On the grid

By Carol Beggy & Mark Shanahan, Globe Staff  |  September 25, 2007

Imagine the look on Jennie Bass\'s face when she got to 111 across in Sunday\'s crossword puzzle in the Boston Globe magazine. The clue? "Generic Proposal." The answer? "Will you marry me?" While most puzzlers just scribbled in the answer and moved on, not Bass. Those 14 letters were an actual marriage proposal by Bass\'s boyfriend Aric Egmont, who\'d contacted the magazine to ask if a crossword could be specially created for him.

"On our fourth date, I knew I had found the kind of dork I could love," Egmont wrote to the mag. (Both inveterate puzzlers, he\'s in communications at Fidelity and she\'s studying food policy and public health at Tufts School of Medicine.)

Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon, the puzzle-writing pair who\'ve been crafting the magazine\'s crosswords for years, accepted the challenge. Their puzzle was titled "Popping the question," and each entry was a variation on proposals. The tricky part, of course, was writing a puzzle - including an official proposal - that would be clear to the happy couple but not obscure to everyone else. Hence, 111 across: "Generic proposal" (Jen + Aric = generic).

"We get to the \'Will you marry me?\' clue," says Egmont, "and I said, \'Will you marry me, Jenny?\' I got up, got the ring, and got down on one knee and she screamed and hugged me." It took her a minute to answer, but, yes, she\'ll marry him.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2007/09/25/on_the_grid/

maybe it\'s cause i\'m a geek myself, but that\'s pretty fuckin\' cool.

probably the geekiest thing I have ever heard of right there

That is pretty awesome.

14 letters is a pretty long crossword answer.

thats sooooo adorable.  sigh.  i need a dork like that.

Ghay!!!!!

Quote from: derickw;160228

Ghay!!!!!

giving a fat girl a ring in a donut is not romantic.

only if you have to save her from choking on it

Quote from: Spacey;160229

Quote from: derickw;160228

Ghay!!!!!

giving a fat girl a ring in a donut is not romantic.

only if you have to save her from choking on it

If she is choking on a donut with a nice little ring in it, you have no need for her.

Quote from: Spacey;160229

Quote from: derickw;160228

Ghay!!!!!

giving a fat girl a ring in a donut is not romantic.

    rotfl

go ahead and ask him about it.

she said no because he gave her a glazed and she wanted a crawler.