"'i could do this indefinitely': john samson," by helene hovanec

8/9/2019 "'I Could Do This Indefinitely': John Samson," by Helene Hovanec

1/4

Eugene

.Maleska's astWill

and

Testament

Plus

America'sMost

Creative

Crosswords

By

the

Nation's op

Constructors


2/4


3/4

Samson

from

Page

5)

Sometimes

also econstruct

he

grid."

Samsons

a

prolific

consfuctor,

creating

almost200

puzzles

a

year.

For Tlu

Globe,a

tabloidnewspaper,

e

does

a 33

x

33 weekly,

billed

as

"the

world's largest

crossword."

When

his

mammothpuzzle

as eplaced

y

asmaller enion

n

one

ssue

omanyreaders

protested

he

change

hat he

editors

quickly

returned

o the

original format.

Samson'stherweekly ssignmentis3l

x

31 crossword

alled

Super

Cross"

which

appearsn Tlu

National

Exanniner,

sister

tabloid

o The

Globe.Embedded

within

ttre

gnd

are

pictures

of

movie

stan,

entertainers

and

othercelebrities.

Hismontlly

crossword

igs

nclude

tremed

ptl;izzles

or

Cable

Guide,

Total

TV,

Hemi-

sphere

(United

Airlines'

in-fl ght

m

agazine)

andHBO.This

ast

puzzle

ighlights

HBO's

current ilms

and is

disseminated

o

local

cable

ompaniesor

their

magazines.

e

con-

structsvariety puzzles

(Jumbles

and word

frrds) for MasterCard nd

does

a

quarterly

puzzle

or

Camival

Cruise's

shipboardmaga-

zine.

When

ime

permits

e

constructs

ross-

(Continued

n

Page

9)

LAST

WILL

AND

TE$TAMENT

Itwasa

widely-held

elief mong

he

crossword

ugnoscenli

hatJohn

amson

ou

srcceed

Eugene

. Maleska

scrossword

ditor

f

TheNew

Yo*

Times.After

ll,

hewa

Maleska'sstarpupil.

eco-editedtheSimon

Schusterbooks.

eoften

mannedthe

mes

booth

t he

New

York

s

BookCountry"

air.

He

constructed

pecial

uzzles

or

he

imes

when

Maleska

wanted

a themed

crossword

o

mark

an occasion-Christmas,

ran

sinatra's

irthday,

artin

uther

King, r.

day,

etc.

Hisedhorial

tyle

was

on hi

sam

wavelength

s

Maleska's

.

ButSamson

s

quic*

o

point

ut hat

henever

eally

dited

he

Timespuzzles

tthou

hesometimes

ubbed

orMaleskawhen

he atterwas

nabletowork.

everalvears

efo-

his

death

Maleska

rote

o

Samson

nd

old

him,

When

the ime

omes

e

was

qoinq

o

recommend

e

and

BillLutwiniak

forthe

ob)

and

hat

he imaswould

robabk

Jlect-mbscause m younger. utwe never eally iscussedt." Note:

William

utwiniak

re

deceased

Maleska.)

(ln

a 1990 nterview

hh

Maleska

asked im

who

would

umeed

im.

n he

past.

he

9:p31]"s

editor

had.named.h.is

r her replacemenr.

ateska

aid

he had

c'hosen

su@essor

ut

wouldn't

eveal

hename.)

Samson

tress€s

hat

l

was

never

old

'dhave

he

ob.

was

old

t was

a oossibilit

spoke

o

Mrs.

.Maleska

fter

Gene's

death

and

she

said

Mel raub

and

rrad

bee

recommended

or

he

ob."

Word

n he

crossword

ossip

ine

was hat

Maleska

ante

two

people-to

ucceed

im-Samson

s editor

f

thedaily

and

Sunday

rosswords

nd

n:*ffi:

iffi lji"TrtT:.i'

* "r

puzz

e-{o

br

c

osiic,

u

and n

asam

,

crypc

Samson

was

interviewed

or the

position

by

Jack

Rosenthal,

editor

of the

Sunda

magaz

ne.

As

part

of the

selection

rocess

he-submitted

uzzles

he had

edited.

Whei

Rosenthal's

ssistant

called

o

tell him

he

didn't

get

the

job,

he

admits

o

,'being

a littl

disappoinled."

ut

his children

were happy,

because

lcould

spend

more

ime

wiih

hem

r ne , rmes wanled me lo come down o New york City to correctoroofs."

Samson's

not vindictive

bout

not

getting

he

ob

everyone

els6

hought

he'd

qet.

He

harbors

no

llfeeling

oward

he new

editor.

lwish

Will Shortz

he

best.

d6n't reseit

him.

And

he

means

t.

-

H.H.

Enloy

The

Fun

and

Challeng

ilJX.ir"iVift

t'"bi,fnT.f,

'.i?,' '..nli',,[iI?i,it1af

[;i"J;:]f;

S

l i tera l ly

use

a

Crossword

agaz ine l penny

ress ,

i nd

T he

Washrnq t on

os t

suno j v

vaoaz ine

to

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personal

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Both

he novice

nd

advanced

uzzler i l l - rnd

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no

l n e

w a s n t n q t o n

o s t

5 U n d a v

M aoaz i

to

yoq. r

p ,ersona l

ompu, ter .

Both

the nov ice

and

advanced

puzz ter

wi t t f -u rd

o

yourpersonat

omputer.

Both

he n

unl imi ted

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ode

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4/4

Samson

from

PageT)

words

or

corporate

tents.

Samson's

ypical

work

day

begins

tnoon.

He

spends

hemorning

hours

t

home

with his

six-year-old

on.

When

his

son

goes

off

to

kindergarten

amson

trolls

across

he

sfeet

to his atler's

house,

where

he has

converted

theentireupstain

loorinto

hisoffice.

here's

no

room

for

him

to work

at home

and

.there

arc

too

many

dishactions"

here

or

him

o

function

roperly.

He

akes

ime

off fordinner

and etumso hisoffrce

until midnighr

This

s

his

outine

every

day,

weekends

ncluded.

He

hasn't

had

a vacation

n

yean.

Samson

has

a sophisticated

diting

and

production

yst€m

using

nvo 486DX

IBM_

clone

omputers.

oreach

f

the

S&S

books

Samson

ses

he ollowing

procedures:

.

Hechooses

Opuzzles

orthe

book.

Most

constuctors

submit

their puzzles

on

paper

('onlyonepercent

endme

material

n

disk").

He

mails

hem

o

Sam

Bellotto

r.,

his

com-

puter

partner.

Samson

ound

Bellotto

on

America

Online

whenhewassearchingor

different pazzle

progams

on

shareware.

Belloto

had

a

program

hathe

customized

or

Samson.

.

Bellotto

keys

everything

nto

the

com-

puter.

His

"Crossdown"

program

or

cross_

word

constructon

automatically

makes

a

symmefical

diagram,

numbers

he

grid

and

prints

out

the

clue

words

o

the right

of the

numbers.

The

program

s

fmlproof;

it

can't

leave

out

clues

and t

can't

misnumber

he

grid."

The progarn

also

scans

tre

grid

for

repeated

ords

a

no-no

n

puzzles).

.

Bellotto

sends

amson

ll the

crosswords

on

disk.

.

Usingthe"Crosdown"prrogram,samson

edits

all the

puzzles

oncomputer. his time-

consuming

ask

was

ormerly

done

by

hand.

.

Samson rints

out

all

50

puzzles

n

manu_

script

orm.

There

re

approximately

ix

pages

to

each

uzzle--solving

grid,

answer rid

and

clues.

.

The

manuscript

s

sent

o

S&S,

where

copy

editors

ead

over

every

clue

and

fact_

check

everything.

They

mark

up

the

pages

with

corrections

nd

queries

and return

ttre

manuscript

o

Samson.

.

He

makes

he

appropriate

hanges

if

he

agrees

with

the

copy

editors;

he

has

he

inal

say)on thecomputerandsendstrerevised

disk

o Bellono.

.

BelloEo

converts

lre

diagrams

o

.EpS

graphics

ormatand

us

the

clues

nto

a ext

rle.

.

These

iles

are

sent

o

a desktop ublish_

ing

specialist

who

polishes

lre

material

a

prints

out

theproofs.

.

Theseproofsare

entto

S&S

wherethey

rechecked.

ny

final

corrections

re

henma

on the

disk

by Bellotto

or

his

assistant

.

The

disk

s

sent

o

the

printer.

Samson

as

been

using

his

system

or

th

past

year

and

inds

t

enor-free.

.It

eliminat

a otof

drudgery."

With

this

procedure

ams

can

send

all his

cliens

camera-ready

uzzle

The

ottrer

half

of

Samson's

.twin_tow

system"savirhral ibraryoncomputerwhe

hecan

omb

hrough

ictionaries

ndencyc

pedias,

canning

he ibrary

o come

pwith

h

perfect

clue

or

his

puzzles.

He

can

also

sto

clues

on

he

computer

nd

check

o

see

hat

h

doesn't

euse

clue.

Samson

sn't

plugged

nto

the

crosswo

hotline

o

socialize

with

other

editors

and

con

structors

smany

of

theNew

yorkCity-base

puzzlers

o.He

eads

n solated

ife

in

a sma

community

nd

hat

suits

him

ust

ine.

,I'm

recluse

ecause

f

my

demanding

chedule

love

what

I

do

and

can

go

on

doing

his

in

definitely."

And

he

usr

mighr.

tr

HELENE

HOVANEC

s

a New

york

City_

based

writer/edimr.

CROSSWRD Page9

"'i could do this indefinitely': john samson," by helene hovanec

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