ASH Clinical News January 2017 Annual Meeting Edition | Page 5

104 ASH Clinical News December 2016
Editor ’ s Corner
ASH Directions
Written in Blood
Literature Scan
7 UP FRONT 11 CLINICAL NEWS volume 03 | number 01 january 2017

Letters to the Editor

The Family That Puzzles Together …

In December ’ s issue , Associate Editor David Steensma , MD , shared his lifelong love of word games , and how he went from fighting over the newspaper puzzle page to crafting crossword puzzles each year for ASH News Daily . Apparently , annual meeting attendees
aren ’ t the only fans of these puzzles . Aaron Gerds , MD , MS , editor-in-chief of ASH News Daily for 2016 , shares a letter from his mother-in-law who , despite not being in the medical profession , looks forward to taking a stab at each year ’ s crossword puzzle . to the editor :
I was introduced to the daily newspaper for the ASH annual meeting when my son-in-law brought back several issues last year . Having lost a sister-in-law to multiple myeloma , I was interested in looking at related articles in the paper . Much of the content went over my nonmedical head , so I was happy to see something I did recognize – the daily crossword puzzle ! I share Dr . Steensma ’ s love of word puzzles and was able to complete a lot of them . I even got some of the hematology answers – either via other clues or by asking my son-in-law .
I look forward to the 2016 puzzle from the latest annual meeting .
Eva Colligan
PASHions
PASHions will highlight what ASH Clinical News In this edition , David Steensma , MD , shares his readers do creatively outside of practice . If you have lifelong love of word games and how he went from a creative skill in the arts you ’ d like to share with fighting over the newspaper puzzle page to crafting ACN , we invite you to submit your work . Whether crosswords for ASH annual meeting attendees . Dr . it ’ s photography , essays , poetry , or paintings , we Steensma is senior physician at the Dana-Farber want to provide an outlet for creative pursuits . Cancer Institute and associate professor of medicine Please send your submission to ashclinicalnews @ at Harvard Medical School in Boston , and an hematology . org . associate editor of ASH Clinical News .
A WA Y W I T H O R D
S With David Steensma , MD
When did your interest in crossword puzzles of a consumer than a creator . still possible start ? Did you enjoy puzzles growing up ?
I first created a hematology-themed crossword to create a My mother has long been an avid “ cruciverbalist ” – a puzzle for ASH News Daily at the 2008 ASH annual puzzle using crossword puzzle aficionado . In 1977 , when I was meeting . During the planning session prior to the those terms ; if not , in elementary school , Mom subscribed to a new annual meeting , Ruben Mesa , MD , the newspaper ’ s I pick new seed terms . magazine called Games , which included a workable editor-in-chief that year , asked for creative
Then comes the more newsprint puzzle section called , “ Pencilwise .” As my suggestions , and I brought up the idea of making a tedious work of filling in all own puzzling interest and ability grew , we began crossword puzzle – just like a “ real newspaper .” The the blanks and making sure squabbling over who would get first crack at the ASH staff coordinating the newspaper that year was not to paint myself into a corner magazine whenever a new issue was delivered each enthusiastic ( my proposal for an ASH-related comics where no conceivable word fits . month . For a time , we even had two subscriptions , page was met with less enthusiasm ). It was fun to The success of a puzzle depends so we could each do all of the puzzles . In recent see attendees at the annual meeting working on the greatly on the clues : If they are too years , Mom ’ s proudest non – grandchild-related puzzle while waiting for an educational or scientific simple , the puzzle is boring , and if they moment was winning a copy of a puzzle book signed presentation to start . are too difficult or obscure , players get by The New York Times puzzlemaster Will Shortz The following year , I was the editor-in-chief for frustrated and lose interest . Most clues I for finishing a crossword before any of the other ASH News Daily , and I included another puzzle . create are “ straight ,” but metaphors and other attendees at a seminar he led .
Since then , I ’ ve been asked by the ASH staff to create wordplay that requires some form of lateral a new puzzle each December for the newspaper . thinking is especially fun .
So , puzzle-solving is in your blood ? The first few ASH News Daily puzzles I made
My father was a radio engineer for a defense weren ’ t so good – I am no Will Shortz ! But enough What do you enjoy most about solving contractor , and , for most of his career , he designed colleagues told me they enjoyed them that I was crosswords ? encrypted communication devices for the military encouraged to keep creating them . Hopefully , What I enjoy most about solving crosswords and that would allow U . S . and NATO forces to talk the puzzles have improved a little over the years . other word puzzles is learning new facts and new without the Soviets or other enemies listening Since 2008 , the puzzle style has evolved , and I words , and those A-ha ! moments that come with in . So , I grew up with a strong interest in codes , have switched from the British / South Africanstyle to American-style grids , which are denser major newspapers or in Games are also secretly
deciphering a well-crafted clue . Some puzzles in languages , and puzzles . My favorite non-baseball extracurricular activity was fiddling with computers , and have tighter rotational symmetry – and are themed , and I am sure there is a heady neural and I taught myself to program in languages like correspondingly more difficult to construct . dopamine rush that occurs when discerning what
Pascal , Fortran , and C ++, which were all popular the linking pattern is . The wordplay aspect can be programming tools in the early 1980s .
Can you walk us through the process of fantastically clever ( or evil ). Completing a crossword creating one – where do you start ? is similar to the thrill of solving a detective mystery ; When did you start creating them , and when I use the “ Crossword Compiler ” computer program , it is not surprising that Colin Dexter ’ s Inspector did you start incorporating hematology into which is a major advance from the dark days of Morse was a crossword fanatic . creating them ? creating puzzles by hand using graph paper . For
I am a big fan of the quiz website Sporcle . As a student , I wrote a few basic word puzzles that the ASH News Daily puzzle , I usually pick a few com , and , when I was a post-doc in a molecular were published in school newspapers , but when it hematology-related terms to seed the grid at the hematology lab at Oxford University , I was a regular comes to crosswords , I have always been much more start , and then the computer calculates whether it is at weekly pub quizzes . One of my other avocations
December 2016 PASHions
Have a comment about an article ? Let us know what you think ; we welcome your feedback . Email the editor at ACNEditor @ hematology . org .
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CONTENTS
Alice Ma ’ s Hematology Wishlist
Announcing the 2017 Scholar Award Recipients
Cytomegalovirus Infection and the Risk of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia
Can Overly Restrictive Exclusion Criteria Block Patients from Effective Therapy ?
DEPARTMENTS
PREDATORY JOURNALS on the PROWL
In a publish-or-perish
ASH Clinical News 3