Merl Reagle
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Merl Reagle (b. January 5, 1950, Audubon, NJ) is a U.S. crossword puzzle creator. Since 1985, he has constructed a puzzle every Sunday for the San Francisco Chronicle (originally the San Francisco Examiner); it is now also published by the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Seattle Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Hartford Courant, the New York Observer and the Arizona Daily Star, among others.
Reagle made his first crossword when he was 6 and sold a puzzle to The New York Times at age 16, a feat that made him the youngest published Times puzzle constructor at the time.
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[edit] Representative puzzles: humor and wide-open grids
Will Shortz, the crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times, has said that “. . .his themes are consistently fresher and funnier than anyone else’s. And he’s one of the greatest puzzlemakers at interlocking words in intricate, wide-open patterns.” [1] Games Magazine has called him "the best Sunday crossword creator in America,"[2] and a poll of puzzle makers at cruciverb.com[1], the website for crossword constructors, ranked Reagle the most admired by his peers.[3] His 2004 puzzle, "Wide Open Spaces," holds the record for the lowest word count, or number of answers, in a Sunday puzzle. The 21 x 21 grid had only 51 black squares and 112 words.[2] The prolific crossword editor Stanley Newman called Reagle's puzzle "Gridlock"[3] "the best single crossword of the last 25 years."
His fellow constructors routinely credit Reagle for creating the funniest themes for his puzzles. One, called "Hit Song," was what he called "Sean Penn's version of "My Way." It included the theme entries I'M IN A / RUSH, NO PICTURES, PLEASE, OR / ELSE YOU'LL LEARN THE / BLACKENED EYE WAY / THE RECORD SHOWS / I'LL BUST YOUR / NOSE IF YOU GET IN. . . / MY WAY.[4] Other much-discussed puzzles carried titles like "Inappropriate Muzak for a Doctor's Office" and "Least Popular Beanie Babies."
[edit] Portrayal in the film Wordplay
He is noted for making puzzles with pencil and paper, without the aid of a computer. The 2006 documentary Wordplay by Patrick Creadon depicted Reagle’s on-camera construction of a crossword that subsequently was published in the Times. The film then showed various famous crossword enthusiasts, including Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, The Indigo Girls and Mike Mussina, attempting to solve the puzzle. Reagle has often constructed puzzles for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which he first attended in 1979, its second year. He now serves as a tournament judge.[4]
[edit] Other appearances
He has been featured on CNN, the Today show, Nightline, Oprah[5] and National Public Radio[4]. An article he wrote on crossword construction for the Philadelphia Inquirer in February 1997 was reproduced in shorter form in the July 1998 Reader's Digest.
One of the few crossword puzzle constructors who makes a full-time living at his craft, Reagle is the only U.S. Sunday crossword maker who does his own syndication. With the assistance of his wife, Marie Haley, he has published 12 volumes of his Sunday crosswords, which he sells from his website. Merl and Marie make their home in the Tampa Bay, Florida area.
[edit] External links
- Official site for Wordplay The Movie
- Wordplay The Movie at the Internet Movie Database
- Reagle's Sunday Crosswords website
[edit] References
- ^ Grossmann, John, ”Puzzling: Merl Reagle Lives to Tease Your Brain." Delta Sky Magazine, October, 2003.
- ^ Games Magazine World of Puzzles, March 1995.
- ^ Gaffney, Matt. Gridlock: Crossword Puzzles and the Mad Geniuses Who Create Them. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2006, p. 210.
- ^ a b Amende, Coral. The Crossword Obsession: the History and Lore of the World’s Most Popular Pastime. New York: Berkley Books, 2001, p. 365
