[derkland]

Universal Press Syndicate, I believe, provides the daily crossword puzzles you find in many US newspapers, such as the Boston Globe. My question is, who the heck are they? And how come I never recognize any of the bylines that show up in these puzzles? You would think one once in a while would be familiar to me, but they never are. How do these people get their puzzles in these papers? I don't think you can send them submissions so are these people on hire for the syndicate?

Just wonderin'. --Alan

[Todd G]

Alan:

To get the answer to your questions, you'd probably have to contact Timothy Parker, the editor of the Universal Crossword.  I'm guessing that he, like Bill Watterson, has all correspondence handled by Universal Press Syndicate.

You might be able to do that from here:  http://www.universaluclick.com/puzzles/crosswords

I believe Mr. Parker used to solicit puzzles openly, but has over time developed his own in-house team of constructors, and doesn't accept open submissions anymore.  I've never worked with Mr. Parker myself, so only going by what I've heard (mostly here).

—Todd