NEW YORK SUN, July 7, 2005
HEADLINE: Obsessed With Crosswords

BYLINE: By GARY SHAPIRO

Author Marc Romano hastened from home in the summer heat to the Barnes and
Noble on Court Street in Brooklyn to discuss "Crossworld: One Man's
Journey Into America's Crossword Obsession" (Broadway Books). The audience
laughed when this Brooklyn resident opened by saying while people speak of
hot writers, he was "literally hot."

Mr. Romano said his book assessed the cultural impact of crossword puzzles
"not just in terms of fun and games, which they are." They had a big
impact on him: Working on 10 crossword puzzles a day once helped bring him
out of a two-year depression.

Who are these people who are obsessed with word puzzles? They come from a
variety of backgrounds. Other interests among great puzzle solvers include
music and mathematics: those endeavors, he said, also require the ability
to pick up on patterns.

In his presentation, he described the creation of crosswords by Arthur
Wynne in the New York World in 1913. Mr. Romano also mentioned historical
anecdotes such as how, during May and June 1944, the Daily Telegraph had
five puzzle answers such as "Utah" and "Omaha," coincidentally relating to
the Allied assault on Normandy. "Overlord" was the code for the Allied
assault operation; the clue for this word in the puzzle was "But some big-
wig like this has stolen some of it at times." Mr. Romano said he had no
idea what this clue meant, and welcomed the audience or others to let him
know if they did. (Knickerbocker readers: Please weigh in.)

One audience member asked about various degrees of crossword-puzzle
difficulty. Mr. Romano said the genius of a great puzzle editor was in
calibrating the difficulty of clues. He offered the example of the
crossword answer "Sagan." An easy clue would refer to the astronomer Carl
famously saying "BIL-lions and BIL-lions of stars." A more difficult clue
yielding the same answer would be "French writer Francois."

Another asked about the habit-forming properties of crossword puzzles.
"It's a very healthful addiction," Mr. Romano replied. The brain is a
muscle, and crosswords are a great way of exercising it. Mr. Romano added
that he was constitutionally unable to leave a crossword puzzle
unfinished.

In the audience was Stephen Irolla, who was carrying several newspapers
containing several crossword puzzles. He follows baseball and has worked
in journalism, covering high school sports in central New Jersey. Also
attending was the Reverend Philippa Turner of the Episcopal Church of the
Heavenly Rest. Her other interests include photography - she took the
picture of Mr. Romano that appears on the dust jacket of the book.

Also seen were Frank Longo, Adam Cohen, and Stella Daily, who have
constructed puzzles for The New York Sun's puzzle editor, Peter Gordon.
Mr. Longo has been constructing puzzles for a decade, Ms. Daily for three
years. Mr. Cohen, now in his 30s, has been making crossword puzzles since
he was 15 years old, and sold his first puzzle at age 24.

During the question-and-answer session, the Knickerbocker also learned
that Newsday crossword puzzle editor Stanley Newman hosts crossword boat
cruises. The next one is a 10-day Panama Canal trip in January, starting
and ending in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.