The Cross Word Puzzle Book [antikvár]

PREFACE Just four years ago we hopefully put forth our first series of cross word puzzles. Since then a good deal of printer's ink has flowed over the rollers. Nine of the things have been printed, and here is the tenth, with the end not yet in sight. So this book is by way of being an anniversary number; it's hard to say whether it's the tenth or the fourth. In the strict meaning of the word it's the fourth, but of the series it's the tenth. There doesn't seem to be any Einsteinian or Gaussian method of reconciling these figures-nothing comes to mind, anyway-so we'll let it go at that, and allow the mathematicians to pick the bones. Anyway, this book is an anniversary number, and in honor of the occasion we have done our best to make it a worthy companion to its nine older brothers. If we have failed, we're sorry; if we have succeeded, we hope that you're pleased. There isn't so much to say about cross word puzzles that hasn't already been said. If all the stuff that has been written about the little black and white squares-con as well as pro -were collected and laid end to end, or whatever it is that statisticians do to written material, it would stretch at least from here to there, and would be distinctly heard on Mars. It's difficult, as you can see, to try to dope out anything really brilliantly new and sparkling on the subject. But it seems to us that the improvement in puzzles all along the line is worth noting. Unkeyed letters are becoming rarities; two-letter words are on the decline; abbrs. are in[7]