Merl reagle biography of george

If you happen to own a bottle of Fetzer Eagle Peak Merlot, open it today and drink to America’s greatest crossword writer, who died unexpectedly on Saturday at the age of 65.

Not because it’s such a great vintage, but because it conceals both the first and last names of that writer: Merl Reagle.

Embedding his own name was one of Reagle’s favorite kinds of wordplay, and when he used “Fetzer Eagle Peak Merlot” as an answer once in a puzzle, fans of his who worked at the winery sent him a case of “his” wine on the house.

Things like this happened a lot to the gregarious Reagle, who charmed editors at 50-plus papers around the country into carrying his weekly crossword, including those at the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, andthe San Francisco Chronicle.

Reagle was America’s first celebrity crossword writer: He made appearances on Oprah and The Simpsons, was featured in the hit 2006 documenta