By chance, we had both the Indigo Girls and Ken Jennings on the show last week, which gave me the chance to shamelessly plug the American Crossword Puzzle Championship in Stamford, Connecticut. They are tangentially associated - Amy Ray and Emily Saliers are among the celebrity solvers featured in the documentary Wordplay, which builds up to the dramatic 2005 championship final, and Ken Jennings was the guest speaker — and whizbang rookie contestant — at last year's annual. I've been there every year since 2001 (I think) to do the play by play of the finals with color man and well-known puzzle constructor Merl Reagle.
After thirty years (!), Will Shortz, the (you have to say this all in one breath) puzzle editor of The New York Times and Puzzle Master on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, is moving his tournament. The Stamford Marriott is simply too small to accomodate the burgeoning crowd, now more than 700 strong. After all these years, "Stamford" had aquired a special cachet in the puzzle world. Under certain circumstances, "Stamford" would be whispered with the same kind of reverence that baseball fans reserve for Cooperstown. Though it annually failed to order in sufficient copies of the Sunday Times, the hotel became a place where, once a year, legends strode the corridors. I'm told that the contest in the ballroom is but a small part of Stamford's real story, but sadly, I don't get invited to those parties. Will says it will be bigger and better in the new place, but he says it with a tear in his eye.
Next year in Brooklyn!