How ‘bro’ started showing up in the New York Times crossword puzzle

The New York Times crossword just hit a whole new level of “epicness.” Fast Company has a profile of Anna Shechtman, the new assistant to Will Shortz, resident puzzlemaster for the Times. Shechtman works with Shortz to refine the crosswords sent in by “constructors,” the people who design and submit puzzles. While they work off the constructor’s original idea, the puzzle pros will change 50 to 80 percent of the clues to ensure it’s good enough for the Times. A 23-year-old Swarthmore grad, Shechtman began solving crosswords nine years ago, and has lately been helping modernize the 61-year-old Shortz’s references and word choices. With Shechtman’s input, recent crosswords have features clues like “State of being awesome, in modern slang” (“epicness”), and “Preppy, party-loving, egotistical male, in modern lingo” (“bro”). Read the full story at FastCo, or go check out one of Shechtman’s puzzles here.