![]() When it comes to paying the mortgage, do you ever wish you were as good at Soccer as you are at words? "Syndicated crossword puzzle author." Crossword constructors often complain about the remuneration in their field (although they really should talk to an expert Scrabble player before complaining!). When you're filling in bureaucratic forms, what do you enter in the box labeled 'Occupation'? I'd call it my specialty, but since it's the only thing I ever cook, maybe "specialty" is overstating it. Last meal I personally cooked was scrambled eggs with veggies and different varieties of cheese. Describe the last meal you personally cooked. I don't like to fly even when it's for a vacation. My better half, Marie Haley, deserves just as much credit for this as I do - probably more - since she's the one who said, rather than just send promotional letters to newspapers, that we should actually fly out to meet the editors in person and make the pitch. The director, Patrick Creadon, sent me an early print of the film and neither of us thought much of it at the time, but when we were on the publicity tour in 2006 we were in the audience for many of the screenings and every time this scene came up the audience bust out laughing - thinking, I guess, that if you're a crossword guy, what else would your wallpaper look like?īut the deeper meaning, I guess, is that it represents the culmination of many years trying to make it as an independent Sunday crossword constructor. The wall puzzle can also be seen in the movie "Wordplay" when I'm sitting at a table making the "Wordplay" crossword. But this one, which the Post took, turned out better than I thought humanly possible. (They were reprinting a piece called "Confessions of a Crossword Fanatic" or some such that I'd written for the Philadelphia Inquirer.) The Digest took about 70 photos and printed what I thought was the absolute worst one - I looked like an embarrassed geezer. It's a plastic wall hanging that I've had since 1998 - Reader's Digest actually paid for it as part of a photo shoot they did at that time. ![]() " (THE ROCKIES) and "I'd send the Three Stooges to. The big crossword is on my living room wall - it's a blowup of a puzzle I did called "If I Owned a Travel Agency" and has clues like "I'd send Sylvester Stallone to. Took only four hours! (I just don't take any pictures of myself.) And few people cause so many chuckles each weekend as word buffs around the nation plow into Merl's Sunday Crosswords with religious devotion.īut best of all, he's just a really cool dude.Īfter I got the Sunday crossword job at the Washington Post, this was the publicity shot they used. Even if it takes him several years to nail it!įew people have had more influence on the evolution of the American crossword puzzle over the last couple of decades. Time and again Merl pulls off the impossible by finding a way to weave a quirky observation about the English language into an unwelcoming grid to create a puzzle that is both ingenious in design and hilarious in substance. If you've ever solved one of his crossword puzzles, you'll understand exactly what the motto means. Our sincerest condolences to Marie Haley and Merl‘s family.It's hard to find a more appropriate subtitle for an article on Merl Reagle than his personal motto: Twisted but Fair. It was our honor to have been able to spend time with Merland his wife. He died Saturday morning in a Tampa hospital. Merl Reaglewas hospitalized, this past Thursday with acute pancreatitis. Brooks, the main producer on The Simpsons, saw it and liked it enough to create an episode of the cartoon featuring Merl. In 2006, he was featured in a documentary, Wordplay, that focused on the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, for which he was a judge and commentator. After the documentary came out, James L. Always accompanied by his wonderful wife, Marie Haley, together they made impressive team, able to syndicate and make a full-time living from constructing crossword puzzles. Merl Reaglewas a quick-witted, charming, erudite man and one of our most popular guests. Resplendent with a crossword puzzle decorated tie, Merljoined our program on a couple of occasions. Sadly, news came in just after we had just completed the latest edition of Life Elsewhere, that celebrated crossword constructor Merl Reagle had died.
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