NYT Editor Hosts Westchester Crossword Puzzle Tournament Friday

Asking New York Times Crossword Editor Will Shortz how he solves a puzzle is kind of like asking the top chef in Naples how he (or she) eats a slice of pizza — slightly presumptuous, but way too tempting to resist.

A casual—okay, I'll admit it, borderline obsessive crossword-solver—I had pictured Shortz as something like the Great and Powerful Oz.

Instead, I met a approachable guy who lives in an unassuming Tudor home in Pleasantville—decorated in an an Arts and Crafts style and filled of course with lots of crossword paraphernalia.

The normalness of it all made his super-human solving prowess all the more enigmatic.

Shortz receives between 75 and 100 crossword submissions every week.

"They come in from everywhere," he said. "There are some people I can almost always rely on to send publishable puzzles; others have sent in many and never gotten in. Having 50 percent of your puzzles published is fantastic."

Shortz knows within minutes whether a submission is usable in The New York Times.

This week he received a puzzle from a Yale undergrad submitting for the first time. Shortz read the young man's hand-written note and praised him for sending the raw puzzle in the proper format. He counted the number of words (78), commenting that any puzzle between 72 and 78 words "must have a theme."

He smiled when he found "bean dip" embedded in the puzzle.

"I like that as an answer," Shortz said.

Unfortunately, near the bottom of the grid, Shortz discovered "Abiu." The clue: A tropical fruit tree.

"That's a crossword-killer right there," he said. "'Abiu' is way too obscure."

On Oct. 21, Shortz will host the 15th Westchester Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which will be held for the first time in his opened  in Pleasantville.

Unlike the national tournament—made famous by the movie Wordplay—the county competition is for crossword fiends and casual solvers alike.

Contestants will be faced with four future New York Times puzzles, with 15 minutes to solve a Monday puzzle, 20 for a Tuesday and 20 for a Wednesday. The first to finish each one will qualify for the finals—a tough Thursday puzzle—which they'll have to solve on giant boards in front of the crowd.

Prizes will be issued in multiple categories.

Thinking of entering? Here are some tips courtesy of Shortz himself to up your solving game between now and Friday.

• Practice. Shortz said the most important (and obvious) way to get better at solving crosswords is by doing them. Start with Monday puzzles and work your way up.
• Break into a puzzle by answering the fill-in-the-blank clues. "They jump out at you immediately, and you'll generally know you've answered them correctly."
• Scan through the clues for answers you know for sure.
• From there, look for unusual combinations of letters and start by filling in the boxes them.
• If you get stuck, don't hesitate to guess.
• But if it seems like your guess isn't working, don't hesitate to erase it.
• Keep your brain on at all times. "Every life experience can be useful for solving the crossword—travel, TV, radio, or anything you read. Just about everything in the world is fair game for a crossword," Shortz said.

Somehow Shortz's power to mold American culture hasn't gone to his head—though he does appreciate his status as gate-keeper for what's considered "culturally significant" versus "too esoteric."

As an example, Edie Falco and The Sopranos might not have become household words had the actress' first name—three-quarters vowels—not fit so perfectly into the puzzle. Or Oreo cookies...

Though probably the most moving anecdote Shortz has ever received was from a woman who had just undergone brain surgery.

"She wrote me and said that before surgery she was terrified that she wouldn't be able to solve the puzzle anymore," Shortz said. "But immediately after the operation they gave her a puzzle and she finished it. It was then that she knew she'd be okay."

Learn more about the 15th Westchester Crossword Puzzle Tournament .