![]() (Photo provided)Įven after Shechtman started publishing her puzzles, she still made them old-school-by hand, using graph paper. Shechtman (far left) celebrates the launch of a new version of the New York Times crossword app with colleagues-including her then-boss, Will Shortz (third from right). ‘Wives are not tending to their husbands anymore, because they're busy doing crossword puzzles.’ There was a spate of divorces-and because there was no ‘no-fault’ divorce, the ‘fault’ was crosswords.” Stories You May Like “It was taking away from the family unit. “People were saying not just that they were a distraction that siphons your intellectual energy, but also, in a weird way, your erotic energy,” she observes. And akin to future fears about the deleterious effects of movies, TV, and social media, crosswords were seen in some quarters as a societal evil. ![]() In the first half of the 20th century, the majority of crossword constructors were women-and now, it’s around 20%.Īs she’ll describe in the book-each section of which will open with a new Shechtman puzzle-when crosswords debuted more than a century ago, they sparked a craze that swept the nation. “Why did that happen? What does it say about ‘women's work’-and about changes in the status of crossword puzzles and how they’re made?” “In the first half of the 20th century, the majority of crossword constructors were women-and now, it’s around 20%,” she notes. Titled The Riddles of the Sphinx, it’s slated to be published by HarperCollins in 2024. She’s currently at work on two books, one of them academic: an expansion of her dissertation that explores the evolution of the concept of “media.” The other is a history of crossword puzzles, with a focus on gender issues. She came to Cornell in fall 2021 as a Klarman Fellow-part of a program in Arts & Sciences that brings outstanding postdoctoral scholars to the Hill for up to three years of funded research, with no teaching obligations. Shechtman left the job to attend grad school at Yale, where she earned a doctorate in English literature and film and media studies. “Other times we’d debate usage: ‘Is the way I understand this word-growing up as a Millennial in Lower Manhattan-the same way he understands it as a Boomer who grew up on a horse farm in Indiana?’ All aspects of our cultural history would be brought to bear on these questions about lexicon.” ![]() (She’ll become an assistant professor in the Department of Literatures in English in fall 2024.)Ī star in the crossword world, Shechtman has gained fame not only for the élan and cleverness of her creations, but because-as a woman now in her early 30s-she brings a fresh voice to a field that has traditionally been dominated by older, male constructors. The author of this cruciverbalist’s feast is Anna Shechtman, a postdoctoral fellow and future faculty member on the Hill. The puzzle for May 23-a toughie-includes clues on a dizzying variety of topics: “The Simpsons,” NCAA sports, the Light Brigade, biochemistry, Greek drama, lingerie, geography, pop music, the Wild West, cocktails, the films of Cate Blanchett and Kristen Stewart, and the fashions of Swinging London.ģ4 Across: Like science fiction concerning the ethics of artificial intelligenceĤ6 Down: “_, Épaules, Genoux, et Pieds” (classic children’s song, in French) In the online New Yorker, the most challenging crosswords run on Mondays. The Klarman Fellow (and future prof) is a regular contributor to the New Yorker-and she created a puzzle just for Cornellians! Artist Alum Has an Unusual Medium: Earth Itself
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