Western student celebrates 10th published NYT crossword puzzle [Video]

When Jeffrey Martinovic isn’t studying or playing intramural sports at Western University, you can find him crafting some of the world’s best crossword puzzles.

While the fourth-year engineering student has published hundreds of puzzles, the crown jewel is to get a crossword in the New York Times, something Martinovic has done 10 times as of Wednesday.

His first accepted puzzle came after 23 failed submissions, a moment that came after much feedback from the Times editor, which helped him refine his craft.

“It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before,” said 21-year-old Martinovic. “It came, actually, after an unusually long day of classes. I came home to see the 24th e-mail I’d ever received from them. The first that was an acceptance.”

Nine more acceptance letters later, Martinovic seems to have refined his crossword creation process, though he admits every puzzle is different from the last.

“It’s much more an …