Timothy Parker (puzzle designer)
Timothy E. Parker | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 7, 1960 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | TV producer, puzzle editor, games creator |
Timothy Eric Parker, (born April 7, 1960) is an American TV producer, puzzle editor and games creator. He is the crossword editor of USA Today and the Universal Uclick line of crossword puzzles.
Personal life
Parker grew up in Baltimore, Maryland with nine siblings and attended the private Gilman School, where he excelled in both football and baseball.
Timothy Parker is married with two children. He and his family are members of the Ellicott City Assembly of God church in Maryland.
Television
In 2006, Parker become the puzzle producer for Merv Griffin's Crosswords. He worked directly with Griffin, creating puzzle grids and all clues for the entire 225-show run. Parker wrote all 17,550 questions used on the show.
In 2008, Parker contributed to the ABC prime-time television show The Mole.[citation needed] In addition, Parker has created puzzles that have appeared on The View, Access Hollywood and others.
Books
Parker has written or edited over 50 books, including King James Games, Mastering Kakuro, Universal Crosswords - Editor's Favorites I & II, The Official Book of Kakuro, four editions of Great Puzzles From The Bible, a series of puzzle books for the For Dummies brand, 25 digital games, the annual USA Today Crossword Calendar, and Family Time Crossword.
Parker co-wrote The Book of Revelation Made Clear with the co-creator of the Left Behind series, Dr. Tim LaHaye. The book purports to explain the meaning and symbols of the last book of the Christian Bible in a simple, precise way. The book features 77 puzzle quizzes created by Parker and was released on July 29, 2014 by Thomas Nelson Books.
Puzzle career
Timothy Parker created the Internet's first syndicated crossword puzzle in November 1996 and sold it seven major clients including CNN. By April 1997, his original puzzle was picked up for worldwide syndication by Universal Press Syndicate, the world's largest independent syndicate of puzzles, comic strips and columnists. On May 19, 2003, Parker became only the second crossword editor of the history of USA Today. Parker founded the paid subscription club The Puzzle Society, along with Universal Uclick, and he is senior editor of the Universal Uclick line of crossword puzzles and games, which are syndicated around the world in print and online. Among games created and constructed by Parker are Universal Maze, Universal Wordsearch, Universal Cryptograms, Slide-N-Solve, Phrase Invaders, and the four-part Universal Trivia. Parker's puzzles are published around the world, including in South China, Canada, Brazil, France and Japan.
On March 4, 2016, a plagiarism claim was made against Parker. The website FiveThirtyEight, claimed it had found similarities between puzzles Parker had edited and published through USA Today and Universal Uclick and ones previously published. The vast majority of similarities featured only 3 or 4 of the longest answers in a grid among the 78 answers available. No puzzles were identical. Parker said he had not deliberately copied any puzzles, and that the repeated themes were an unintended coincidence with any similarities likely due to his having edited over 15,000 puzzles.[1] On March 7, Universal Uclick and USA Today issued statements saying that Parker had temporarily stepped down from his role as senior editor while an investigation was underway.[2]
Awards and recognition
In May 2000, Parker was named "World's Most Syndicated Puzzle Compiler" by Guinness World Records.[3][better source needed]
References
- ^ Connor, Alan (2016-03-07). "The great US crossword 'plagiarism' mystery". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
- ^ "Crossword World in a Ruction (n: 'Uproar') Over Plagiarism Allegations". NBC News. Retrieved 2016-03-10.
- ^ Smiley, Tavis (2003-05-22). "Interview: Timothy Parker discusses being the most syndicated crossword compiler in the world and his career creating puzzles". NPR (subscription required). Retrieved 2016-03-06.