HEADLINE: ILLINOIS STYLE: DeKalb copy editor brings out book 
of crossword puzzles 
 
BYLINE: By CHRIS RICKERT, The (DeKalb) Daily Chronicle, 
January 17, 2006 
 
  
David Fixmer began solving crossword puzzles when he was 
about 12 years old. He started creating them while still in 
his early teens. 
 
Today it takes him about four minutes to do the Monday New 
York Times grid he occasionally times himself and from 15-20 
minutes to do the newspaper's Sunday puzzle, generally 
considered one of the hardest regularly produced puzzles.  
 
"I've always been interested in words, and my mother always 
used to do crossword puzzles," Fixmer said. 
 
Fixmer, since 1999 the (DeKalb) Daily Chronicle's copy 
editor, also won the rookie award for his grid-solving 
prowess at the 2000 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 
Stamford, Conn., where he placed 12th out of a field of 286. 
He said he plans to return to the competition next year. 
 
And Fixmer recently added another line to his crossword-
centric résumé published author. 
 
"Daily Chronicle Crosswords" was published by Chronicle 
parent company Lee Enterprises and is being offered to the 
public for a $10 suggested donation. All the money raised 
will go to the Chronicle's Newspapers in Education Program, 
which provides local schools, colleges and adult literacy 
programs with curriculum and free newspapers. The program 
also hosts workshops for teachers on how to use the 
materials in their classrooms. 
 
The book contains 52 of Fixmer's puzzles, 50 of which 
appeared in the Sunday Chronicle between 1999 and this year 
and two that are new and that work four of the book's five 
sponsors BioLife Plasma Services, Ben Gordon Center, 
KishHealth System, Kishwaukee College and Bill White's 
C.A.R. Hospital Inc. into the answers. 
 
Fixmer said he believes his crosswords stack up well against 
some of the more widely distributed grids in other 
publications. He thinks they are better than the syndicated 
one that appears Monday through Saturday in the Chronicle, 
which doesn't have a theme. 
 
He also said he tries to stay away from puzzles with a lot 
of "crosswordese" words that are rarely seen or used outside 
crossword puzzles, where they show up a lot because they are 
short and usually have lots of vowels. 
 
"For originality, I think my puzzles are pretty good," 
Fixmer said. But "I have a higher black-square count than 
the New York Times crossword puzzle." 
 
More black squares generally mean a puzzle that's easier to 
create and solve. 
 
When Fixmer creates a new puzzle, it takes him about three 
hours to fill the grid once he's come up with the theme 
entries. 
 
"You're always on the lookout for 15-letter phrases," he 
said. Fixmer's puzzles measure 15 squares across by 15 
squares down. 
 
It takes him another two hours or so to come up with all the 
clues. He estimates he's created more than 200 puzzles for 
the Chronicle. He said most "constructors" as crossword 
puzzle authors are called have other full-time jobs, 
although there are a few who can make a living solely by the 
grid. 
 
He said he's noticed that crossword aficionados are the kind 
of people who "like to be tricked" who enjoy that forehead-
slapping, "Aha!" moment that comes after finally getting the 
answer to a tough clue. 
 
Fixmer likes number puzzles and other word puzzles as well, 
although he finds one common newspaper puzzle, the Jumble, a 
bit easy. 
 
By way of example, he went and got the Tempo section of the 
Chicago Tribune, turned it to one of the Comics pages, 
unscrambled that day's Jumble words, and solved the one-
phrase answer all in about four seconds. 
 
"Yeah, the Jumble's easier," he said.