Who: Stan Newman, Joye Brown
What: Celebration of Newsday puzzle maven
Where: Newsday Studio 2, 6 Corporate Center Dr., Melville
When: Thursday, May 18, $10-$15, 7:00
Why: One of my favorite parts of being in trade book publishing some twenty-five years ago was when puzzle expert and former Wall Street bond analyst Stan Newman would come into my office with a bunch of trivia questions and brain games that were always fun but never easy. Winner of the first US Open Crossword Championship in 1982 and holder of the Guinness record for fastest completion of a New York Times Sunday crossword (134 seconds), Newman has written and/or edited more than a hundred books, including Cruciverbalism: A Crossword Fanatic’s Guide to Life in the Grid, Hard as a Rock Crosswords: Quite Hard Indeed, Stanley Newman’s Literary Crosswords: A Fine Romance, Movie Mania Crosswords, and Mind Stretchers: Crosswords, Word Searches, Logic Puzzles, and Surprises!
Stan Newman won $112,000 on The Challengers quiz show hosted by Dick Clark in 1990
Born in Brooklyn in 1952, Newman has been creating puzzles since 1983 and has been editing crosswords at Newsday since 1988, and he recently became Chief Brain Games Mastermind at Arkadium. Every Sunday in Newsday, in addition to the crossword, he contributes “Stan’s Brain Games,” featuring such tests of skill as “Betweeners,” “Common Sense,” “Two by Fours,” “National Treasure,” and my favorite, “Three at a Rhyme.”
On May 18 at 7:00, Newsday will celebrate Newman’s thirty-fifth anniversary at the paper with a special live conversation between him and associate editor Joye Brown, discussing his life and career and sharing puzzle-solving tips. All guests will receive an exclusive free puzzle book, and there will also be a meet-and-greet, a Q&A, giveaways, and more. Tickets are only ten to fifteen dollars, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit Newsday Charities. Good luck!