How do they make the crossword puzzle that appears in the New York
Times?  Is there a computer program or just a guy who makes them up? 
If it's just a guy, does he do it every day by himself or is there a
team of people who take turns writing them?  How long does it take to
construct one puzzle?

Hello lexi-ga

You can access a database of New York Times daily and Sunday
crosswords at http://nytxword.home.mindspring.com/, (a subscription is
required to access any puzzles which appeared since late October,
1996).  The puzzles are sorted by date or by author.  As an example,
the Sunday puzzles in the set from October 27, 1996 to today (actually
until April 28, 2002) have been written by approximately 65 authors. 
In most cases, one author is responsible, but some puzzles have been
created by two or three authors.  The site gives statistics on the
most prolific authors of Sunday crosswords at
http://nytxword.home.mindspring.com/author.htm   The current champion
is Jack Luzzato with 119 puzzles to his credit.

The site does not give any information about how the authors create
their puzzles.  However, some information on this topic can be found
in the links listed by Ray Hamel at
http://www.primate.wisc.edu/people/hamel/cp.html, which claims to have
links to all known crossword-related web sites.  There you will find
links to various crossword software packages
(http://www.primate.wisc.edu/people/hamel/cp.html#Soft).  These
packages will generate a crossword from their own word lists or lists
put in by the author.  It is possible to specify the type of
crossword, the minimum and maximum number of letters per word, the
percentage of black squares in the diagram, the overal size and the
symmetry of the diagram.  There is also a list of anagram-generating
software.  It appears that some of the crossword prgrams have clues
databases as well, but I would guess that most authors generate their
own clues, especially for cryptic crosswords (otherwise the readers
would eventually get to know most of the clues used in their newspaper
crosswords!).

An article about New York Times daily crossword compiler Bob Klahn is
available at http://www.magpage.com/~bobklahn/DelToday/index.html 
Klahn has constructed his own crossword software, however he maintains
that constructing a crossword is always a matter of trail and error. 
Some puzzles are finished in one hour, but one took as long as 100
hours.  In some cases, Klahn will start to work on a puzzle and then
put it away and not return to it until several months later.

I found these resouces by searching on Google with the terms:   "New
York Times crossword" author (search results at
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&q=%22New+York+Times+crossword%22+author
)

Hope this answers your question

It's too bad there isn't more information about the puzzle-writing
process.  The software is interesting, though.

I found a list of crossword puzzle authors at this site.
http://nytxword.home.mindspring.com/onl-shtz2a.htm
As a former school librarian I sometimes gave my classes computer
generated crossword puzzles. I would input the words and the clues,
usually dictionary
definitions, and the computer software would generate the puzzle
boxes, the
list of words with numbers, and a list of numbered clues. It has been
a couple of years since I've used it, so I don't remember the name of
the software. But
it was kidstuff. I'm sure the Times uses more sophisticated software.
Great way to build vocabulary.

Hi lexi-ga:

Just as an additional note, I currently use "Crossword Compiler" to
create crossword puzzles. The product is wonderful and contain word
lists, anagram finfers and many other tools.

It can be found at http://www.x-word.com/

websearcher-ga

Here's an example of crossword puzzle software. I suspect there are dozens of
brands by now:
http://www.bryson.demon.co.uk/sympathy.html

Just a little trivia, the term for one who solves or creates
crosswords is "cruciverbalist."

quoted: "Subject: Re: New York Times Crossword 
From: wayga-ga on 27 May 2002 18:50 PDT     
Just a little trivia, the term for one who solves or creates
crosswords is "cruciverbalist."" 

That sounds dangerous to me!  Thanks for the trivia tidbit.  ;)
tlspiegel-ga  (Who enjoys doing crossword and jigsaw puzzles!)

Matt Gaffney, who constructs Slate's crossword puzzle, published a
five-day diary detailing his routine a few months back.  The first
entry is at http://slate.msn.com/?id=2060931&entry=2060944; each of
the other entries is also accessible from this page.

Best regards,
Sean Smith

Apologies - the correct link for my comment above is
http://slate.msn.com/?id=2060931&entry=2060944 (omit the semicolon at
the end).

Sean

The exact answer to the question "How do I start learning the ins and
outs of crossword construction?"

is here: http://www.cruciverb.com/index.cfm?op=ShowDoc&doc_id=49

Here are my answers to your questions.

>How do they make the crossword puzzle that appears in the New York
>Times?  Is there a computer program or just a guy who makes them up?
>If it's just a guy, does he do it every day by himself or is there a
>team of people who take turns writing them?

Various people submit their crosswords to the New York Times. Those
puzzles are then edited by the New York Times crossword puzzle editor,
Will Shortz. The people who do the constructing use any number of
techniques, from one extreme of doing it all by hand to the other
extreme of letting a computer do all the work. When the puzzle is
released, it identifies the author in the byline.

Further to mirepoix-ga's answer, you might be interested in reading
the following interview with Will Shortz in which, about 20% of the
way through, he talks about his experiences as crossword editor for
the New York Times. It identifies how proactive an editor he is, which
is the only aspect of the process that has not yet been discussed.

http://www.msoworld.com/chat/shortzpost.html

(Disclaimer: at the time of the interview, I was paid to work on that
web site.)