Merl Reagle, Beloved Crossword Author, Dies Suddenly At 65

“‘In the 1980s, a new group of puzzlemakers saw that crosswords were starting to remind them of their worst teachers from grade school,’ Mr. Reagle wrote in a 1997 article for The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Sunday magazine. ‘Wouldn’t it be more fun and attract more solvers if puzzles were a little more playful? Just a smidge trickier and a lot wittier?'”