If all has gone well, by today Will Shortz will have played 1,022 consecutive days of ping-pong. June 30 was his 1,000th.
And while he’s not an elite athlete, his recent visit to the area garnered plenty of media attention but not for his playing streak.
His celebrity comes from a different type of play: word play.
Shortz is a well-known puzzle creator and editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle. He was in Vancouver July 9-12 for the National Puzzlers’ League convention, for which he served as program director.
On Friday of that week, however, Shortz made an afternoon visit to North Vancouver’s Gloria Dei Lutheran Church to meet up with members of the North Shore Table Tennis Club. While there, he played table tennis (also known as ping-pong) with the club’s co-founder Luba Sadovska, who has played professionally and at the national level for Czechoslovakia.
They played on one of four tables set up in a spacey room under a steepled roof, overlooked by a large stained glass window. An occasional “Great shot!” was offered up between them.
To someone not familiar with the game, it appeared as though the dueling pair took turns scoring on each other until Sadovska served the final winning blow in one game and they moved on to the next.
When asked if he is a good player, Shortz noted: “I’m pretty good. Not a champion, but I’m pretty good.”
Although he had only been in the area for two days, this was the second day Shortz had sought out a table tennis club for some action. And that was the plan. Whenever he travels he finds a way to play.
“First of all, I just love the game. Love to meet people. It’s a great way to meet people. Love the exercise of it. I like to see how other clubs operate. And I just don’t want to stop playing,” he said.
Shortz got his start playing ping-pong in his family’s rec room when he was growing up, and won some trophies for it during high school. In 2001 he found a club near where he lives in New York and took up the game again. At that point, he says he “got progressively obsessed.”
He now owns the Westchester Table Tennis Centre, which he says is the largest table tennis facility in the northeast U.S.
“I love the speed of the game, the geometry of it. I love the challenge of it. It’s great physical exercise. It’s also a social game in that you can talk to your opponent while you play in between points.”
In October, the World Puzzle Championship is scheduled to be held in Bulgaria and he has plans to play there, as well as Greece, Macedonia and Bosnia.
Shortz recounted how he read about a guy who ran every day for 33 years, and while it seemed an impressive feat he said in a way it’s more difficult to play table tennis every day because a person can run anywhere but can’t play ping-pong everywhere. And players need to find someone else to play with, but a runner can run alone.
“I have been thinking, why do I do this? It’s partly that in solving puzzles you like to put the world in order, you want to solve problems, get structure. And I like the challenge of playing table tennis every day,” he said of his endeavour to continue his streak. “I never get tired of puzzles or table tennis.”
His other notable interest seems unrelated but imbued with the same passion.
Shortz has been the editor of the popular New York Times crossword puzzle since 1993, but has reportedly been interested in word play from a very early age. He noted during his interview with the North Shore News that he is the only person known to have a degree in enigmatology (the study of puzzles), and said he plans to continue solving and creating puzzles for the foreseeable future.
“I’ll never stop. It’s always a challenge. I learn stuff every day. I love the challenge of it and I love the people I come in contact with through puzzles.”
He noted that the field has changed a lot since he started. The arrival of personal computers and the Internet made crosswords better and created an online community that didn’t exist before, he explained.
In the past, the only feedback a puzzle-maker usually got was from him as editor. Now, however, there are five daily blogs about the New York Times crossword and creators can read what users are saying about their work. The online community has helped because constructors can see what solvers enjoy and don’t enjoy, added Shortz.
There are also electronic tools now for creating better crosswords, resulting in the use of less obscure trivia and less “crossword-ese,” which Shortz described as “short, vowel-heavy words that appear in crosswords way more often than they do in everyday life.”
When asked, he agreed that he has brought something to the field that wasn’t there before. He described himself as a playful editor.
“I think I add twists to the crossword that have never been there before.”
Despite his interest in the sport, Shortz doesn’t usually work table tennis into his puzzles. “I feel it would be self-indulgent,” he noted. A year or two ago, however, one of his puzzle answers was “China” and the clue was “world powerhouse in table tennis.”
“I thought everyone should know that one,” he said.
Despite his obvious skill, Shortz reported that he is “pretty good” at solving puzzles. He offered the following tips:
If you’re doing the New York Times crossword, note that it starts easiest on Monday and builds up to very hard on Saturday and Sunday.
“So if you’re trying it for the first time, try Monday, see if you enjoy doing it, and then see how far through the week you can go.”
He continued: “On any puzzle, fill in what you know for sure. Often the clues that are easy to spot and often easiest to fill in are the ones with fill-in-the-blanks.”
They tend to jump out on the page and are often easy to solve.
Fill out what you know for sure, build off of those letters, and remember that consonants are more helpful than vowels and unusual letters are more helpful (e.g. v, z) than an “a” or an “e,” he noted.
“If you get stumped, if you get stuck, don’t be afraid to guess. But if you put in a guess and it’s not working out, don’t be afraid to erase. Stay flexible, that’s the biggest thing. Stay mentally flexible.”
Contact Rosalind Duane at [email protected].
