ping wordsearch builders / puzzlers

[QuikSand]

So, we have had a couple interesting "puzzles" here recently, involving creating a word search as densely as possible with certain words in it. Has been fun, mostly of a pretty short term variety, in my view.

I just read my newest Games magazine, and their monthly grand price puzzle is the same sort of thing. The puzzle is, quite simply: Create a word search that includes all 50 state names, using the smallest possible grid.

As I recall, they didn't include any restrictions on how to set it up, so it's open season. Their contests generally runa month or two, and offer a grand price of $500 (I think that is correct for this one, I neglected to bring the mag with me today).


Anyway... if anyone is interested in taking a hack at this, I'd be game. Might prove worthwhile. My generl frustration with word-based games is that they always tend toward absurdly obscure words, ones that must have been conjured up by use or some program/script and a giant word list. Here, it's certainly possible that a programmer will do a better job than a bunch of unarmed hacks... but it might be fun to try anyway.

I'll post more details once I get another look at the pussle itself.

[QuikSand]

Oh, it's also at least conceivable that the best answer is something like a 1 x 778 shaped grid, just compressing as much as possible using overlapping letter combinations. I am pretty sure that they had no rules governing the size or shape.