Philip Koski author page

Crosswords and code-breaking have a long history. The British government famously conducted a crossword contest to secretly screen for Bletchley Park recruits (they picked the top six solvers). U.S. intelligence similarly recruited William Lutwiniak — who would go on to become one of the most prolific crossword constructors of all time — based on his standing as one of the best cryptogram solvers in the country. He served as a cryptanalyst during World War II and for decades thereafter at the NSA.

Other constructors also worked in code-breaking and intelligence. Jay Spry, a constructor in the 1960s and 70s, translated Japanese codes during the war. Roberta Morse, who constructed the first rebus puzzle in the Times, served as a translator for the OSS in World War II. Among more recent constructors, Ed Salners had a career as a U.S. Navy Cryptologic Officer, and constructor Verna Suit worked at the NSA, where Lutwiniak, by then semi-retired, gave her advice on constructing. Verna's name anagrams to NSA VIRTUE, but she assured me that was just a coincidence.

With the encouragement of Jim Horne and David Steinberg, I've been researching scores of historic constructors by using genealogy techniques to locate photos and draft short bios. We've now got photos of nearly all 71 constructors in Jim's Most Prolific Authors page on XWord Info. Besides those constructors, I've also enjoyed researching other notables, like Charles Erlenkotter, the constructor of the first Times crossword; Mable Daggett, the first female Times constructor; and Jeremiah Farrell, constructor of the famed Clinton-Dole puzzle.

In addition to the legends, it's been enriching to research the everyday constructors from the past. Invariably, you learn something truly interesting. Archie Kreiling and Willard Jordan, for example, were constructors in the Farrar era who were inmates at the same prison. Martha DeWitt, a constructor from the 1960s to 90s, was a nurse who attended to servicemen injured in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The aforementioned Jay Spry was a cigar-chomping fixture in the Baltimore Sun newsroom whom David Simon included as a character in the HBO series "The Wire." And on and on.

If this sort of research interests you and you'd like to team up or compare notes, shoot me an email at flipkoski@comcast.net.

Very excited to be making my debut in the New York Times.

There are three ways ITSA can be broken up to "wrap." I was glad that the puzzle could include one of each, though I found there are surprisingly few candidates. I guess you'd expect only a few possibilities for the entry beginning TSA, but it's also fairly limited with other ITSA combinations. For the entry beginning A and ending ITS, my initial entry was a bit of a stretch and it was Joel who suggested improving it with A BATTLE OF WITS.

I was pleased that 14A [Hookup that may get kinky] made the cut. Hopefully, it got a chuckle or at least a groan. The editors wrote several clues, including the clever 28A and 33A.

Many thanks to the editing team for green-lighting the puzzle and improving it.

About me: I am an attorney at the SEC in Boston. I owe my interest in crosswords to my Dad. He always made the Sunday puzzle a family affair by calling out clues to us kids. He passed away in 2008, but I'm sure he's still solving out there.

Hope you enjoy the puzzle, especially to anyone who's calling out clues.