Some crossword puzzle facts, courtesy of Will Shortz, the new puzzle editor of the New York Times:
When the first crossword puzzle appeared in the New York World on Dec. 21, 1913, it was called the "word-cross." The words were transposed three weeks later through a typesetter's error and they were never corrected. The hyphen was dropped later.At the height of the cross-word craze in 1924, six of the top 10 non-fiction best sellers were crossword puzzle books.
The University of Kentucky added a course on crosswords to its curriculum in 1924, calling the puzzles "educational, scientific, instructive and mentally stimulating."
An editorial in the New York Times on Nov. 17, 1924, called crosswords "a primitive sort of mental exercise." An editorial four days later predicted the entertainment form's early demise.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II likes to solve the Cryptic Crossword in London's Daily Telegraph every morning.