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You

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Twice each week

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The Monroe Times hits the news

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rags the post office

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and then mailboxes like the

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Mathesons.

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As a kid,

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Ryan Matheson found something

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in the paper that fired his

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own newspaper ambition

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to one day be published

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in no less than the New York

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Times.

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I think that was kind of like a

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big point for me.

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It was getting published in the

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New York Times as a teenager.

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It's something that 70-some

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people have done and they're

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80 years of doing a daily

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crossword puzzle.

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It was the newspaper's

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crossword puzzle that inspired

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young Ryan.

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Something introduced to him

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by his grandmother.

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My grandma, she would be

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solving the Monroe Times

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crossword every once in a while

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and she would involve me by

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saying, oh, I think you would

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know this answer.

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Since a natty baseball team and

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I would say reds because I

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would know that.

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So I thought, oh, this is an

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interesting thing.

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I'm going to try to start

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solving them and you start

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solving them and you think,

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hmm, can I try to make this?

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Ryan was determined to solve

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how the puzzles are made.

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As he entered the world of the

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crossword constructor, he learned

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it was key to start with a

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theme.

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So you're trying to come up with

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some clever thing that is tying

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these answers together.

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The puzzle Ryan is working on

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now has the theme cold opens,

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with words beginning with

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synonyms for cold.

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Cool beans, bittersweet,

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frozen acid, and then cold

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opens.

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Kind of getting colder as we go

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down with.

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So now that we have the theme in

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place, we have to put in the

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blocks.

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After the blocks comes what is

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called the fill.

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The word's not on theme, some

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suggested by the computer.

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I'm just trying to find

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lively fill to put in there.

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So maybe we'll put entree and

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then desert.

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It kind of looks like entree

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and dessert, which is fun, but

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it's actually entree and

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desert.

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Words in place, it's time for

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cluing.

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And Ryan is on his own with no

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computer assist.

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Then we have PBS in the middle,

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so we could do Wisconsin life

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channel, something like that.

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Since becoming a constructor,

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Ryan gets crossword inspiration

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everywhere he goes.

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I was sitting in Spanish class

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and I heard my teachers say

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language barrier and I thought

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that should be a crossword puzzle.

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The language barrier could

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literally be the black squares

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and the puzzle.

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They're separating words where

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they can also help my theme.

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So it would be C-SPAN, like the

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TV channel, and then Ishmael,

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Spanish would be in the circle

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letters.

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Another example would be having

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Greek, the end of ogre, and then

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the E.K. would start something

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like eke out, like eke out a

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living.

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Ryan is not eking out a

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living through puzzles, but he

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is getting paid.

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The Wall Street Journal bought

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his language barrier puzzle,

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one of several Ryan has

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published while still a

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teenager.

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So my first ever published

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crossword was when I was 17

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in Universal, which was a

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syndicate.

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And my next published puzzle

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I had turned 18 was in the

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USA Today.

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Time was running out on

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Ryan's New York Times teenage

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dream, but he never gave up.

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It was my 40th submission to

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New York Times is when I first

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got an acceptance letter.

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When I finally saw that

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email, I was like, I've done it.

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At 19, Ryan Matheson reached

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the pinnacle of puzzle

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publishing from the Monroe

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Times inspiration to the

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New York Times publication.

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You have, I don't know how many

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hundreds of thousands of

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millions of people solving a

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puzzle that you created.

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So I think it's kind of cool

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to know that some of their

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excitement for the day is

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coming from something I made.

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Sharing with his fellow

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crossword lovers is the best

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part.

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There is a world out there

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who is doing my puzzle.