Mary Lou Guizzo author page

It was a pleasure to honor the female Nobelists in this puzzle on International Women's Day: poet and playwright NELLY SACHS, biochemist and pharmacologist GERTRUDE ELION, physicist DONNA STRICKLAND, peace activist BETTY WILLIAMS and physicist and chemist MARIE CURIE.

I would like to have packed more diversity into this puzzle with entries such as novelist Toni Morrison, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, Guatemalan human rights activist and feminist Rigoberta Menchu, Yemeni journalist, politician, and human rights activist, Tawakkol Karman and Australian-American biological researcher Elizabeth Blackburn.

However, it was difficult to work five different female Nobelists of five different countries from each of the five original Nobel categories into a Tuesday level grid.

Unfortunately, part of the difficulty is the small number of female laureates. Since their inception in 1901, just 58 women have been awarded a Nobel Prize, 6.2% of the 943 total unique individuals bestowed with this honor. (Diversity is a problem as well with only 17 male or female black Nobelists, 1.8 % of the total.)

The dearth of female Nobelists is due in part to deserving women whose work has been overlooked. Rachel Carson is an example. Other women such as physicist Lise Meitner, physicist Chien-Shiung Wu, chemist Rosalind Franklin, microbiologist Esther Lederberg, and astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnel have had their work used to win the Nobel for their male colleagues. Additional reasons for the scarcity of female laureates include specious stereotypes and the STEM ceiling with its structural and institutional barriers (gender pay gap, work-life balance issues, harassment, lack of networking opportunities, and implicit biases such as the Matilda effect).

Who better to work with on this puzzle than someone who has fit five female names into a 15x grid before — Sally Hoelscher. Sally and I started this endeavor together, creating a 21x grid featuring female firsts. Tracy Bennett responded, saying the editorial team liked our idea but wanted a 15x grid to run on the actual International Women's Day. We initially declined, having put a lot of thought and work into our 21x grid and having other projects in the works. (That 21x grid is in the Crosswords Club March packet.) However, I hated to pass up this opportunity and asked Sally if she'd reconsider. She didn't have time in her busy schedule but said she looked forward to working on my NYT puzzle on March 8. Thanks for that vote of confidence, Sally!

I tried to avoid additional names in the fill but wasn't sorry to see ADELE and IDA B. Wells make an appearance in the puzzle. I provided alternate clues for INA [Food Network's "Barefoot Contessa" Garten] and IMA [American philanthropist Hogg, aka "The First Lady of Texas"].

May this global holiday motivate us to work towards Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.

MARY LOU: After our last collaboration that started as a themeless, then ended up as a themed, I asked Erik if he'd like to give that themeless a try again. When he replied in the affirmative, I sent him a list of possible seed entries. I couldn't come up with clean fill on the first grid he put together after multiple tries, so he came up with another. It filled smoothly and incorporated three of my seed entry suggestions, PADMA LAKSHMI, MASTER BREWER, and I BLAME MYSELF.

It is a pleasure to have worked with Erik. He is such a pro. I appreciate his efforts to include more underrepresented groups as crossword constructors. He has been one of those at the forefront of this movement, setting up and moderating a Facebook page to connect new constructors from underrepresented groups with collaborators/mentors.

I wish him all the best in his new position as in-house editor of the USA TODAY Crossword puzzle.

MARY LOU: I originally contacted Jeff in November of last year about a reindeer themed Christmas puzzle with a dot to dot picture. We kicked many ideas back and forth. I mentioned the original eight reindeer as theme possibilities and Jeff suggested RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER which breaks into 13/13. He went off in one direction with the eight reindeer and I came up with the attached grid. We submitted both ideas to Will and heard back favorably from Joel on both grids but the picture grid having the edge. We were given the go-ahead to proceed with the fill and cluing.

Jeff did the grid reconstruction. It was quite a challenge, given the 26 fixed points of the picture (Joel mentioned that it felt incomplete without the Z) as well as the theme entries, to work clean fill around. About two months and numerous emails later we got word that the puzzle was in the queue.

I'm very excited to have another Christmas puzzle as well as a Sunday grid in the NYT. Many thanks to Jeff, Will, Joel and Sam for assistance in bringing this puzzle to press. I hope you enjoyed your solving experience.

Mary Lou Guizzo: My seed entry for this themeless was the RIJKSMUSEUM, a place I hope to see in person someday. It was inspired by my visit to a special exhibit at the Dayton Art Institute, Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art: Treasures from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

My first themeless grid with this seed entry was submitted in July of 2016. I received a rejection in August noting that Will really liked some of the grid fill including this seed entry, but there was too much crosswordese.

I asked Jeff for his assistance in reworking the grid. He pointed out I had too many three-letter entries. He noted it was best not to go above 12 for a themeless grid. After numerous back and forths using a grid of Jeff's design, we submitted a revised grid a few weeks later. We received an email in November accepting the revised grid.

Jeff worked the NYT debut words MAMA BIRD, BEER BRAT and GO BLONDE into the grid and my contribution in addition to RIJKSMUSEUM was OBAMA ERA. I was surprised to see the clue we had for TOMY, "Big name in toys headquartered in Japan," was replaced by the partial TO MY. I did like the edited change of clues for EARS and DJS to "Reception figures" as well as the clue change for HARRY from a name to "Badger."

I hope you've enjoyed your Saturday solving experience.

I was pleased to work SHIRLEY CHISHOLM into this Saturday puzzle. Her name has been in an NYT puzzle only once before ( in1981). We could use more women like her in Congress. If you are not familiar with SHIRLEY CHISHOLM, please watch the video below and be inspired.

Working TAYLOR SCHILLING in was also a plus, along with SPORCLE, ANYONE LISTENING and IT'S NOT FAIR. I suspect different demographics will know TAYLOR SCHILLING as opposed to SHIRLEY CHISHOLM. Hopefully, you got the other one from the crossings, along with Manuel NEUER, the soccer "sweeper-keeper." Before this, NEUER appeared in the NYT puzzles clued as "More modern or newer, in Germany."

For those of you who have not been to the HIGH SIERRA country, you should add it to your bucket list — a beautiful spot!

I hope you enjoyed your solving experience. Thanks to Will and Joel for accepting and editing this puzzle.

ML: I remember thinking about MADAME PRESIDENT as I worked on my first solo themeless that included MISTER PRESIDENT back in January 2014 (published in April 2015).

I consulted Jeff after two solo attempts in 2014 were rejected. Will and Joel liked all the 15s I had come up with but not the shorter fill holding it together. My first attempt with Jeff was also rejected, but the second accepted in February 2015. We kept the original 15s but Jeff reworked the entire grid structure. He kept the 15s locked but flipped the grid so that the SW corner became the NE. He also changed the position of the black squares.

I was pleased to add another female name, actress KERRY WASHINGTON, to the data base. The new entries to the database would also have included THE NEW YORK TIMES had Peter Gordon not beaten us with its debut earlier this year in a very clever puzzle. I liked Jeff's additions of NO GO AREAS and END IN A TIE. I was pleased to see my clue for NBA ALL STAR GAMES, "Where East meets West?" retained.

Thanks once again to Jeff for co-constructing and Will and Joel for accepting and editing this puzzle. I hope you enjoyed your solving experience.

JEFF: NBA ALL STAR GAMES are some of my favorite spectacles in all of sports. That entire weekend is filled with such athleticism, skill, and talent — it's mind-boggling. I particularly like the Slam Dunk contest. Just when I think everything new under the sun has been done, Spud Webb wins it (he's 5'9"). Then came the Jordan-Dominique battles. And last year, seeing Aaron Gordon leap over a mascot 1.) going up in the sitting position 2.) grabbing the ball with his left hand 3.) passing it underneath his horizontal legs and then 4.) slamming it home … I was so excited, I might have peed a little.

So when ML asked me to help her redo this grid after an initial rejection, how could I refuse? Now, who wants to watch the between the legs tomahawk jam I'm working on? (So what if it's on an 8-foot high rim.)

I also enjoyed helping get the incredibly talented KERRY WASHINGTON in the NYT crossword.

But things didn't go quite as planned with MADAME PRESIDENT.

Someday.

Hey, my daughter was born in the United States ...

MARY LOU: I approached Jeff about another Halloween puzzle using ALL HALLOWS EVE as a seed entry. He came up with the crossing LORD VOLDEMORT and we were off. Jeff whipped out a few grid layout possibilities. We kicked ideas back and forth and proceeded on filling the grid once we agreed on the best design. If my memory serves me right, he came up with the entries LIFE HACK, EREADER and I WONT DO IT and I came up with LE FIGARO.

We did offer the possibility of linking the clue on the two seed entries, as ALL HALLOWS EVE was the night when LORD VOLDEMORT went on his murderous spree, killing Harry Potter's parents, Lily and James. I also liked the clue "Howl at the Moon, e.g." for PIANO BAR as I thought it in keeping with the holiday spirit, but these did not make the cut. I was pleased to see the connection between OYSTER and BAY retained. I have fond memories of trips to Long Island and visiting the former home of the Teddy Roosevelt family, Sagamore Hill, near the hamlet of OYSTER BAY.

As always, a pleasure and learning experience to work with Jeff. My appreciation to Will and Joel for accepting and editing this puzzle. I hope you enjoy your solving experince and the Halloween/ALL HALLOWS EVE holiday on October 31! Happy Howl-o-ween!

JEFF: After ML wrote me that ALL HALLOWS EVE would make for a fun Halloween mini-theme, we brainstormed on what might a good crossing answer. Scanning through my personal list, I couldn't help but stop at LORD VOLDEMORT, as I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. (The rumors that I run through parking lots at night with a broom between my legs, practicing my aim with quaffles, are completely false.)

(Mostly.)

And when ML found an article (this was back in 2015) entitled "Voldemort is polling better than many Republican presidential candidates," we knew we had to do it. Considering The Terminator, Darth Vader, and The Shark from Jaws was polling ahead every Republican candidate at the time, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named really should have thrown his hat into the ring.

We couldn't quite get the syntax perfect, but brainstorming our original clue for ARMPIT was awfully fun: [Worst city in a particular state, metaphorically]. (I tried to make a joke about Knockturn Alley being the ARMPIT of magical London, but no one laughed.)

I was pleased to work MALALA YOUSAFZAI's name into this puzzle. She is such an inspiring young person giving hope to many through her human rights advocacy and example. As she has noted "One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world."

If you had trouble spelling YOUSAFZAI, you're in good company. I wrote the Nobel Peace Prize committee to alert them. Their response was "Thank you for spotting the spelling typo. It has been changed on two pages but not in the press releases from the Norwegian Nobel Committee (NNC). NNC does not want us to change in their official material."

I noticed my initial puzzle submission had a dupe in it after I mailed it off and worked to eliminate it. In a grid with so few black blocks it wasn't a simple fix, but the resulting puzzle was much improved and more to Will and Joel's liking. My thanks to them for accepting and editing this puzzle. I'm thrilled to have my first Saturday NYT puzzle published.

Thanks to David Steinberg whose October 10, 2014 blog post on The Preshortzian Puzzle Project piqued my interest. I decided to try my hand at filling such a grid.

I hope you've enjoyed your solving experience.

On December 31, 2012, shortly after submitting THE DESCENT OF MAN puzzle, I sent Jeff another idea. It was a 15x grid with the heart you see in today's puzzle. Jeff immediately realized my heart was too big for the 15x grid and placed it in a 21x adding one black square to the inside tip of the heart for two descending black squares instead of one. I suggested a HEART rebus but Jeff was not keen on this idea at all, noting Will has too many rebus puzzles. After several more emails back and forth I conceded defeat.

The idea lay dormant until this summer. Jeff and I were on a BINGE having just finished a few other holiday-themed puzzles. I remembered this grid and realized it would be perfect for 2016 with VALENTINES DAY falling on Sunday. I sent him the resurrected 21x grid using a LOVE rebus this time. He still wasn't buying it and was headed off on a family trip. So, I persisted with this labor of LOVE on my own.

I did not like having 4 REs and 4 TOs in the fill but after spending quite a bit of time trying to eliminate some of them, I decided they would have to do. I hope you can DEAL WITH IT. I laughed out loud as I plopped HOT MESS in close proximity to LOVE TRIANGLE.

I appreciate Jeff's help with the grid as well as his advice and encouragement. As always, I appreciate Will and Joel's acceptance and editing of this puzzle. Their cluing changes ramped up the difficulty. I'm not sure I would have gotten 40-Down "Kirk Douglas, Robert Wagner and Gregory Peck for Frank Sinatra" for EULOGISTS or 53-Down "What's the point of marking things?" for FELT-TIP!

I hope you've enjoyed your solving experience and have a VALENTINES DAY filled with even more LOVE.

The third try was a charm with this grid. I received an encouraging response from Joel on my original version, submitted in June 2014. He noted that it was a near miss. One longer word, MARGERY DAW, which Joel said neither he or Will were familiar with, as well as some of the shorter fill — MAWR, LELY, TYE, E MALL, RHEO, SLA and LEFAY — were mentioned as reasons for the rejection. That version had CHANCES ARE SMALL running across the top.

Will noted that my second version featuring BEATS ONES BREAST was a close call, but too many of the shorter entries were unappealing — TPS, MARA, ITO, AVI, SLA, ARN, INSP and SSTS.

A minor change was made in the accepted version with GRANDSTAND SEATS. The OZS / ZORA crossing I had was replaced with OHS / HORA.

I was pleased to work two strong women, SHAILENE WOODLEY and JESSICA CHASTAIN, who have triumphed over early difficulties to success, into the grid. GO AT A SNAILS PACE is also new to the NYT database. GRANDSTAND SEATS was last used in 1975 by Maura Jacobson. (She was quite a prolific cruciverbalist — great role model! I discovered her puzzles in some old NY Magazines at the library and found them quite addicting.)

I appreciate the concise feedback I received from Will and Joel on the earlier versions of this puzzle as well as their acceptance and editing of this final version. I'm still working on clever cluing. I appreciate their clues: "A dance that might give you a lift?" (HORA), "Setting for fans" (GRANDSTAND SEATS), "They might work at a revival" (EMTS) and "Doctor seen by millions" (PHIL).

ML: Jeff and I were on a roll with holiday puzzles. Fresh off the Christmas grid I suggested Happy New Year 2016, Friday. He replied: "Yikes, 1.5 years out! Maybe something sooner? =]" I sent him the Wikipedia calendar link for 2015/2016 stating "Try six months out ;-)"

JEFF: Stupid math, why must you be so hard?

ML: Not wasting any time, he sent me a grid skeleton with the names and NEW YEARS EVE filled in. I began the tedious process of filling as cleanly as possible (not an easy task!). We went back and forth discussing the best fill (the west side was easier than the east). Jeff saw the opportunity to fit APE and MAN in the SW corner. This brings back memories of THE DESCENT OF MAN puzzle which we were working on three years ago at this time. That was my first NYT acceptance. Amazing to reflect on how much has happened since!

Felice anno nuovo!

JEFF:

I had no idea if we could find three famous people with AULD / LANG / SYNE hidden in "their hearts," but it seemed well worth a try. (We aimed this puzzle for Dec. 31 — a Thursday — so we wanted to clue the themers more opaquely, i.e. [Physicist with a song in his heart?]) So what a joy to discover these three folks from within such disparate areas: physics, economics, and football.

Dirac was apparently a quirky fellow, not totally in a good way. But such contributions to the field of quantum mechanics! And anyone who Albert Einstein spoke of with "This balancing on the dizzying path between genius and madness is awful" qualifies as interesting in my book.

The Chairperson of the Fed is one of the most influential people in the world. Alan Greenspan I'll always remember because of tidbits my macroeconomics prof in business school recounted: apparently Greenspan had a vascular condition for which he needed to take extended hot baths. The image of this guy in glasses soaking for hours at a time, mulling over how best to guide the largest economy in the world, will always stick in my head. Not to mention, his marriage to journalist Andrea Mitchell … with the ceremony done by the Notorious RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsberg)!

I don't know that much about Greasy Neale's football career since he played long before my time, but I always wanted a good nickname like Greasy. Back when I co-captained an Ultimate Frisbee team, we had a running joke about new member initiation, which involved catching a greased pig. Or more accurately, a greased co-captain. Ahem.

MARY LOU:

When Jeff and I started kicking around ideas for a Christmas puzzle, we were shooting for a Friday, Dec. 25 date — themeless with a mini-theme. One of the first steps I took was to research previous holiday puzzles. You really should try this lovely one by Paula Gamache if you've not worked it already. Her puzzle inspired me to give a visual aspect to the puzzle, using the black squares to make candy cane shapes.

I ran the idea by Jeff and he quickly whipped out a grid skeleton. I noticed that both ST NICHOLAS and CANDY CANES could be worked into his grid and he noticed that X, M, A and S would fit into the candy canes' crooks. We went back and forth on the fill — took some time to get a clean grid! I do believe Jeff came up with the six entries unique to the NYT database — IT'S A KEEPER, KGB SPIES, MISEDUCATE, NO LOOK PASS, OPERA CAPE and TELENOVELA. I enjoyed fitting LA SCALA in with that OPERA CAPE!

We had several options for cluing CANDY CANES including the fact that Spangler makes 2.7 million a day! Jeff came up with "Small time crooks?" which I thought was clever. It is always a pleasure to work with him. And always a pleasure to get that "Yes!" email from Will and Joel — thanks for accepting and editing!

I hope you enjoyed this Christmas puzzle and that you and your family have a wonderful holiday.

This is one of the first themeless grids I attempted. Lynn Lempel used the same grid design for a NYT puzzle, so I think I borrowed from her. However Joel noted in the acceptance email, "One thing that almost made this a no, despite the good fill, was the grid shape. Will really doesn't like when the black squares segment the grid into thirds like this. It highly increases the chance of the solver to get stuck in one particular area." I mention this for other budding constructors as a word of caution.

I was pleased to fit GABRIELLE GIFFORDS in the grid along with Zooey DESCHANEL and Nancy PELOSI. I've admired Ms. Gifford's comeback after the devastating injury she suffered in an assassination attempt in 2011. She and her husband, former astronaut and Space Shuttle Commander, Mark E. Kelly, campaign tirelessly for common sense gun control legislation.

I'd like to thank Will and Joel for accepting and editing this puzzle. They've improved on many of my clues and it is a better puzzle for it. I laughed when I read the clue "Going places?" for THRONES. They made a slight change in the grid. I had ALII for 5-Across with ISS for 8-Down, and GUAM for 26-Down with GIDDY at 26-Across, UTES at 31-Across and ASS at 34-Across.

I hope you enjoyed your Friday solving experience. I will keep trying to up the percentage of crosswords constructed by women. I encourage other women who have the inclination and time to do the same. Both Jeff Chen and Kameron Austin Collins have offered to mentor women. Editors such as Ben Tausig are encouraging women as well. In a recent solicitation for a new constructor for The American Values Club he noted: "In the interest of equal representation and also of producing a more welcoming vibe in the universe of publishing/intellectual life, we strongly encourage submissions from women and/or people of color. Though all applicants will be seriously considered, these will be given priority consideration." The deadline for that position has passed but I applaud him for reaching out and encourage all editors to do the same as the statistics show a VERY discouraging drop in female constructors.

MARY LOU: I happened on this Publilius Syrus adage while researching online. I find it very apropos today not only for what we say but especially for what we write online. I saw that it broke nicely into an 8/13/13/8 split and had the potential for a word ladder leading from FOOL to SAGE.

My original submission in December 2013 had a seven step word ladder. I heard from Anna Shechtman in April 2014 that Will liked the theme "which combines a quote and word ladder in a novel way. With that much theme material, though, it may not be possible to get completely clean fill." My additional attempts met with a reluctant no from Will, who added that if I could rework the grid with cleaner fill I could resubmit only my one favorite version. I contacted grid guru, Jeff Chen, at this point. Within a day's time he saw the possibility of adding an extra rung to the word ladder and came up with two versions he sent me, noting that the asymmetry of the original submission bugged him.

We both liked the same version. Jeff was a little hesitant to use the entry GRU but I convinced him that GRU along with ZAMBONI were the way to go. We received an acceptance from Will in May 2014. He noted that "GRU was new to me, but I think I'll go with it. It's more interesting than the best alternative I could see, GOA."

My thanks to Will, Anna and Joel for accepting and editing this puzzle. I hope you enjoyed solving it.

After a few of my themed puzzles were accepted by the NYT, I decided to try my hand at a themeless grid. Will Shortz has noted that only 1-2% of his themeless submissions are from female constructors. I want to improve on that number.

Peter Collins' grid with six spanners seemed like a good place to start. (Eventually, I needed to move a few black squares around to get clean fill.) I keep a running list of vocabulary words to enter in my crossword database. Fifteen letter entries get special note — I was glad to include ELIZABETH WARREN in the grid. I enjoyed reading her latest book and following her career in recent years. I thought HOSTESS TWINKIES was a fun entry too. SNOWDEN would also have been a debut entry for the NYT at the time of my submission but Brendan Emmett Quigley beat me out.

I'm trying to improve my cluing. My submissions for TARZAN, SNOWDEN and ELIZABETH WARREN — "A swinging guy", "A revealing guy" and "Wall Street concern" didn't make the cut. They were a little vague, even for a Friday. A clue like "Lover of Jane Porter", gives you the information you need yet can also misdirect by giving the last name which you don't usually hear and may never have known. I missed the opportunity to link SAINT and BEDE, but Will and Joel did not. I appreciate their editing expertise.

I am pleased to have my first solo themeless published in the NYT and hope you have enjoyed your solving experience.

Mary Lou:

I am constantly on the lookout for interesting and/or new/fresh words to incorporate into puzzles. COGNOSCENTI(E) fit the bill. It and BOOGALOO (which turned into BOOB TUBE) were our seed entries.

I discovered this Alex Boisvert grid at xwordinfo.com and liked the mini-theme. I'd tried my hand at filling a themeless grid but was just not sure about the result. I ran my completed grid by Jeff, who was kind enough to give me his analysis. As a result, we decided to work on a new grid together.

I'd mentioned to Jeff that Alex's originally published version of this grid had a mini-theme which I had not incorporated into mine. That led to the inclusion of a macabre mystery mini-theme we thought appropriate for the holiday. In our submission we clued COGNOSCENTE as either "Fortunato vis-à-vis Amontillado" or "Connoisseur/Aficionado", realizing that first clue might be a bit of a stretch if you were not familiar with the Edgar Allan Poe short story "The Cask of Amontillado".

I'd like to congratulate Jill Denny and Jeff on the birth of their bundle of joy, Tess, who has Jeff climbing the walls these days (even more than he usually does!).

I'd also like to thank Hayley Gold for an autographed copy of her "Raining Man" comic commemorating my first puzzle accepted by the New York Times.

As always, many thanks to Will Shortz for accepting and editing this puzzle. I'm becoming more COGNizant of just how daunting/challenging a task editing puzzles might be at times! I hope you had an enjoyable solving experience and have a Happy Halloween!

One of my favorite NYT crossword puzzle constructors is Elizabeth Gorski. Her August 18, 2013 puzzle, EDGINESS, planted the seed for this along with another puzzle published in the WSJ (March 7, 2014, co-constructed with Jeff Chen). I remember being intrigued by Ms. Gorski's crossword. Reinforcement came after seeing Dan Schoenholz's CONFUSION puzzle in the NYT on December 5, 2013.

Once I'd decided on DOUBLE-EDGED as the revealer, the next step was to jot down words shared/paired with DOUBLE. After compiling this list, I chose to use perimeter words that were preceded, rather than followed by DOUBLE. Once the perimeter was in place, I followed Jeff's advice to fill the outside first, working my way inward. (He's been AROUND and knows — see his February 23, 2012 NYT puzzle). I really had to DOUBLE down!

I have to laugh now as I'm rereading what Ms. Gorski penned at xwordinfo.com:

"Note to budding constructors: Don't ever try a location-specific theme (in this case, theme words that follow the grid's perimeter) unless you're willing to tear your hair out, gnash your teeth and become a BORDERLINE psycho."

Obviously, I didn't take that good advice — I was working on not just one, but two of these type puzzles.

Ms. Gorski was correct though, at times I thought I was becoming a "borderline case" trying to fill this puzzle cleanly. The only theme related material I had in the center of this grid was the revealer, unlike her puzzle which had the added phrase, AROUND THE PERIMETER (split), in addition to her revealer. My hat is off to you, Ms. Gorski! Thanks not only for the many pleasurable hours of solving delightful puzzles that you have given me, but also for being the inspiration for this and the WSJ puzzle.

I would like to encourage more females to try their hand at constructing and to consider getting into the sciences and math. Unknown to some, it was a young woman, Rosalind Franklin, whose research led to the discovery of the structure of the DOUBLE HELIX of DNA. Unfortunately, she died in 1958, at a young age, and was therefore ineligible for nomination for the Nobel Prize in 1962 which was subsequently awarded to Crick, Watson, and Wilkins in that year.

I hope you enjoyed the DOUBLE feature. (I know, I know, enough DOUBLE talk!) Thanks to Will Shortz for accepting and editing this puzzle. I am thrilled to get a Sunday puzzle in the NYT.