Mel Taub, the brilliant mind who crafted the entertaining Puns and Anagrams puzzles for The New York Times for decades, passed away on September 14 at his home in Austin, Texas, at the age of 97. His son, Daniel, confirmed his passing.
These unique crossword variations, affectionately known as PandAs, offered a refreshing break from traditional crosswords. Loosely inspired by the intricate British cryptic crosswords, PandAs were celebrated for their clever wordplay, cunning anagrams, and often delightfully terrible puns. While some hardcore puzzle enthusiasts might have considered them a lighter challenge, PandAs garnered a devoted following among those who appreciated a good chuckle from a well-placed groan-worthy pun.
Deb Amlen, the esteemed lead columnist for The Times’s Wordplay section, fondly remembered Mr. Taub as “the king of the groaners in our puzzle family,” emphasizing that “His puzzles were designed to put a smile on your face.”
Ready to experience a touch of Taub’s genius? Here’s one of his puzzles from 2017 for you to try:
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Here are a couple of his classic clues: “Offspring of many fodders,” from a puzzle published on August 21, 2011, had the answer: DODDERS (a type of vine in the morning glory family, according to Merriam-Webster). Another, from May 21, 2017, posed: “Male or female, in Boston.” The answer? AGENDA. (Picture ‘gender’ pronounced with a thick Boston accent – oof!)
By day, Mr. Taub was an underwriter for the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. By night and on weekends, he diligently crafted his puzzles at the family dining room table in their Brooklyn apartment. Each creation typically took about eight hours and featured roughly 10 puns.
He confessed to The Four Star Puzzler magazine in 1982 that he liked to begin each puzzle with a pun he’d never used before, adding, “And then I pray.” The magazine noted his “rapid fire” speaking style, much like his favorite comedians, Henny Youngman and Rodney Dangerfield—a fitting reflection of his distinctive sense of humor.
One memorable clue he shared was “Salad ingredient on the Titanic,” with the answer: ICEBERG.
“Each definition is a word game in itself,” Mr. Taub once explained to The Puzzler. “The ones I like best are those where the letters in the word to be anagrammed lend themselves to a smooth definition. For example, ‘He doesn’t have an end seat,’ for STANDEE.”
Many of his loyal readers found delight in realizing that “Mel Taub” is an anagram for “mutable,” a perfect descriptor for his ever-changing word puzzles. Though, some frustrated solvers might have preferred “bum tale.”
The Puns and Anagrams tradition began with The Times’s very first crossword, published in the newspaper’s Sunday magazine on February 15, 1942. It was initially titled “Riddle Me This” and credited to “Anna Gram,” a pseudonym that Will Shortz, The Times’s current puzzle editor, suspects belonged to the paper’s first puzzle editor, Margaret Farrar.
At 26, Mr. Taub’s journey to becoming a Times puzzle contributor wasn’t immediate; it took him three attempts. His initial submissions were straightforward crosswords. Ms. Farrar’s first rejection letter noted, “This is an interesting puzzle, and I foresee you will land in the puzzle corner. I don’t take to the crossing of djo and oont.” (These obscure clues referred to “a Japanese unit of measurement” and “an Indian camel,” respectively.) She encouraged him with, “I hope you’ll come again. We pay $10 for the dailies.”
His second submission was also declined due to what Ms. Farrar deemed “contrived abbreviations,” such as “diph” for diphthong. However, his persistence paid off. His third puzzle was accepted and published on October 24, 1954, followed by his first PandA in May of the next year, for which he received $15.
Beyond The Times, Mr. Taub also authored double-crostics, which he compiled into several books. He continued to submit occasional crosswords, and even some cryptic crosswords, to The Times.
A notable creation, “Hail to the Chief,” appeared in The New York Times Magazine on January 17, 1993, as a tribute to the newly elected President, William Jefferson Clinton. Just one day later, Mr. Clinton, in between speechwriting, returned the puzzle completed in pen, along with a note expressing his enjoyment.
A clever clue from that presidential puzzle: “The White House is her Everest.” The answer: HILLARY.
Melvin Seymour Taub was born on September 4, 1928, in Brooklyn. He was the youngest of four children to David and Esther (Schwartz) Taub. His father, during Prohibition, was a part-time bootlegger who made slivovitz (a fruit brandy) before working in a luggage factory.
Mel pursued an English major at Brooklyn College, initially aspiring to be a comedy writer. When that path didn’t materialize, he transitioned into the insurance industry, where he worked until his retirement at what he precisely described to his son Daniel as “63.5 years of age.” His meticulous nature, perhaps, was no surprise. In 1959, Mr. Taub married Phyllis Spinrad, an administrator at Brooklyn College.
He is survived by his sons, Daniel and Dave, and one grandson. His wife, Phyllis, who also had two daily crosswords published in The Times, passed away in 2023.
While Puns and Anagrams crosswords continue to appear bi-monthly in The Times Magazine, they are no longer available online. However, a collection of roughly a hundred of Mr. Taub’s puzzles are preserved on xwordinfo.com, a dedicated website for puzzle enthusiasts created by Jim Horne.
Mr. Taub estimated that he contributed between 350 to 400 PandAs to The Times throughout his career, with his final puzzle appearing on October 20, 2019.
As his wife, Ms. Taub, aptly put it to The Four Star Puzzler in 1982, “He doesn’t just play with words. He preys on them.”