A strange little side quest
The fun part of looking behind Spartan Fruits is seeing how many older ideas are still alive in modern play. Arthur Wynne published a diamond-shaped 'Word-Cross' in the New York World on December 21, 1913; the name later shifted to 'Cross-Word' and then 'crossword'. The broader history adds one more wrinkle. Archery first appeared at the Olympic Games in 1900 and returned permanently to the programme in 1972 after a long absence. That gives Spartan Fruits a little more company than it first appears to have.
