The Marquis de Sade of the puzzle world
November 26, 2012 3:06 PM   Subscribe

[Henry] Hook has come to be known as the Marquis de Sade of the puzzle world: a brilliant and oddly beloved misanthrope, administering exquisite torture through dozens of puzzle books and syndicated crosswords.
posted by Egg Shen (6 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Awesome. Henry Hook is one of my favorites. Thanks for the post!
posted by painquale at 3:33 PM on November 26, 2012


Not only is it neat to read about Henry Hook, one of my favorite puzzle-makers, but this post reminded me to renew my subscription to Games Magazine. Double thanks. :)
posted by jess at 3:45 PM on November 26, 2012


Yeah, that was great! I just went and worked a Henry Hook puzzle - possibly my first - and enjoyed it almost as much as the article. Thanks!
posted by kristi at 10:51 PM on November 26, 2012


Yay puzzles! Thanks for this.
posted by fshgrl at 11:46 PM on November 26, 2012


It's hard to go wrong with an article that contains this gem:

“Did you know that Britney Spears has signed a big endorsement deal with Pepsi? That’s right, it’s true, and we are all very happy about it. You see, ‘Pepsi-Cola’ is an anagram of ‘Episcopal’ and ‘Britney Spears’ is an anagram of ‘Presbyterians.’ “ He paused to let this sink in, but my reaction wasn’t quite what he had hoped for. “Yeah, I know,” he said. “ ‘Episcopal’ is singular, and ‘Presbyterians’ is plural. But we take what we can get.”

Thanks for posting this. It almost makes me want to renew my subscription to the New Yorker, but I think that I'll follow jess' lead and subscribe to Games magazine instead.
posted by math at 3:04 AM on November 27, 2012


Here every problem has a solution, and pain, disease, violence, and despair never make it to the grid. “When you solve a crossword, you don’t want death or Nazis thrown in your face,” Will Shortz says. “If there is a seventy-year-old woman who is filling out the grid and she’s got ‘__uck,’ I can’t imagine making her add an ‘F.’ “

Contrast with the Private Eye crossword...
posted by atrazine at 4:59 AM on November 27, 2012


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