Crossword puzzles: those addictive, daily reminders that your brain knows more than you think but less than you hoped.
On Saturday, March 14, Southold Free Library will host its inaugural East End Crossword Tournament — a free, all-ages competition running from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. The event is modeled after larger national tournaments, but designed to be welcoming to solvers at all levels.
“It’s a really exciting opportunity to connect community and academia,” said Anakin Jackson Mignone, the library’s special projects manager.
‘A very intense crossword guy’
Mignone is organizing the tournament with teen services librarian Penny Kelley and Sean Galligan, a familiar face to many Greenport regulars as the head brewer and frequent trivia host at Greenport Harbor Brewing Co. Mignone said the idea grew out of his own work hosting events there.
“I do their open mic, and I was doing an event called Music Bingo,” he said. “Through that, I met Sean.”
In the course of talking with Galligan, Mignone said he learned that the brewer is a hardcore, competitive crossword puzzler, the kind of devotee who doesn’t just do crosswords, but trains for them.
“He competes in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford, Connecticut every single year,” Mignone said, referring to the nation’s best-known crossword competition.
Galligan, he said, “is a very intense crossword guy.”
Mignone describes himself as “more of a casual crossworder,” but said Galligan’s approach was eye-opening.
“He’ll sit at the end of the bar with his crossword books,” Mignone said, “or he’ll just ask to time him and he’ll just be sitting at the bar. He’ll do a whole crossword puzzle in like two or three minutes.”
First annual East End Crossword Tournament
The East End Crossword Tournament will use a series of public domain puzzles — including mini, midi and full-size grids — with points awarded for accuracy and completion. It’s set up without elimination, so a slow start won’t end your afternoon.
“Participants can improve their ranking as the tournament progresses,” Mignone said.
At the end of the early rounds, the top three scorers will advance to a final: a 15-by-15 puzzle on a whiteboard in the library’s teen room, with the finale streamed online.
Prizes include Southold Library merch and a New York Times crossword puzzle book. Finalists will receive t-shirts and the winner will earn a custom-engraved mechanical pencil and a photo and plaque displayed at the library.
Organizers are pulling out all the stops to promote the tournament, on social media and at the library itself.
“Folks can come into the library, and we have a Southold-themed crossword puzzle that folks can come and — if you solve one of the crossword questions, or if you solve a clue, you get a raffle ticket.”
Kelley has spent two decades watching how patrons use the library, and said crosswords have always been a vital part of the mix.
“My mother did the New York Times crossword puzzle all the time,” Kelley said. “She used to call her sisters on phone, and then they would talk about the crossword puzzle and work on it together. So I think there’s a sense of community when you’re working on a crossword puzzle.
“My husband and I like to do it together. Even though we don’t do very well on it, we still like it.”
There’s a unique kind of mental itch that crosswords create, when a vexing clue follows you around, even after you’ve put the paper down.
“Sometimes in the middle of the night, you’ll all of a sudden think of an answer to one of the clues,” Kelley said. “It’s something that challenges our brains, and any age can do a crossword puzzle — that’s the great thing.”
Looking forward
Both organizers said they hope this tournament is only the start.
“We’re hoping this is the first annual Crossword Puzzle Tournament,” Kelley said, “and that this is something that we can keep going, and it may evolve into something much bigger … That is the long-term goal.”
Kelley said that in decades past, patrons would come in on a Sunday morning and do the New York Times Magazine Sunday crossword right on the page, driving subsequent visitors crazy. So the Southold librarians adapted.
For the last 20 years or so, every Sunday the library provides photocopies of the Times Magazine crossword for patrons.
“We have one gentleman that, if that crossword puzzle is not copied by the time he walks in the door, he’s asking us for it.”
For those who want a little coaching before tournament day, the library is also offering a “tips and tricks” session on Friday, March 13, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Registration for the East End Crossword Tournament is free and available online or by phone at 631-765-2077. For more information, contact Anakin Jackson Mignone at anakin@southoldlibrary.org.