Longtime crossword constructor marks 100th birthday with party – and a puzzle in the NY Times

PHILADELPHIA – What’s a nine-letter word for a significant event? Try MILESTONE.

Longtime crossword constructor Bernice Gordon is marking two big ones.

On Saturday, the Philadelphia resident turned 100. On Wednesday, The New York Times will publish another one of her puzzles.

Times crossword editor Will Shortz says Gordon will be the first centenarian to have a grid printed in the newspaper.

Gordon has been creating crosswords for decades and still builds one every morning. Her grids have appeared in the Times as well as many other newspapers and puzzle books.

Gordon is nearly as old as the crossword puzzle itself. The brain-teaser debuted in the New York Sunday World on Dec. 21, 1913. It initially was called a “word-cross.”