In case anyone is curious about how crossword clues are fact-checked and edited, my assistant, Joel, taped us editing today's and tomorrow's puzzles, and he's transcribed a bit of our discussion each day. It illustrates our process as well as our back-and-forth, which sometimes goes off on tangents. We work together at a desk in my office. I'm on an iPad, surrounded by dictionaries and books. Joel sits next to me at the main computer. Below, we're working on the clue for 2-Down, VERDI. The constructor's given clue was "'Rigoletto' composer."
Will: Verdi. Hmm. [Reaches for the Oxford Dictionary of Opera]
Joel: How many people do you think own the Oxford Dictionary of Opera?
Will: Not many, not many. You know, I was thinking the other day ... I have not updated my reference library in a while. I think it's because ... I don't feel I need to. Just about everything is online. I wonder if most of these books are even being produced anymore. If I go to the bookstore and look in the reference section ...
Joel: [pointing to another book on the shelf] Well, you're not going to find Milton Cross's "Complete Stories of the Great Operas," probably.
Will: That's out of print. Great reference, though.
Joel: When was this made … oh, two dollars, good for you. Oh, 1952. It smells like an old book.
Will: It's still worth having, because I feel, first of all, I can trust it. And, second, I know my books so well that sometimes I can look things up faster in books than I can online.
[pause]
Will: [Thinking back to the constructor's clue for 1-Down, "When Carmen dies, in 'Carmen,'" for the answer ACT IV] Is there any operatic character who dies in Act IV in a Verdi opera?
Joel: Phew, jeez, what a question. What a question to make me go and research …
Will: [newscaster voice] Over to you, Joel!
Joel: Okay, Verdi operas ... [sound of typing]
Will: Let's see … how many acts are there in "Rigoletto"?
Joel: Well, Verdi did do "Otello," and definitely a bunch of people die in "Otello," so ...
Will: "Rigoletto" has only three acts, so that's not going to work.
Joel: So when do, like, Desdemona or Iago, when do they die? [muttering] Act IV, Act IV …
Will: Ah! "Otello" has four acts.
Joel: Yeah, Desdemona dies. And then everybody dies in the last act as per Shakespeare's every other play.
Will: Hmm.
Joel: So we can say "When Desdemona dies, in 'Otello,'" and then we can say "'Otello' composer" for VERDI.
Will: Yeah. Actually, I like your first idea for ACT IV, or the first thing you said: "When everyone dies, in 'Otello.'"
Joel: [laughs] Well, I don't know if that's true, if everybody dies.
Will: Well, obviously not everyone.
Joel: It looks like in the opera, Otello is about to commit suicide and then they do a fade-to-black thing.
Will: [quoting the book] "Otello stabs himself, kissing Desdemona as he dies." Huh. How about "When Otello dies, in 'Otello'"?
Joel: Yeah, that's snappier.
Will: [laughs] Yeah, it's got that echo. Nancy [Schuster] will love us for back-to-back opera clues.