Good Morning America, Monday March 19, 2001

Good Morning America

DIANE SAWYER co-host	Well, after 19 years of coming close, but never winning the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, yesterday Ellen Ripstein changed all that! She took the top prize for puzzle-solvers. And Ellen Ripstein and Will Shortz, who's the founder of the tournament and puzzle editor of the New York Times, join us here now. Congratulations to you!
Ms. ELLEN RIPSTEIN	Thank you.
SAWYER	So I want to show everybody, you're up there doing the puzzle. First of all, tell us, on average, how long does it take you to do a New York Times' crossword puzzle?
Ms. RIPSTEIN	Probably in the week, about three minutes, and Saturday, six to eight minutes, and Sunday is about 10 to 15 minutes.
SAWYER	Ten to 15 minutes...
Ms. RIPSTEIN	Yeah.
SAWYER	...is the longest you've ever taken?
Ms. RIPSTEIN	Well...
SAWYER	And those of us who spend days with our books, looking through. OK, and then I want to see the moment at which you won.
Ms. RIPSTEIN	Yeah, I haven't seen this yet.
SAWYER	You haven't? Oh, take a look at yourself. It's just great. It's great.
Ms. RIPSTEIN	Yes.
SAWYER	You did it!
Ms. RIPSTEIN	I didn't believe it.
SAWYER	What worked this time?
Ms. RIPSTEIN	My competitor made a mistake. That helped a lot.
SAWYER	Listen, that's--that is the road to victory, true. It's not to be scoffed at. So, Will, you do these puzzles. How many do you review in a week in order to come up with the ones you put in the paper?
Mr. WILL SHORTZ (New York Times Puzzle Editor)	I get 60 to 75 puzzles a week for the seven that appear.
SAWYER	Sixty to 75? And how long does it take you to go through each one and decide if it's the one for you?
Mr. SHORTZ	It can be anywhere from 15 seconds to an hour.
SAWYER	And these are people who send them in to you?
Mr. SHORTZ	From all over the country.
SAWYER	And your favorite one, I gather, was one that had two different possible answers in it?
Mr. SHORTZ	It was on Election Day, 1996. The answer could have been either Clinton elected or Bob Dole elected. Either solution worked.
SAWYER	That's sweet. That's pretty. OK. You think you've had competition before, I mean you haven't met the big guys here.
Ms. RIPSTEIN	Uh-oh.
JACK FORD co-host	Bring your pencil with you when you come.
SAWYER	All right. I'm going to let you run this, Will. We have our own competition going on. Everybody at home scream out the answers if you know them here. Help our guys.
FORD	You guys especially scream out the answers for us, all right?
SAWYER	And you, too. OK. Take it away.
Mr. SHORTZ	All right. The clock has started. Turn your papers over and here's a starting clue. Jack and Tony, 10 across, King Kong star, four letters.
FORD	Faye Wray.
Mr. SHORTZ	There you go.
FORD	W-r-a-y-?
Mr. SHORTZ	W-r-a-y is right. Good.
FORD	All right, Tony.
Mr. SHORTZ	Next is 20 across, try Glaswegions' negative.
TONY PERKINS reporting	What?
Mr. SHORTZ	It's sort of a--you know, someone from Glasgow, what do they say? How do they say no? And this is a word that comes up in crosswords often. Oh, skip that.
FORD	Let's skip that.
Mr. SHORTZ	Twenty one, caravan maker.
PERKINS	Dodge.
FORD	Dodge?
Mr. SHORTS	All right.
FORD	What is that, 21?
Mr. SHORTZ	Yeah, 21.
FORD	All right, Tony.
Mr. SHORTZ	Excellent, excellent. Try 26 across. Hoped for trait in a spouse. Eight letters.
PERKINS	I'll try...
Mr. SHORTZ	What do you want?
FORD	Faithful?
PERKINS	Loyalty, loyalty.
Mr. SHORTZ	In--in eight letters.
FORD	Eight letters.
Mr. SHORTZ	We'll come back to that...
FORD	Come on you guys, you're not doing anything here! All right. Let's do another one.
PERKINS	We'll come back, we'll come back to that.
FORD	We'll come back to that. How about...
PERKINS	What else?
Mr. SHORTZ	Thirty one, try 31. They may be caught off base.
PERKINS	Runners.
FORD	Runners?
PERKINS	Runner? No.
Mr. SHORTZ	They may be caught off base. That's good. Think military, though.
FORD	AWOLs.
PERKINS	Hey, AWOLs.
Mr. SHORTZ	Excellent. Very good.
FORD	AWOLs?
Crowd	(In unison) AWOLs.
FORD	Very good, very good.
Mr. SHORTZ	All right, try 42 across. This is a word that comes up too often in crosswords. It's Nanchang nanny. It's a word for...
FORD	Yikes!
Mr. SHORTZ	...a nursemaid from China, in other words.
FORD	Have you got that one?
PERKINS	You got me.
FORD	Hey, Tony, she's the pro here.
Mr. SHORTZ	Apologies for that one.
FORD	Hey, Tony, we're getting smoked over here, I want you to know. We are getting smoked.
PERKINS	What--what?
Unidentified Woman #1	Amah.
PERKINS	What--what is it?
Woman #1	A-m-a-h.
PERKING	A-m-a-h?
FORD	What one was that? Forty-two across.
Mr. SHORTZ	Forty-two across.
FORD	Tony, which one--42 across.
PERKINS	Forty-two, 42.
Mr. SHORTZ	Right here.
PERKINS	I've never heard of that.
FORD	A-m-a-h.
PERKINS	What else?
Mr. SHORTZ	Try 60 across. Tony, I understand you're a Beatles' fan.
PERKINS	Yeah. The Beatles had them?
FORD	Beatles had them. Sixty across. That's a lot of letters, Tony.
PERKINS	Yeah.
Mr. SHORTZ	Give you a hint, it's three words. And think about what's on top of their...
FORD	Mop top.
PERKINS	Mop top, mop top.
FORD	Mops of hair?
Mr. SHORTZ	Yes, yes!
PERKINS	Mops of hair!
FORD	All right.
Unidentified Woman #2	Come on, guys, let's go.
FORD	We are cooking here.
SAWYER	We are about--what, we have about 30 seconds to go.
PERKINS	OK.
Mr. SHORTZ	All right. Try two down.
FORD	Two down?
PERKINS	Wawa. Baba wawa.
FORD	Wawa. We know that one.
Mr. SHORTZ	Try 10 down.
PERKINS	Ten down is...
Mr. SHORTZ	Chimes as Robert Frost might. Now, this is a theme answer. We have mops of hair, and I'm just going to tell you, it's 'waxes poetic.'
SAWYER	You're just going right to it.
Mr. SHORTZ	Waxes poetic.
FORD	We knew that one. We knew that one.
Mr. SHORTZ	Ellen already has that one.
SAWYER	OK. I want everybody to take a look at Ellen here. Just over here without saying very much. Look at this.
FORD	My goodness! Come and look at this. Tony, come look at this.
SAWYER	She's just about completed half of this puzzle. Look at you guys with your...
PERKINS	Oh, my goodness! We got...
SAWYER	...AWOLs and mops of hair. Anyway, we're going to let her continue during the commercial, and we'll tell you how long it takes. We'll be right back. It's now 46 minutes after.
(Commercial break)
SAWYER	She did it! She did it! She did it! Congratulations. Wow!
FORD	Look at mine.
SAWYER	We made the thrilling discovery that Jack can't copy hers as fast as she can do it originally.
FORD	That's just it. She can do it faster than I can copy it.
SAWYER	He's leaning over and trying to do like this, that's the way he did his.
FORD	Look at that.
SAWYER	Wow! Congratulations!
Ms. RIPSTEIN	Thank you.
SAWYER	Five minutes, awesome. Really is impressive.
Ms. RIPSTEIN	And there were a few distractions.
SAWYER	And a few, I can imagine. Again, congratulations...
Ms. RIPSTEIN	Thank you.
SAWYER	...after all these years for your victory.