

Say Anything...No

Such

Agency'

(referring

o he ongue-in-cheek

eferences

o

the NSA). I

don't mind

giving

you

all this

backgroundmaierial

becauset's

not

classi-

fied."

Lutwiniak's

rosSword-prrzzling

areer,n

theotherhand, s

an open

book.Although

he

putsolvingandconstructingn holdduring

thewar

('I

dropped

tratkind

of stuff

because

things

were

serious"),he

picked

them

up

againn

the'60s.

Lutwiniak

says e'll never

orget

he irst

przzle

he

tried to

solve

after ttris hiatus.

I

came

cross

copy fTheNewYorkTimes.I-o

andbehold t had

a crosword

puzzle

n it "

Lutwiniak

wassurprised

ecauseor

years

t

had

been

"beneath

their dignity."

(Ihe

apocryphal

tory s

that Arthur

Sulzberger,

publisher

of TheTimes,

tarted

uzzles

after

he

ound

himself

uyingthe

HeraldTribune

forits

crossword.)Lutwiniaknoted

heeditor's

name,

MargaretFanar,

ndwondered

f he'd

enjoy

solving

he

puzzle.

"I

tried

to

solve t

and I

couldn't."

He

emphasizes

tris.

I

couldn't "

He

waited

or

the

next

day's ssue

o check

tre

answer

rid

and hen

iscovered"the

ransformation

anar

had

brought

o

hewhole

rosword

construc-

tion

game."

Lunviniak

was

enthralled"

with

the

new

puzzles

with multiple

word

entries,

phrases,

hemes, nd

an

"anything

goes"

atti-

tude.

nrigued,

he

started

building

puzzles"

and

sending hem

o Farrar.

She

liked

my

work

and she

published

mmediately

ne

or

two things.

What

shedidn't

publish

he

ent

back,

suggesting

orrections.

'd make

tre

corrections

nd

she'd

publish

hem."

En-

couraged

y this

boost,he

beganree-lancing

for

all ttre

available

utlets

at that

time,

such

as theHerald Tribune,The Times,

and ttre

Simon

& Schuster

ooks.

Lutwiniak

recalls,

I managed

o

get

nto

everything

could,' ree-lance-wise,'

ecause

there weren't

that

many

markets.

started

making

name

or myselfby

heerfrequency

of

gettingpublished

nd

jusr

wenr

long

ike

that."

Lutwiniak

hought

rossword

onstructing

was'Just

hobby"

untilJanu

y 14,197

,

he

dayhis

amous

SpotAnnouncements"puzz

was

ublished

n

he

Sunday inrs

underWill

Weng's

ditorship.

fter

hismaverickpuzzle

(discussed

n

CROSSW

RD

magazine's

Marcty'April

991issue)

ith ts

wordrebus

clues

'WHE"

for"middle

f

nowhere,"

EN"

for

beginning

of heend,"

nd

V"

for"center

of

gravity")

was

published,

I

became

own-

right

amous."

After

these

puzzles

appeared,

utwiniak

(Continued

n Page

9)

A Few

Clues

From

he

Lutwiniak

ile

In

"Reading

Letters"

Lutwiniak

used

a word rebus

heme:

..H"

,,AFt


4/4

Lutwiniak

(from

Page7)

was nundated

ith

requests

or

puzzles

nd

'I

just

kept

up as

best

I

could with

the

free-

lancing."When

arrar,

WillWeng,

orEugene

Maleska

ot

nquiries

rom

editorsneeding

special ind

ofpuzzle,

ley'd

be

referred

o

Lutwiniak.

"I

built up

somebusiness

f ttrat

sort-puzzles

to order,

usiom-madepuzzles,

and

so

orth."

Weng

also

published

Lutwiniak's

"Do-

It-Yourself'crossword ithagimmick hat

includednine

unclued

numbers

nd

one

clue indicafed

only

with an asterisk.

The

uncluedentries

yielded

"without

a clue,"

"uninformative,"

missing

link,"

"mean-

ingless,"

drawing

a

blank,"

ill

defined,"

"nothing

at all,"

"wide

open

spaces,"

nd

"without

meaning."

The

asterisk

clue

yielded

"unnumbered."

Several

solvers

wrote

oWengandcomplainedaboutsloppy

proofreading

During

his

NSA

years,

Lutwiniak's

crossword

reatingwas relegarcd

o

eve-

ningsandweekends.With these imecon-

straints, Lutwiniak

divided

the

puzzle-

making

process

nto

grid

making,

cluing,

and typing

and worked

on

one stage

at a

time.

Itdepended

on

how

much

ime had

on theclock. f

I had

only

an

hour

would

do an

hour's

worth

of typing

and inish

hat

up.That

was

o

maximize

my

productivity

in those

ays

when had

o

get

what

could

outof

evenings

ndweekends."

As

a

retiree

Lutwiniak

is

free

to

spend

three o four hours

a

day on

crosswords,

weekends

ncluded,

or

as

he

puts

t,

"the

equivalentof ull-timepart-timeob."He

has

contractual

bligations

or

newspaper

syndicates

daily

crosswords,

hemed

un-

day-size

uzzles,

nd TV

puzzles)

and

or

specializedmagazines

Palm

Beach

Lift

and

Americana).

He

contributes

o the

crossword

eries

ublished

y Simon

& Schuster

ndRun-

ning Press.

He makes

sure

to send

Will

eng

at

least

one

puzzle

a

year

for his

rosswords

Club,

"so

I

can

receive

the

published

nnually

y

theclub,"

and

e's

contributing

ditor

oCROSSW

RD

agazine'I

don't

ake

hehonorificightly;

ry

to

have

a

puzzle

n

each ssue").

His

ommitments

co-editing

he Washington

Post's

Sunday

crossword

William R.

MacKaye.

In 1985,

whenPost

editorMacKaye

was

he

new

Sundaymagazine,

is

goal

o

make

ts

puzzle

as

good

asor better

han

one

n The

New York

Times

and

he

chal-

Lutwiniak

to achieve

hat

goal.

a

hand-picked

rew

of

20

constructors

o send

hematic

puzzles

and

offered hem

the

bestpricepossible."

At

that

time

t

was

$200,

and trerewas

only one

other

publication aying

comparableates.)

The nitial

group

of contributors

asnow

doubledn

sizeandLutrpiniak

believest will

continue o

grow

as constructors ear

about

themagazine

nd endn

puzzles.

e

advises

would-be

contributors

o send n

their

best

puzzles

and

promises

o

"give

thema

look-

see, nd

f

ttrey're

ood

we'llrun

hem."Once

amonth utwiniakwill publish ne fhisown

puzzles.

Regular

contribu[ors

nclude

Alfio

Micci,

Frances

Hansen,

Ernie

Furtado,

and

"the

usual itany."

Lutwiniak's

style ncludes

new-wave"

cluing:

good,

'll

rebuild

hose

portions.

hen

'll

change

efinitions s hewhim

suitsme."

MacKaye

ndothers n

he

Posf

staff

hen

check the

puzzle

and might

make more

changes.utwiniak

eels

hat he

end

esult

s

a

"very

professional

roduct."

Momings

t treLufwiniaks'

ilver

Spring,

Maryland,

ou5s

rgu5nally

pent n

puzzles.

The

former

Jeanne

Newland,his

wife

of

43

years,

helpshim

with

the

cluing

and yping

and

takes care

of all

the business

matters

related to his free-lancework. In retum,

Lutwiniak

sometimes

ublishes

uzzles

n-

der her name.

Their

grown

daughter,

rina,

professes

ot

o

solve

puzzles.

Lutwiniak

now

constructs

00

puzzles

year,

considerably

ewer

tran henumber

e

LutwiniaR's

NSA

background

hows n

many

of his

themes

ndclues:

Two

hemes ere

adroitly

ombinedn

NOTE"--{efinitions

o theword

note"

and he

elimination

f the

etters

TE'

in

the

grid (No

"te").

Main

entries lued

wittr

he

puzzle's

title were

answered

y:

"Do

re

me fa

sol a

or

ti,"

"short

informal

efi,"

and'?ay

close

aFllion o."

Otherclues ncluded:

"Thlrd

party

actlontt

.rlnrventlon',

"Extra-legal

law

enforcert'

"Vigilan,,

In

"Two

For

One,"

a tournament

vzzle,solvers

acing

he

clock realized

hat

hey had

to

placel6-letter

nEies

nto

a standard

5 x 15grid.

The ast

wo etters

had

o

be

placed

in

onesquare:

"overcrowdedtt

"Running

out

of room"

"Lacking

foreslght,r

..Not

plannlng

aheadrt

"Just

missed ut'

.Telt

r

litue short"

Similarly, n

"So

andSo,"

solvers

ould

only it

the

correct

nswersnto

he

grid

by

using

anampersand:

LUTWINIAK'S

ECRET

ANGUAG

"Setincontrasttt

..Counrpointtt

"Corn.on-the.cob

eaters,

ften"

..Salrst,

ttPeoplett

"Men

& woment,

"Played

Lucullus"

"Wined

&

dinedtt

"Sheriff's

chargd'

"Law

& order"

"Appleofone's

eye"

"Pride

&Joytt

"One

by one?tt

..Eleven,

"Head

start?t'

,,Necktt

"What's

mssing"

..An

itt

"Back

talk?t'

,sEchort

With hepaper

aving

circulation

f

more

thanonemillion,

Pos,

readers

ccepted

he

puzzle

entlusiastically

and,

over

the

years,

have oiced nlyonemajor omplaint-they

don't like

ttre

"slick

paper"

on which t's

printed.

utwiniak's

esponse

o solvers

s,

"IJse

an

erasable

allpoint

pen."

Atthe Post,

all croswords

submittedor

publication

oflusttolutwiniak.

edescribes

his

sorting

rocess,

I

look

the

puzzle

over,

and

f it's

awful

suggesteasonsor

ejection

with

a critique,

so he

constructor

anhave

a

shot

at

patching

t

up. If

there

are

hings n

ttrere

tratdisturb y

sensibilities

r

usewords

and erms

hat wouldn't,

and

he

p:uzzle's

made

uringhishrstyearofretirement.

When

people

heard

was etired

hey

askedme

or

puzzles.In

hat rst

year

made

500

puzzles,

but

hatwas

oo much,

o

've

cut

back."

Lutwiniak

ies

to

i

requests

nto

his

already

tight

schedule,

ut

sometimes

as

to

tum

awaywork.

Heplans

o continue

o

construct

crosswords

or

the est

of his ife.

"I

don't

see

any qNon o stop. t's fun."As the72-year-

old reflects

n his ife's

work,

Lutwiniak

has

the ondest

memories

f

his

spot

Announce-

ments"

rosword.

"To

me

that's

the

acme

of crossword

puzzledom.

ou

get

a

good

dea,

cany it

through

well,

produce

he finishedproduct,

and

confound

nd

delight

he

solvers.f you

do that

you

feel

real

good

about t."

tr

HELENE

HOVANEC

is

editor

and

pub-

lisher

f Kids'

Puzzle

Express.

992 CROSSWRD

Page 9

"and the wynner is . . . william lutwiniak," by helene hovanec

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