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| In the Fall/24 Core, Benjamin Recchie, AB’03, writes about the College students who design crossword puzzles for the Chicago Maroon and Family Weekend—and occasionally, the New York Times. |
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| I started solving crossword puzzles when I was a teenager, leaning over my mom’s shoulder at breakfast, taking pride in finishing it with her without resorting to a puzzle “cheat book” like the thick, well-thumbed, nicotine- and coffee-stained paperback that sat next to my grandmother’s chair. But when I went to college I fell out of the habit. I would glance at the puzzle section as I skimmed the paper ... but “Who has the time?” I would ask myself. |
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| Little did I know that some UChicago students not only have the time to solve their daily crossword puzzle—they also make time to build them. |
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| When Pravan Chakravarthy and Henry Josephson, both Class of 2025, came to UChicago, they revived the Maroon’s moribund crossword section. As coeditors of the paper’s crossword, they’ve developed a UChicago-specific word list, Josephson says, “so that we can have MANSUETOs and WOODLAWNs and SOSCs.” |
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| Several Maroon crossword contributors have gone on to be published in the New York Times, most notably Garrett Chalfin, Class of 2027, who had two Sunday puzzles published last year. Chakravarthy has not had a puzzle in the New York Times—yet—but he has been published in the Los Angeles Times. |
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| In October of 2022, Chakravarthy and Josephson organized a crossword tournament at Family Weekend. Over three rounds, individuals or groups (there were many student-parent team-ups) competed to complete three crossword puzzles with the least time elapsed and the highest accuracy. |
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| The 2023 edition of the tournament had roughly 150 contestants. “I can’t wait to do it again for the fall,” Chakravarthy says. Further plans might include an expansion to Alumni Weekend as well, so keep your eyes peeled and your pencils sharpened. |
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| Read more—including the type of feedback NYT crossword editors provide—in the Fall/24 Core, in mailboxes in late October. |
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| Crossword puzzle: Core power |
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| In his bio on the Chicago Maroon’s website, crossword coeditor Henry Josephson, Class of 2025, has an open invitation: |
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“ |
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I would love to build a crossword puzzle with you. Seriously. Let’s find a time. |
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| Isabella Romeu, Class of 2026, spent Summer Quarter in Paris, where she was enrolled in the European Civilization program. Here is an excerpt from her diary. |
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| Bonjour, mes amis! Today I visited the Louvre. I’ve never visited a museum of such magnitude, and it did not disappoint. |
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| I decided to leave the Mona Lisa for last. I was never really interested (I just think there are better paintings out there), but since everyone sees it as a metonym for the Louvre, I left it for the end. |
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| Now, I am a petite person. I can slip through crowds of people and go unnoticed. Of course, I used this to my advantage, coupled with the fact that I dressed for the occasion (i.e., like a Parisian). |
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| I pushed and shoved my way to the very front, nearly yelling, “Excusez moi! Je ne parle anglaise! Pardon.” I guess my accent was good enough because a man I elbowed out of my way (totally accidentally) said to his wife, “These French people are so rude.” |
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| The painting itself is rather small. What it lacks in size, it makes up for in awe factor. I was mesmerized, to the point where I had to be escorted out of the way by an employee. |
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| Read more of Romeu’s diary in the Fall/24 issue of the Core, in mailboxes in late October. |
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| In 2014 the University of Chicago Magazine visited the Center in Paris as part of the celebrations of the Center’s 10th anniversary. |
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| A close-up of an annotated page from the Bordeaux copy of Montaigne’s Essais. |
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| On a gray October morning in Paris, the students in Philippe Desan’s European Civilization course are trying to make sense of the Essays of Michel de Montaigne. |
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| “Stream of consciousness,” is one student’s description. “It’s like reading somebody’s diary,” says a second. A third: “He’s all over the place.” |
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| The theme of today’s class is self-fashioning—the process of constructing your identity and public persona. “Your self is always evolving. As Montaigne tells you, what I say today is different from what I say tomorrow. But that does not mean that what I say tomorrow is better than what I say today.” |
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| Desan, Howard L. Willett Professor Emeritus of French Literature, is one of the world’s foremost experts on Montaigne, but Montaigne himself “is not an expert of anything,” he says. “He’s a typical French intellectual.” Jean-Paul Sartre defined an expert as someone who speaks about what he knows, while an intellectual speaks about what he doesn’t know: “And this is Montaigne.” |
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| In the famous series of paintings of the Cathedral of Rouen, Claude Monet captures the cathedral in different light conditions, Desan says. His theory was that there is no one cathedral, just a viewer’s ever-changing impression. “That’s what Montaigne is doing. He’s one of the first Impressionists, if you prefer. |
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| “That’s just not the way we’re taught to write at the Little Red Schoolhouse,” he adds, referring to the popular course Academic and Professional Writing. “I always have a fight with them,” he says, because “they make you write like lawyers. I write in a French way.” In this style of writing, “you don’t reveal your ammunition right away. Certainly not in your introduction.” |
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| A rendering of the John W. Boyer Center in Paris, designed by renowned architect Jeanne Gang. |
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| The John W. Boyer Center in Paris—named in honor of John W. Boyer, AM’69, PhD’75, who served as dean of the College for more than three decades—officially opens this November. |
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| In preparation for the event, the College is collecting alumni stories about the previous Center. |
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| Did you study abroad in Paris? If so, what do you remember about your time there—the professors, the readings, the espresso machine, the gate code (1789)? |
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| Previously in College Review |
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| The College Review, edited by Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93, is brought to you by Alumni Relations and Development and the College. |
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| (1) Benjamin Recchie, AB’03 |
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| (3) Isabella Romeu, Class of 2026; Laura Lorenz |
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