They check all the facts and all the spellings in the clues and the answers, using books, newspapers, magazines, data bases and the Internet as reference tools. We're not going to come as far as Brandy and Monica, but we're trying to get to the '60s, '70s and '80s, to include a larger range of solver. Speaking of Monica, they do try to stay away from politics. We don't want that reference. And, since they work three months ahead, what is might be was by the time it is published.
Editors also attempt to remove clich s or words that are too obscure.
I sent him a Sunday puzzle that had a strange outer space electronic word in it, and the next thing I know, he's changed the whole puzzle. They're really perfectionists. To have a team like that is beyond what I expected. The only downside to hiring the couple as editors, says Lewis, is that she's likely to see far fewer puzzles constructed by them. But I'm lucky.