The final crossword of the Vancouver Daily Herald (1954) and how the Vancouver Public Library ruined my gag

In my piece the other day suggesting that some wiseacres Kickstart $22 million for a daily newspaper, I had intended to include the suggestion that this prospective paper take the name of the old Vancouver Daily Herald, which folded on 29 September 1954.

Why? So the new incarnation could finally print the answers to the crossword it’s namesake surely ran over sixty years ago. (I wish this was my idea, alas, but this gag was done by the reborn New York Sun, which, in 2002, printed the answers to the crossword from 1950.) But a joke’s a joke.

To this end, I asked the Vancouver Public Library to send me a PDF of the final crossword, which champs that they are, they did. It was also a competition with real money: every week that readers did not send in a perfect answer, the pot went up. It was last offered with a $600 pot.

Alas, the fiendishly efficient VPL staff also sent me a PDF of the answers, which was published in the final edition. ruining a good gag. Nobody won the final pot. It’s still up for grabs.

Below are the pictures of the crossword on the page, the final crossword, and the answer page. Click on them to make them larger.