This is the Allusionist, in which I, Helen Zoltzman, discover language floating down the river

in a basket. Coming up in today's show, the closest I'm likely ever to get to covering

a sporting event. Quick note before we begin, today's show was recorded on location and

said location was full of people, hence there's quite a bit of background hubbub. So, let

me remind you, there are transcripts of each episode at the allusionist.org slash transcripts.

On with the show.

It's Saturday, the 19th of August 2017, and I'm spending the day with my friend Bruce.

Bruce, where are we? We are in the upper east side of New York at a Unitarian

Church about to head down to the basement of the Unitarian Church for Lala Pazula 10,

which is a crossword puzzle tournament that has been held annually to see 10th version of it.

Well, I came to Lala Pazula 10.

When we get crosswords, I think we do.

By the way, we start soon, just a couple of things.

And it's really a terrifically fun tournament. About 225 people or 250 people will crowd into this

tiny basement on a beautiful sunny day and not see the light of day for about six or seven hours

while we do crosswords. What's your name? Steve Golden. And have you been to Lala Pazula before?

No, I've never been to any crossword tournament. I'm excited to see how this worked.

How many of these have you been to before? This is my fourth tournament officially.

Have you ever won? I have not. I'm four-semin middle of the pack type of guy.

I love coming here every year because they're consistently some of the best puzzles I solve.

I'm here to see my friends mostly. When did you start coming?

I don't know. I've probably been to this particular tournament five or six times.

...