Merl Reagle on ABC's The List for National Puzzle Day, Jan. 29

By Erik Hahmann on Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 11:45 am

You see, Tuesday is National Puzzle Day.

I know, it snuck up on you again this year. Me too. ABC’s The List will be featuring Tampa Bay resident and CL’s own crossword constructor Merl Reagle Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Reagle, 63, has been active in the crossword business for more than 30 years, selling a puzzle to the New York Times at the age of 16. Aside from CL, Reagle creates crosswords for more than 40 other major newspapers including the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. He’s also appeared in the 2006 documentary Wordplay and, more importantly to this author, voiced himself in an episode of The Simpsons.

The piece goes over what Reagle calls “the usual questions”; how he got started, his crossword books, what’s the future of crosswords, etc. He even prepares a quiz about words ending in “list” for the interviewer.

Preparing for National Puzzle Day may not be on the top of everyone’s to-do-list, but hopefully you find time to tune to The Listin Tuesday at 7. ... Or to do Merl's crossword in CL's print edition.

[
      {
        "name": "Ad - NativeInline - Injected",
        "component": "12461396",
        "insertPoint": "3",
        "requiredCountToDisplay": "5"
      },{
        "name": "Real 1 Player (r2) - Inline",
        "component": "12436357",
        "insertPoint": "2/3",
        "requiredCountToDisplay": "9"
      }
    ]

click to enlarge

Photo Courtesy of The List

PUZZLED: Merl Reagle shares his crossword skills with The List's Jake Peterson.

click to enlarge

Photo Courtesy of The List

PUZZLED: Merl Reagle shares his crossword skills with The List's Jake Peterson.

Photo Courtesy of The List
PUZZLED: Merl Reagle shares his crossword skills with The List's Jake Peterson.

The world has been obsessed with puzzles ever since John Spilsbury created the first jigsaw puzzle in London in 1760. From word searches and Suduku to jigsaws and crosswords, we use puzzles for education and recreation. It’s the latter I’m here to talk about today.