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After skipping a grade and a half, Michaels graduated from [[Northrop Collegiate School]] in Minneapolis (later the Blake School) in 1976.<ref name="AT72"/><ref name="BS16">{{cite news|url=https://www.blakeschool.org/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=245|title=Bear Pause: Andrea Carla Eisenberg Michaels '76|date=2016-02-08|publisher=[[The Blake School (Minneapolis)|The Blake School]]|access-date=2023-11-16}}</ref> She graduated from [[Harvard University]] with a degree in psychology at age 20 in 1980<!--year from <ref name="HC77"/> etc-->.<ref name="SF18"/>
After skipping a grade and a half, Michaels graduated from [[Northrop Collegiate School]] in Minneapolis (later the Blake School) in 1976.<ref name="AT72"/><ref name="BS16">{{cite news|url=https://www.blakeschool.org/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=245|title=Bear Pause: Andrea Carla Eisenberg Michaels '76|date=2016-02-08|publisher=[[The Blake School (Minneapolis)|The Blake School]]|access-date=2023-11-16}}</ref> She graduated from [[Harvard University]] with a degree in psychology at age 20 in 1980<!--year from <ref name="HC77"/> etc-->.<ref name="SF18"/>


==Careerto ==
==Career==


In the 1980s, Michaels began working in comedy, performing in clubs, writing humor articles for periodicals, and appearing in TV comedy specials.<ref name="SF18"/><ref name="TC86">{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-californian-acme/135306424/|title=Nightclub comedy show Oct. 23 at Cal State|date=1986-10-16|newspaper=[[The Californian (Temecula)|The Californian]]|page=B7|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1983/4/18/harvard-comedians-garner-tv-slot-pa/|title=Harvard Comedians Garner T.V. Slot|last=Silver|first=Betsy|date=1983-04-18|newspaper=[[The Harvard Crimson]]|access-date=2023-11-16}}</ref> She adopted the stage surname "Michaels", adapted from her father's name, while living in Los Angeles.<ref name="AF04"/> She worked in television in Los Angeles as a writer for the sitcom ''[[Designing Women]]'', a chaperone on ''[[The Dating Game]]'', and a trivia writer for game shows such as ''[[Wordplay (game show)|Wordplay]]'' and ''[[The Challengers (game show)|The Challengers]]''.<ref name="NYT21"/> She later competed on game shows such as ''[[Jeopardy!]]'' in 1988 (where she came second to the then-record single-day prize winner) and ''[[Wheel of Fortune (American game show)|Wheel of Fortune]]'' in 1991 (where she won a motorhome).<ref name="J03"/><ref name="AF04"/><ref name="NYT21">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2021-04-19.html|title=Main Line From the Heart|last=Verongos|first=Helen T.|date=2021-04-18|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=2023-11-16}}</ref> She joined a ''[[Scrabble]]'' club and became a nationally ranked tournament player and instructor.<ref name="J03"/><ref name="AF04"/>
In the 1980s, Michaels began working in comedy, performing in clubs, writing humor articles for periodicals, and appearing in TV comedy specials.<ref name="SF18"/><ref name="TC86">{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-californian-acme/135306424/|title=Nightclub comedy show Oct. 23 at Cal State|date=1986-10-16|newspaper=[[The Californian (Temecula)|The Californian]]|page=B7|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1983/4/18/harvard-comedians-garner-tv-slot-pa/|title=Harvard Comedians Garner T.V. Slot|last=Silver|first=Betsy|date=1983-04-18|newspaper=[[The Harvard Crimson]]|access-date=2023-11-16}}</ref> She adopted the stage surname "Michaels", adapted from her father's name, while living in Los Angeles.<ref name="AF04"/> She worked in television in Los Angeles as a writer for the sitcom ''[[Designing Women]]'', a chaperone on ''[[The Dating Game]]'', and a trivia writer for game shows such as ''[[Wordplay (game show)|Wordplay]]'' and ''[[The Challengers (game show)|The Challengers]]''.<ref name="NYT21"/> She later competed on game shows such as ''[[Jeopardy!]]'' in 1988 (where she came second to the then-record single-day prize winner) and ''[[Wheel of Fortune (American game show)|Wheel of Fortune]]'' in 1991 (where she won a motorhome).<ref name="J03"/><ref name="AF04"/><ref name="NYT21">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2021-04-19.html|title=Main Line From the Heart|last=Verongos|first=Helen T.|date=2021-04-18|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=2023-11-16}}</ref> She joined a ''[[Scrabble]]'' club and became a nationally ranked tournament player and instructor.<ref name="J03"/><ref name="AF04"/>

Revision as of 19:09, 21 November 2023

Andrea Carla Michaels
Born
Andrea Carla Eisenberg

1959/1960 (age 64–65)
Other names
  • "ACME"
  • "Pizza Lady"
Alma materHarvard University
Occupations
  • Comedian
  • writer
  • crossword constructor
  • naming consultant
Known forThe New York Times crossword puzzles (2000–present)
Websiteandrea-carlamichaels.squarespace.com

Andrea Carla Michaels (née Eisenberg; born 1959/1960) is an American crossword puzzle constructor and corporate naming consultant. She was a comedian and television writer after graduating from Harvard University in 1980 and has played competitive chess and Scrabble and appeared on Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. More than 80 crosswords by her have been published in The New York Times since 2000. In San Francisco, she has become known as the "Pizza Lady" for her efforts to feed homeless people in her community.

Early life and education

Michaels grew up in a Jewish family in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the youngest of three daughters of Carol (née Kossin) and M. Michael Eisenberg, a surgeon at the University of Minnesota.[1][2][3] She liked solving jigsaw puzzles, playing board games, and helping her father with the Sunday New York Times crossword as a child.[4] She learned chess at age five and played competitively from ages 11 to 15, winning five straight Minnesota women's championships and three national junior titles.[2][5][6]

After skipping a grade and a half, Michaels graduated from Northrop Collegiate School in Minneapolis (later the Blake School) in 1976.[5][7] She graduated from Harvard University with a degree in psychology at age 20 in 1980.[8]

Career

In the 1980s, Michaels began working in comedy, performing in clubs, writing humor articles for periodicals, and appearing in TV comedy specials.[8][9][10] She adopted the stage surname "Michaels", adapted from her father's name, while living in Los Angeles.[11] She worked in television in Los Angeles as a writer for the sitcom Designing Women, a chaperone on The Dating Game, and a trivia writer for game shows such as Wordplay and The Challengers.[12] She later competed on game shows such as Jeopardy! in 1988 (where she came second to the then-record single-day prize winner) and Wheel of Fortune in 1991 (where she won a motorhome).[1][11][12] She joined a Scrabble club and became a nationally ranked tournament player and instructor.[1][11]

Michaels moved to San Francisco in 1986.[8] She founded a company, Acme Naming, that invents names for companies and products, after having previously freelanced as a namer for other firms.[8][11] In 2012, she wrote an essay about childlessness for Henriette Mantel's collection No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood (2013).[13]

Michaels's puzzle-writing career began in the 1980s with word games and trivia for Games magazine and crosswords for TV Guide.[4] Her first New York Times crossword was published on June 12, 2000, featuring an earthquake theme and "jagged" grid design.[4][14] She co-constructed one puzzle with college friend Neil deGrasse Tyson in 2017.[15][16] As of October 2023, she has had 84 crosswords published in the Times, including 53 collaborations and 61 published on Mondays (the easiest puzzle of the week),[17] earning the nickname the "Queen of Mondays" (along with Lynn Lempel).[18][19]

On Christmas Eve 2015, Michaels began serving the homeless community in her neighborhood in San Francisco by handing out pizza and occasionally other donated items, becoming known as the "Pizza Lady".[8] She asked Nobhill Pizza & Shawarma in Nob Hill to set aside leftover slices instead of composting them, and then reheat them for her to give away on Polk Street, where she distributed around twenty slices daily.[8][20][21] After the pizzeria began only making pizzas to order during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she handed out food from Golden Veggie Market with "faux sell-by dates" as well as donated clothing.[22] At the same time, she battled eviction from her longtime apartment in Nob Hill, whose new owner she said maintained the building poorly in order to buy out tenants.[22] By 2023, she had resumed delivering leftover pizza from Nobhill Pizza, and she started a website in her effort to identify and return stolen luggage discarded in the area.[23][24]

References

  1. ^ a b c Pine, Dan (February 7, 2003). "Yiddish for Scrabble: Wordsmith in S.F. spells it out". J. The Jewish News of Northern California. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "She Loves the Game". The Hanford Sentinel. May 14, 1976. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Carol (Kossin) Cleveland". Star Tribune (obituary). November 12, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Amlen, Deb (September 17, 2018). "60 Seconds With Andrea Carla Michaels". The New York Times. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  5. ^ a b "Girl, 12, Makes Mark in Man's World of Chess". Arcadia Tribune. November 9, 1972. p. 23 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Ellerin, Bruce E. (November 2, 1977). "Sophomore Places First In Women's Chess Open". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  7. ^ "Bear Pause: Andrea Carla Eisenberg Michaels '76". The Blake School. February 8, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Fagan, Kevin (August 19, 2018). "Pizza Lady helps Polk Street area's homeless hang on with food, compassion". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on August 20, 2018.
  9. ^ "Nightclub comedy show Oct. 23 at Cal State". The Californian. October 16, 1986. p. B7 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Silver, Betsy (April 18, 1983). "Harvard Comedians Garner T.V. Slot". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  11. ^ a b c d Frankel, Alex (2004). Wordcraft: The Art of Turning Little Words into Big Business. Random House. Archived from the original on January 28, 2011.
  12. ^ a b Verongos, Helen T. (April 18, 2021). "Main Line From the Heart". The New York Times. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  13. ^ Seligman, Katherine (May 10, 2013). "'No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood'". SFGate. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  14. ^ Pine, Dan (August 25, 2006). "My word!". J. The Jewish News of Northern California. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  15. ^ Gallucci, Nicole (March 20, 2017). "Neil deGrasse Tyson helped create a cosmically punny NYT crossword puzzle". Mashable. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  16. ^ Amlen, Deb (March 19, 2017). "Quite a Distance Off". The New York Times. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  17. ^ "Andrea Carla Michaels page". XWord Info. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  18. ^ Amlen, Deb (February 7, 2021). "'Scenter' of the Face". The New York Times. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  19. ^ Amlen, Deb (July 11, 2018). "Easily". The New York Times. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  20. ^ Falstreau, Nathan (May 24, 2018). "Pie to 17,000 places: 'Pizza Lady' offers neighbors food, support". Hoodline. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  21. ^ Guerrero, Juan Carlos (July 5, 2018). "San Francisco woman on mission to deliver free pizza to homeless people". KGO-TV. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  22. ^ a b Weingarten, Woody (October 5, 2020). "San Franciscan feeds homeless while fighting eviction herself". Local News Matters. Bay City News Foundation. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  23. ^ Swan, Rachel (August 3, 2023). "This San Francisco woman has a house full of stolen stuff. She's on a mission to find the owners". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on August 3, 2023.
  24. ^ Kafton, Christien (August 3, 2023). "San Francisco woman working to reunite stolen luggage with rightful owners". KTVU. Retrieved November 16, 2023.

Further reading

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