111 Across: Will You Marry Me?

Sept. 25, 2007 — -- Millions of us enjoy racking our brains over crossword puzzles, but a Boston man saw romance among all those clues.

Aric Egmont asked the puzzle masters who create the Boston Globe crossword to help him propose to his girlfriend Jennie Bass.

Now the crossword-loving couple are a seven-letter word for "getting married."

Since their fourth date, doing the Sunday puzzle in the Boston Globe (in pen) has been the couple's favorite thing to do together.

"One of us holds it, one of us reads over their shoulder, it is what we do," Egmont said.

Egmont thought, why not pop the question in a crossword puzzle? So he asked the editors at the Globe.

Doug Most, the editor of the Boston Globe magazine, found the idea "romantic."

"I thought it was sweet. I thought it was original," Most said.

The Globe played along, and called last Sunday's puzzle "Popping the Question."

Thirty-five across was 16 letters for a poker player's proposal. The answer: May I have your hand?

"I had no suspicions along the way, because it was a crossword puzzle, and we always did the crossword," Bass said.

One possible problem: If Bass never got the answers, would she know she was being proposed to?

Egmont took no chances. The clue to 111 across was "generic proposal," and 116 across was "Winston's mother."

The answers were "Will you Marry Me" and "Jennie."

"I think my heart stopped," Bass said when she saw the proposal. "I was like floored, and then he got up and went and got a ring and he said, 'Jennie, will you marry me?' … and I was the happiest that I have ever been."

As you can guess, Bass's answer was a three-letter word for "Oh my God, absolutely!"