Why won't you find enema in a crossword? Because it doesn't pass the ''Sunday morning breakfast test.'' That's the kind of detail you'll learn in Wordplay, the geeky, absorbing cultural history of the crossword starring New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz a brilliant guy who likes nothing more than basking in his hate mail (''You are sick, sick, sick''). Wordplay unspools the story of his American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and works in mini-profiles of solvers (Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton).
EXTRAS include a puzzle-writing primer and a book of five ''unforgettable'' Times puzzles.


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