Puzzability writes:

Mike Shenk is, to puzzle lovers, probably the greatest thing since the electric pencil sharpener. One of the most versatile puzzle constructors and editors in the country, he provided a stunning assortment of pencil puzzles for Games magazine and its offshoots for 16 years, even while constructing daily crosswords for a major newspaper syndicate. Today he is crossword editor of The Wall Street Journal. Mike also writes Java programs for Puzzability’s interactive solving, as well as computer programs that set crosswords and many other types of puzzles. Even we are not sure how he does this.

There are no themed answers in this puzzle, only answers in which words from a quotation are embedded. The quote is from a fellow who had a number of good ideas, Linus Pauling. He is one of only four individuals to have won multiple Nobel Prizes. He is one of only two people to have been awarded a Nobel Prize in two different fields (the Chemistry and Peace prizes), the other being Marie Curie (the Chemistry and Physics prizes), and the only person to have been awarded each of his prizes without sharing it with another recipient.

For example, the first word of the quote, “The,” is embedded in at heart. I had nothing when it came to who played Dr. Kildare. I so wanted a card up one’s sleeve to be an ace. I didn’t see The Year of Living Dangerously, so Linda Hunt, who played a male Chinese-Australian photographer in that movie, didn’t show up on my radar.

The title of the puzzle is the title of a book by Ken Kesey, who is much more famous for One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Sometimes A Great Notion was also made into a movie, with Paul Newman and Henry Fonda. And no, I haven’t seen that movie either.

Technorati: Mike Shenk, NYT Crossword