Who

Ten-letter word for the mustachioed editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle? WILLSHORTZ.

Backstory

Already a well-established puzzle fanatic as a student at Indiana University—Shortz remains the only person ever to have majored in enigmatology at the school—Shortz later headed to law school before yielding to his puzzle zealotry and dropping out, accepting a $10,000-a-year position at Games Magazine in 1978. Installed as editor in 1989, he left four years later for the Times after the Gray Lady's longtime crossword editor, the notoriously elitist Eugene T. Maleska, passed away.

Of note

Shortz has a surprisingly large audience—an estimated 25 percent of the people who pick up the New York Times Magazine on Sundays flip immediately to the puzzle. Since taking over, he's been credited with democratizing the puzzle, minimizing the opera references that abounded under the Maleska regime and inserting more pop-culture ones—he was the Times' first x-word editor, for example, to inject product names into the puzzles. So what exactly does the crossword editor do all day? Shortz accepts and rejects crossword submissions (he receives about 75 puzzles a week), edits the ones that are slated to be published (he rewrites about half the clues in any given puzzle), and calibrates the puzzles' difficulty levels to suit the day of the week.

In print

Even though Shortz made his name with crosswords—and even though the Times itself refuses to deign to publish sudoku puzzles—it's sudoku that's made him a rich, rich man. Since the Sudoku craze first struck in 2005, he's published over 50 sudoku books with St. Martin's Press; the addictive puzzle books have collectively sold over six million copies.

On the side

Since 1978, Shortz has organized and emceed the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, the Olympics of crossword-solving that now draws close to 1,000 participants a year. Shortz was the star of the 2006 documentary Wordplay, which chronicled the surprisingly emotional ups and downs of the 2005 tourney. Noted cruciverbalists Bill Clinton and Jon Stewart made cameos.

Personal

The unmarried Shortz lives in a 1920s-era mansion in Pleasantville that's filled with puzzle artifacts, including puzzle books dating back to the 16th century and crossword grid-covered dress ties from the early 20th century.

No joke

Shortz's personal all-time fave clue? "It might turn into a different story." Answer: SPIRALSTAIRCASE.