Fred Piscop

Fred Piscop is a 1970 graduate of Cornell University.

Fred became interested in puzzles at a very young age, thanks to his dear friend and mentor, the late George Bredehorn. George was Fred's teacher in an accelerated program from 1958 to 1960 and introduced Fred to all sorts of word games, mathematical puzzles and the like.

George was the inventor of the popular Split Decisions© word game, which can be found a few times a year in The New York Times as well as in every issue of Games World of Puzzles. Fred's book "The Healthy Brain Book of Word Puzzles" contains 32 Split Decisions© puzzles as well as an additional assortment of puzzles invented by George.

In 1995, Fred was working as a PC tech support specialist when he got laid off. He decided "to hell with the 9-to-5, I'm not going back." From that day forward, Fred has been a full-time puzzlemaker and editor.

Fred is the former editor of the Washington Post Sunday crossword and the former editor of the USA Today crossword. He creates the monthly bonus online puzzle for the New York Times and submits crosswords to various other outlets such as Newsday, Simon & Schuster, and Crosswords With Friends.

Fred operates a Split Decisions© website, www.split-decisions.us.

Fred is a keyboard player and can be found playing at a few jam sessions every week on his native Long Island.

Fred is a volunteer at Last Hope Animal Rescue, where he met and adopted his beagle Mad Max. Fred enjoys taking Max on long walks, to the dog park, and occasionally to a dog-friendly microbrewery,