Matt Gaffney is a professional crossword puzzle constructor and author[1] who lives in Staunton, Virginia.

[9] He has served as judge[10] for Will Shortz's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and won the Junior division as a contestant in 1997.

Twenty five entries in the grid are defined using their Merriam-Webster dictionary definition, and these each begin with a different letter of the alphabet.

[18] It is posted every Friday afternoon and solvers generally have until the next Tuesday at noon to submit the correct answer.

Once the weekly deadline passes, Joon Pahk provides a writeup and summary on the Diary of a Crossword Fiend blog where MGWCC #169 entitled "Moving Day" won the 2011 Puzzle of the Year Award[19] and Gaffney won the 2012 Constructor of the Year Award.

Parker said he had not deliberately copied any puzzles, but Gaffney's Slate article "How to Spot a Plagiarized Crossword" presents evidence to the contrary.