Princeton’s Amy Goldstein has combined two of the world’s greatest treats – cartoons and puzzles – in one book.
By: Susan Van Dongen
Described as something like the collision between chocolate and peanut butter in other words, instantly beloved The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games (Black Dog and Leventhal, $17.95) brings together, for the first time, two much loved pastimes puzzles and New Yorker cartoons.
Created by premier puzzle writing company Puzzability, the book features 83 mind ticklers that use the magazine’s cartoons as clues. It’s a total of 691 cartoons spanning eight decades, penned by the likes of James Thurber and Peter Arno, as well as more recent funny men and women such as Roz Chast and George Booth. And the games run the gamut from simple exercises in observation to elegant verbal puzzles for hardcore solvers.
At the center of this project are three crafty minds, two men and a woman who have been solving and creating puzzles as well as drawing cartoons since youth. New Yorker cartoonist Robert Leighton, Mike Shenk, the editor of The Wall Street Journal crossword puzzle, and all-around brainiac Amy Goldstein are the culprits who crafted The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games, a gift guaranteed to help the recipient waste a lot of time, but in a clever way.
For Ms. Goldstein, a Princeton resident, creating the book was natural, considering her years of solving crossword puzzles and word games and a youth spent in a home where books and wordplay were treasured. (Her mother is Rice Lyons of the Princeton-based poetry group the Wonder of Wordplay.) Ms. Goldstein also remembers acing almost every spelling bee she entered, including a bee at the Princeton Shopping Center, where she won a gift certificate from Sears.
"I was able to buy a bike," she says with a laugh. "You see, spelling actually can get you somewhere."
But how did she get from out-spelling other kids in Jersey to working with some of the biggest names in cartooning, puzzles and games? Ms. Goldstein says she was employed by Peterson’s Guides, based in the Princeton area, when her big break came the opportunity to get involved with crafting puzzles for Games Magazine.
Like the story of a movie star being picked out of the crowd by a wise talent scout, Ms. Goldstein’s special form of genius was recognized by none other than Will Shortz, at the annual crossword puzzle tournament he runs in Stamford, Conn.
"He was not yet the editor of ‘The New York Times’ puzzle, but the editor of ‘Games Magazine,’" Ms. Goldstein says. "I went to the tournament my first year, did very well for a new solver and was noticed. Then the next year, they were looking for someone for the editorial staff of ‘Games’ and Will approached me after the tournament, called me up and asked if I was interested.
"It really shocked me because I always wondered what it would be like to work at ‘Games,’" Ms. Goldstein continues. "I had always loved solving puzzles, but had never tried to make them. It’s not necessarily the same skill. But I convinced myself and Will that this was something I could do. He offered me the job, on April Fool’s Day of all things. "
Ms. Goldstein goes on to tell an even more improbable story. The year before, after the tournament, she told her colleagues that she’d been "discovered" and was leaving to go to Games Magazine. It was an April Fool’s Day joke, but one that turned out to be prophetic. The puzzle writers and cartoonists featured in the book would like the punchy humor in this tale.
Mr. Shortz and Robert Mankoff, who wrote the foreword to the book, say that humor is the common element in both cartoons and puzzles.
"When the incongruous parts of a cartoon come together, you want them to come together in a rush as snap," Mr. Shortz says in the forward. "That’s what produces a burst of laughter. It’s the same thing with puzzles. When the solver gets it, you want him to get it quickly."
Co-author and Puzzability co-founder Mr. Leighton notes that many puzzles are already like jokes.
"The clues are the setup and the answer is the punchline," he says. "Also, puzzles and ‘New Yorker’ cartoons both appeal to people who like to have their brains tickled albeit different parts of the brain."
"Bringing together cartoons and puzzles is quite natural," adds Mr. Mankoff, cartoon editor of The New Yorker. "Puzzles and cartoons are both respites from the world. Cartoons represent freedom they’re a relief from the crushing monotony and rigidity of the world. Puzzles are a respite from the chaos."
With all these similarities, and with a similar appeal to a particular sub-culture, you wonder why the idea of pairing New Yorker cartoons with puzzles had never been tried before.
Ms. Goldstein suggests one of the obstacles was working with the magazine to procure the cartoons. Just looking through the thousands of possibilities was also a daunting task.
"Also when a puzzle writer writes a puzzle, he writes the puzzle first and then you get illustrations made," she says. "This is the reverse of that. We’re starting with the cartoon and figuring something that would make a puzzle out of it, which is actually working backwards. Certainly no one has thought of this before. And it’s not often that you can come up with something truly (different) in the puzzle world."
The book has received a warm welcome, including praise from Wayne Schmittberger, Ms. Goldstein’s former boss at Games Magazine.
Ms. Goldstein is quick to point out that it’s an even playing field for puzzle solvers regular readers of The New Yorker don’t have an advantage, although people who enjoy the magazine’s cartoons will find themselves getting involved just so they can enjoy the rib-ticklers.
She says the book idea grew out of two puzzles she and her co-authors created for The New Yorker’s annual cartoon issue one in November 2003, and one the following year.
The Puzzability team which also creates puzzles for Disney Adventures magazine deconstructed the cartoons, using every element they could. There are puzzles that play with the words in the captions, puzzles that remove visual elements from the pictures, and others that are based on how a particular theme is presented over time.
Take the telephone, for example. You have to match the cartoon with the era in which it was created. So a cartoon where a man walking down the street holding a cell phone is saying "I’ve just taken a picture of my ear" is obviously from the 2000s. The technology provides the solver with a clue.
"It’s interesting how long each puzzle, even the simplest, takes to put together," Ms. Goldstein says. "It was really great fun to go back to the earlier decades of the magazine, becoming acquainted with cartoonists who were before our time. But we were also curious to see artists we’re now familiar with many decades ago, seeing how much their style has changed."
"We have tremendous love for these cartoons, and we think that it shows," Mr. Leighton says. "Our goal, besides writing good puzzles, was to honor the great drawings, the great captions and the whole rich history of ‘New Yorker’ cartoons."
The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games by Amy Goldstein, Robert Leighton and Mike Shenk is available at area bookstores and on the Web.