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The NY Times’ crossword editor kept building puzzles from his hospital bed

Ellsworth Toohey
Jul 16, 2026
∙ Paid

Will Shortz — Library of Congress Life / CC0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Four years ago, New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz had a stroke. “I was making puzzles in bed while I was in the hospital,” he told A.J. Jacobs in a recent interview.

Recovery has been slow. He still does daily physical therapy and figures he may never be all the way back. “I don’t …

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