From Jeopardy! to NYT crossword puzzles: A Syracuse professor builds a world of words

Fabi Crosswords

Rachel Fabi stands outside her home in Syracuse, Nov. 22, 2021. “I think some people get annoyed when there are things they don’t know in the puzzle, and those are people who are not going to be very successful at crosswords," she said. "Learning is like, at least half the point."

Rachel Fabi was puzzled. It had been almost a year since she had started working on the crossword in front of her, and so far she had only the first 15-letter phrase strung across the center of the crossword grid. The rest was a mystery, but it was her mystery to make.

Fabi, 32, is a crossword puzzle creator, so she doesn’t just fill in the squares; she makes the clues. She’s also a writer for the New York Times column, “Wordplay,” where she writes about the newspaper’s early week puzzles and hashes out tricky or clever clues. She does this, among other things. Fabi is also a PhD and assistant professor at Upstate Medical University, where she teaches humanities and bioethics, specifically the study of ethics in public health measures and policies.

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