One on One, Part Two

One on One, Part Two

The Nation constructors go on and on about themselves.

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

Even though we sign all our puzzles and blog posts with a double byline, we are of course different people, with distinct histories and approaches to puzzling. Last week, Henri interviewed Joshua. This week we turn the tables.

JK: You grew up in Lebanon, a native French speaker. How did you first discover cryptic crosswords?

HP: As a teenager, I enjoyed crosswords in French, including some fairly challenging ones. Like American crosswords, French crosswords are definition-based, and the more challenging puzzles rely on clever and unexpected use of the language. I mostly found crosswords in paperback collections. Alas, those are now too hard for me! While I am of course still a fluent speaker of French, my command of the language has slipped when it comes to puzzle-solving. Anyone interested in French crosswords might enjoy my translation of novelist Georges Perec’s introduction to his books of puzzles.

Later, my British brother-in-law, a songwriter, introduced me to cryptics. Still later, in the US, I started solving Hex, Maltby and Frank Lewis. In fact, I launched a weekend breakfast Frank Lewis co-solving group. The group went on for decades, and through it I introduced many people to cryptics.

JK: And that group still meets!

HP: Yes, but now I just watch, as they test-solve Kosman-Picciotto puzzles.

JK: …which brings us to your career as a constructor. Tell us about that.

HP: I met Rebecca Kornbluh (Arachne in the National Puzzlers’ League) at an NPL convention. We found out that we both owned a book of cryptics by Azed, the diabolical setter for The Observer in the UK. Neither of us was able to finish those puzzles alone, so we decided to work on them together by mail. (This was long before e-mail.) It went really well, and she suggested we collaborate on constructing puzzles for the NPL. That was the start of a twenty-year constructors’ collaboration, which I may recount in a future post. Some time after that, you and I were asked to jointly edit the cryptics for The Enigma, and that was the start of the fifteen-year collaboration which morphed into our current project.

JK: What effect does it have to create wordplay in a second language? I think of you as the puzzle equivalent of writers like Vladimir Nabokov and Tom Stoppard, whose mastery of language comes from learning it consciously. Is that accurate?

HP: I am flattered to be mentioned in the same sentence as two of my favorite writers. Here’s a possibly more apt comparison. Someone—I think it was you, actually—once told me that two extreme reactions of living in a country where you are not a native speaker could be seen among the Marx Brothers: Harpo’s (not speaking at all) and Groucho’s (wanting total mastery of the language). I strive for the same mastery as these English-language learners, although in a less consequential arena.

JK: Is there any aspect of puzzling in which your linguistic background gives you trouble?

HP: Homophone clues! I have been in the US pretty much continuously for more than forty-five years, and I still don’t hear the phonemes the way you do. The ongoing tragedy of my life as one of the Nation puzzle constructors is that so many of my ideas for homophone clues have to be junked. (I also can’t get rid of my accent, but that’s not as much of a problem, because at least people think it’s charming!)

JK: One final question: What do you look for in a cryptic crossword, as a constructor and as a solver?

HP: As a constructor, I try to be as entertaining as possible within the parameters we describe in our guidelines. However, as a solver, I turn off the editor in my brain, and just enjoy the puzzles without worrying about the correctness of the clues. For me, it’s about filling the grid, not scrutinizing every clue. And moreover, I have a high tolerance for not succeeding. When I attempt to solve British cryptics, I often fail to complete them. So what? As we are fond of saying in the NPL, it’s only a hobby,

Do you have any questions or comments for us? Please share here, along with any quibbles, questions, kudos or complaints about the current puzzle or any previous puzzle. To comment (and see other readers’ comments), please click on this post’s title and scroll to the bottom of the resulting screen.

And here are three links:
• The current puzzle
• Our puzzle-solving guidelines
• A Nation puzzle solver’s blog where you can ask for and offer hints, and where every one of our clues is explained in detail.

Take a stand against Trump and support The Nation!

In this moment of crisis, we need a unified, progressive opposition to Donald Trump. 

We’re starting to see one take shape in the streets and at ballot boxes across the country: from New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s campaign focused on affordability, to communities protecting their neighbors from ICE, to the senators opposing arms shipments to Israel. 

The Democratic Party has an urgent choice to make: Will it embrace a politics that is principled and popular, or will it continue to insist on losing elections with the out-of-touch elites and consultants that got us here? 

At The Nation, we know which side we’re on. Every day, we make the case for a more democratic and equal world by championing progressive leaders, lifting up movements fighting for justice, and exposing the oligarchs and corporations profiting at the expense of us all. Our independent journalism informs and empowers progressives across the country and helps bring this politics to new readers ready to join the fight.

We need your help to continue this work. Will you donate to support The Nation’s independent journalism? Every contribution goes to our award-winning reporting, analysis, and commentary. 

Thank you for helping us take on Trump and build the just society we know is possible. 

Sincerely, 

Bhaskar Sunkara 
President, The Nation

Ad Policy
x