Square Deal Crosswords

Square Deal Crosswords by Patrick Jordan

       Patrick's puzzles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Simon & Schuster Crossword series, and many other national publications.  He was featured in the big-screen documentary "Wordplay,"  ABC's "Nightline,"  "CBS Sunday Morning," and the syndicated game show "Merv Griffin's Crosswords."
This paperback volume is a collection of 50 crossword puzzles crafted by Jordan which feature words and phrases that nearly everyone knows. It was this aspect of the puzzles that led to the book's title.  "The solver gets a 'square deal,' because he or she doesn't have to keep reaching for the dictionary to look up obscure words," Jordan said. "Some of the clues may be a little tricky, but nearly all of the words in the puzzles should be in everyone's vocabulary."
Another unusual feature of  Square Deal Crosswords is that it was created entirely by Ponca City residents. "I built all of the puzzles, both covers were designed by Christina Rich-Splawn of Graf-X-Tina Graphic Services, and the author's photo on the back cover was taken by Ponca City News photographer Rolf Clements," Jordan said.  Jordan also works at the News, serving in the display advertising department since he moved to Ponca City in 1984.
More than 1,000 of Jordan's crosswords have been published since he began making them about 15 years ago. They have appeared in three of New York City's daily newspapers (the Times, the Sun, and Newsday), as well as in the Los Angeles Times, Games Magazine, and the long-running Simon & Schuster crossword book series. In addition, Jordan is a member of CrosSynergy, a group of 18 puzzlemakers that produces a daily crossword for the Washington Post which is also available on such popular websites as Yahoo!
Jordan may be familiar to movie and TV viewers. In 2006, he was featured in the big-screen documentary "Wordplay," which ran for two weeks at the Poncan Theatre. He has made pre-recorded appearances on ABC's "Nightline" and "CBS Sunday Morning" in connection with his showings at the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, for which he has earned a total of 14 trophies.

        Last August, Jordan went to Los Angeles to be a contestant on the syndicated game show "Merv Griffin's Crosswords." The episode has been shown in some of the major television markets around the country, but it has not yet been broadcast in Oklahoma. That should happen sometime this summer, Jordan said. Jordan's interest in puzzles began in elementary school, when he started solving the simple word games on the back page of the Weekly Reader. "By the time I reached junior high, I was spending my allowance on puzzle magazines at the supermarket," Jordan said. "And now, I buy crossword books and magazines regularly, in addition to downloading a few puzzles from the Internet each week."
In the late 1970's, a movement was started among crossword constructors to make puzzles more 'user-friendly.'  Solvers no longer needed to memorize the names of tiny Scandinavian villages and long-dead potentates, nor words so obscure they would have made Noah Webster say, "What the heck does THAT mean?"
This book is both an extension and a celebration of this trend in puzzledom.  The vast majority of the words in these grids are sitting right there in your vocabulary, just waiting to "come out and play."   John M. Samson, Simon & Schuster Crossword Series Editor said of Jordan, "If you are looking for challenging, comical, cleverly-clued crosswords...look for Patrick Jordan's byline!" Jordan is often asked how long it takes to create a crossword puzzle. "As with every other activity, building crosswords gets a little easier with constant practice," he said. "Currently, it takes me anywhere from four to eight hours to make a puzzle, depending on its size and level of difficulty. Also, just for the sake of variety, I try to include every letter of the alphabet in every crossword grid that I build. I don't always succeed, because J and Q can be very difficult to work into a puzzle.
"For those who are new to crosswords, or who don't think they can solve them, Jordan offered some advice. "There are two good tips for beginning solvers to keep in mind," he said. "First, don't think of it as 'cheating' if you need to look in the back of the magazine for an answer that you can't figure out. In fact, you will then be prepared for the next time that word appears in a puzzle.  "Secondly, if you encounter a word that you don't know, take a minute to look it up in a dictionary. Studies have shown that this will make your brain retain it."
A love of crosswords is often passed from one generation to the next, but this was not the case with Jordan. "My father tries a crossword only about once a week, and my mother never works them at all," he said. "So I figure that some solvers, such as myself, simply stumble onto crosswords at an early age, discover that they like them, and keep right on working them."