18 April 25

On this date in 1924 -- 101 years ago -- Simon & Schuster published the first book of crossword puzzles! My personal favorite crossword activity is the daily "Mini" from the New York Times.

18 April 23

Happy Crossword Day! On this date in 1924, Simon and Schuster published the first crossword puzzle book. The very first public crossword, originally called a word cross, was printed in the New York World in December 1913. In 2023 there are hundreds of daily crosswords shared in newspapers and over the Web.

18 April 22

98 years ago today, Simon & Schuster published the world's first crossword puzzle book! Beth and I play online crosswords frequently, from Dictionary.com, Washington Post, New York Times, USA Today and others. My tie's design is especially puzzling because it has some clue index numbers in impossible positions (for playing according to the usual rules).

28 October 20

Today's tie helps celebrate the birthday of Dr. Ginny Whitehouse, who chose it because she loves crossword puzzles! Ginny is a professor in the Department of Communication, whose office at EKU is just upstairs and down the hall from mine -- when we are actually physically present in the Combs Building. Nobody knows how soon that might occur again. The photo of us is from 366 days ago.

18 April 19

Simon and Schuster published the first crossword puzzle book on this date 95 years ago!

18 April 18

On this date in 1924, Simon and Schuster published the first book of crossword puzzles. It was the first publication by the partnership of Dick Simon and Lincoln Schuster. I get satisfaction from completing an online puzzle a couple times a week, but my wife Beth tackles three or more every day!

30 March 17

The penultimate day of March is always Pencil Day, honoring a patent issued on this date in 1858 to Hymen Lipman of Philadelphia, PA, for attaching an eraser to the end of a pencil.

In my office I have a framed plaque honoring "The L.E.A.D. 2.5 Word Processor," where the letters are shown to stand for Light, Economical, And Dependable. Its wonderful features include "fine or large print (manual control); polished wooden cabinet; letters, words or entire phrases can be deleted with a flick of the wrist; unlimited memory capacity depending on the aptitude of the user."

Besides a normal pencil, the plaque holds a double-pointed pencil ("for those who make no mistakes"), a double-erasered pencil ("for those who make only mistakes"), a very short pencil ("for those who do very little"), and an unsharpened piece of pencil wood ("for those who do absolutely nothing").

Today is also celebrated as "I Am In Control Day," honoring the words uttered by Secretary of State Alexander Haig on 30 March 1981, after the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan: "As of now, I am in control here in the White House."

And I am not forgetting that this is the 164th anniversary of the birth of Vincent Van Gogh. But I have already worn two Van Gogh ties this year; more soon!

18 April 16

Simon and Schuster, Inc. published the first crossword puzzle book on 18 April 1924. Also on this date some years earlier (1521), Martin Luther refused to recant his beliefs at the Diet of Worms.

6 April 15

March 30 is "Pencil Day," celebrating the patent granted to Hymen Lipman in 1858 for a pencil with an attached eraser. Last week I was busy using pencils to mark backerboard and porcelain tiles for our bathroom floor, so I didn't get to wear any ties! There's a pencil pictured on this crossword-puzzle tie.

17 December 13

Saturday of this week marks the 100th birthday of the crossword puzzle! The first one published was called a "word-cross." My tie includes its own puzzle -- while the squares are numbered, there are no clues . . .

16 January 13

Happy Birthday (#27), Ben Kleppinger! He selected this tie for me to wear today because (I think) he and I are enamored with crosswordy games like Bananagrams, Scrabble and Words With Friends.

08 September 10

International Literacy Day: be glad you can read well enough to solve a crossword puzzle!

30 March 10

This is Pencil Day! You can find out all kinds of interesting facts about pencils from pencils.com. Pencil Day commemorates the granting of a patent for a pencil with an attached eraser to Hymen Lipman of Philadelphia, PA, on March 30, 1858.










It's also the birthday of Vincent Van Gogh. Maybe I'll celebrate that tomorrow.

22 November 09

Today marks the opening of National Puzzle and Game Week. The biggest puzzle about this tie is what the clues might be.

15 April 09

Today is Rubber Eraser Day, according to www.holidayinsights.com. I haven't found out yet when we might celebrate Number 2 Pencil Day or Gel Rollerball Pen Day, but this holiday is in honor of that wonderful spongy plug that helps correct mistakes made while using old-fashioned lead pencils. This is the only tie I own that includes an eraser in the design.

22 September 08

I was misled by a weekend radio show to believe that I had missed Noah Webster's birthday. So I wore my crossword puzzle tie today. It turns out that they were celebrating 250 years since his birth, in 1758. I'll do something else for October 16, the actual anniversary.

28 May 08

Today marks 165 years since the death of Noah Webster (1758-1843). He didn't invent the crossword puzzle but I'm always grateful for his work with words, especially when I'm stuck on a puzzle or playing Scrabble.