27 Down Turned 75 Today

Before there was "Words with Friends" their were crossword puzzles. One of the most famous is the puzzle that is published by the New Times seven days a week. When I was little my family always got the Sunday New York Times. I think I was probably 6 years old the first time my grandfather let me "Find the Nina's". This was the practice of checking the Al Hirschfeld weekly illustration in the Times for the name Nina. Soon after that we started doing the crossword puzzle.

Not being very knowledgeable and the fact that I am a terrible speller I don't think I ever actually finished a whole crossword puzzle. I did however enjoy reading all the clues and realizing I don't know anything about a lot of things. The New York Times is probably the only reason I ever discovered a thesaurus before I had to use one in college.

Today the New Times Crossword puzzle celebrates it's 75th birthday making me realize I haven't done a puzzle since probably 1990 something. Now that the puzzle is celebrating the big 75, I will have to start doing the puzzle again. Maybe I will finish one before it turns 100. Turns out you don't even have to get the paper anymore you can do it online and they even put out a "mini" version.

Will Shorts sat down with CBS This Morning to talk about the Puzzle and it's history. He is one of only four people who ever held the title of Puzzle Editor. You might be surprised about all the people who have authored a puzzle. If you are a smart kid you might want to submit one the pays not bad.