i think the broncos will win it today. >> that's it for us today. the 22nd winter olympic games kick off this thursday on nbc. we'll have coverage on the ground there. that's it for us today. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." breaking news, actor filip seymour hoffman has been found dead in his manhattan apartment. we are live with the latest details. hello, everybody. i'm betty nguyen. also today, where is the truth? >> if he's lying, it is a really bad situation. if he is not lying, something unfair is being done to him. let's see what happens. >> nothing has been proven and you always give a person the benefit of the doubt. >> the governor made a statement about when he knew and i said that i have my doubts about that time line. >> should the governor step down from his republican gor nor's association chairmanship? >> i don't think so. i think he should stay there tie governor's office fires back

against new allegations with a fresh round of finger pointing. how what happened in high school is now part of the lane closure scandal. also, game on. the gates are now open at metlife stadium in new jersey. kickoff is hours away. thousands of fans begin to arrive but not everyone is prepping for the big game. and forget football. why nonsports fans should love game day. "the new york times" cross word puzzle editor joins us live. speaking of the super bowl -- >> like most actors my real job is saving the world. >> the inside story on how this one ad sparked controversy at the heart of the middle east conflict. and this. >> i'm able to walk properly. don't go to school and at high risk of poverty. >> miracle feet. it is cheaper, more childish and

it is today's big idea. but we want to begin with the breaking news. oscar winning actor filip seymour hoffman is found dead. he was known for the rules in "charlie wilson's war" and won a an academy award for his title role in "capoti." i have details now from jonathan. who what are the law enforcement officials telling you about this? >> new york city police department are on scene. he was found in the bathroom in underwear and shirt and a syringe stuck in the arm. nearby, we're told that there were four empty bags of what appears to be heroin. there were names an labels on it like ace of spades and ace of hearts. those are some of the names on the brand, the packaging thus leading them to suspect it's a heroin overdose. but of course, nothing will be official until the investigation

is complete. and the medical examiner's office can conduct its work and complete its job and take at least 24 hours. this is being treated as a crime scene at this time. again, the nypd has the lead. drug enforcement agents are on stand by to assist if there's a need to try to track down the source of the heroin. his body found around 11:15 this morning. a screenwriter friend with access to the apartment entered, found the actor dead in the bathroom and called 911. and that's what started the series of events leading up to now. we are told the body is still in the apartment now as the investigation is continuing. >> it is so tragic. a lot of people still very shocked over this and as we saw on some of the video, people starting to lay flowers outside that apartment. jonathan, thank you for that report. we'll continue to follow the breaking story and then go to los angeles live for more on fillip seymour hoffman dead at

the age of 46. now politics and new jersey where governor chris christie is fighting back against allegations he knew about lane closures on the george washington bridge last fall while they were happening. a memo of christie's office to the governor's friends and supporters hits back at david wildsteen, the former official whose lawyer claimed evidence that exists and "the new york times" who first reported the story on friday. the subject, five things you should know about the bombshell that's not a bombshell calling "the times" reporting sloppy and he asserts the claim he had no knowledge of the closureser and learned about them after the fact and raises questions about his past days including high school and trying to protect himself legally all along. joining me now to break it down is nbc's kelly o'donnell. we are going back to high school. i think a lot of people looking

at this scratching their head. why does the governor take this tactic? >> they have a mem me to try to undercut what people think of david wildstein and back to high school to plant the seed that somehow he was not believable back then to influence how people would judge what he would say or do now. this has far of the whiff of a campaign opposition research memo than an official document of the office of governor. it was passed to friends and supporters to get people to talk about it and to even put in these claims about high school, it certainly gets the buzz and what they were trying to do is to undercut the claims of this official who was an appointee of their administration so they hired him after all of these things in his past and now are looking at those examples, things like he previously been a blogger under an assumed name, using old newspaper clips that raised questions about some of his leadership in various jobs, the kind of point by point attack, vicious attack in a way,

to try to undercut because they believe that wildstein is at the center of the scandal and if people were to believe his assertion that is hurt it is governor and sort of an atmosphere where this is happening. when it first broke on friday, there was kind of an almost rush to accept that there must be a document, a smoking gun that had come out when the letter written by the lawyer said evidence exists, didn't describe or produce the evidence and the first wave of how this story was covered and how people might have been talking about it really put the christie people back on their heels and the initial response was a typical sort of renile and then now this vicious attack to wildstein. >> the subpoenas are due back tomorrow. do we hear back from brigitte kelly? >> it was an important date and also being told by lawmakers who are going to be receiving that material that some of the lawyers involved asked for more

time and given more time for e-mails and documents and that can take some time to do. they'll go through what's provided to them and tomorrow is an important date and watching for a few weeks. >> all right. on top of it, nbc's kelly o'donnell, thank you so much. dana mill bank is columnist, perry bacon political editor and republican strategist and contributor susan delpresio. thank you for being with us. dana, there were defenders and detractors of mr. christie weighing in on the scandal today. former mayor giuliani said politics are most definitely at play here. take a listen. >> i think there's a real incident that was unfortunate and bad and the governor apologized for that. i don't want to minimize for that but you take that and now you have pile-on.

>> so is he right, dana? have the political sharks tasted blood in the water here? >> sure. there's a plitd call pile-on. inevitably there will be. the problem of the governor is there is a legal investigation and an investigation in the state legislature and that's what's the source of these back and forth with wildstein and the potential vulnerability that christie faces and if it's just a lot of people politically motivated people hollering, that wouldn't get the traction here but there seems to be some fire where the smoke is. >> okay. perry, let's let you weigh in. new jersey assemblyman wisniewski said he's skeptical of the governor's explanation. take a listen to this. >> what i've said is i have skepticism about the governor's statement. i haven't said that the governor has responsibility for this. i haven't said that the governor knew when this was happening.

that's something wildstein said. i said the governor made a statement about when he knew and i said that i have my doubts about that timeline. >> okay. so after the assemblyman met with the u.s. attorney's office yesterday and promised not to impede the federal investigation, are new jersey democrats at risk of saying maybe too much before all the facts are out? >> they probably should rein in a little bit and turn it away from politics and turn this toward what happened legally. the challenge for christie still is we don't know exactly whether the story he's told that he only learned about the late lane closures from the media is the core of the issue. was he telling the truth in the long press conference? was he involved in the lane closures? we don't know enough about that. new jersey democrats are probably playing it up more than they should. they should investigate and see what happens at the end of the day. >> the new york star ledger said on friday chris christie should

resign if bombshell proves true. the key words are if it proves true. how's all this rhetoric likely to impact governor christie's national standing with republicans? >> it's a big if like you said. if it affects him nationally is an rja. seeing on the never two, four, six weeks that people are having -- candidates or governors having a problem being seen with the governor and hurting him, that may cause him bigger problems with the rga and can really hurt pim. the other thing i just want to touch on is what kelly o'donnell talked about is that memo looking like a campaign style memo and they're disconnected and see how much it hurts him not having the top allies near him because the memo was a mistake. you don't throw back to high school as a top operative. >> we're going back to high school, really? >> exactly. >> perry, regardless of who carries a republican mantle in 2016, the democrats seemed to

rally around hillary clinton. and in fact, senator rand paul last week raised president bill clinton's sex scandal as an issue for hillary clinton's possible candidacy. "the new york times" columnist maureen dowd wrote today senator paul took dead aim at the former president saying the legacy is brute if ied by monica. what kind of traction is he trying to get by raising the issue of monica lewinski? >> the republicans really find the war on women narrative to be something they really like and they object to. and ran paul's framing it in terms of what bill clinton did, how can they be the party of woman if bill clinton did this? i find it to be a dubious strategy and ways to attack -- not as if hillary clinton had the affair and ways to attack the clintons of substance and policy. i find it to be a strategy of probably not to work and not gain him a lot of voters but where it comes from is paul

trying to rebut the war on women charge from democrats. >> i have to bring you in, suzanne. is this going to resonate with women at all or make them mad? >> i don't think it had anything to do with a long-term strategy or handling the war against women. rand paul said i'm not afraid to take on the clintons. it was bringing it to potential donors, republicans saying, i'm not ready to concede. i will take it to them. this will probably disappear very -- as fast as it came on and disappear but a strong message to potential supporters. >> dana, we appreciate your time. susan, thank you. and perry, of course, thanks to all of you today. >> thank you. okay. so are you ready? we are just about three hours away from kickoff of super bowl xlviii. the lucky 80,000 ticket holders have already started to file in to metlife staid quum for the big game. a football tradition will be noticeably absent.

that's smoke from all those tailgating grills. ron motte is live in new jersey. ron, how are people dealing with the security restrictions? >> reporter: i think first of all happy sunday to you. happy supersunday to you, betty. one thing that's missing from the parking lot is smoke from the grills and the tailgating experience and people associate with the nfl. the nfl does not want all that hot, burning coal sitting on the parking lot after the game and basically a lot of folks tailgating elsewhere and then jumping on the buses over in new york city and then other places and coming the stadium that way. we expect from 30,000 to 40,000 of the fans, almost half the crowd to get here that way and vip folks coming by car. heavy security presence here. you have 700 or so state troopers working this game. 4,000 other personnel backing them up and then folks working the game. that's one official for every

five or so fans and they're keeping close watch and then be told about the blind spots putting armed guards, as well. it is heavily fortified and people are ready to celebrate inside about 6:30. >> i have never seen a parking lot before a game especially the superdead like this. when's the mood of those trickling in? are they excited? nervous? >> they're coming off the buses and they're screaming for their teams, hawks or broncos. and as i said, the tailgating experience we normally see in parking lots is going on elsewhere and missing that part of the game and smell the wonderful smokes maets going on right now. that's not the case. it is sort of empty and a dead feeling and a few people throwing footballs around. the experience is going on now inside the stadium and probably clever planning to get people to spend some of the money earlier rather than in a parking lot enjoying themselves if you will.

>> too bad you can't enjoy that tailgating there. that would have been fun for you. we have to miss out this year, ron. thank you for being with us. live at the site of the super bowl. >> reporter: thanks. >> sure. up next, are the apprenti apprenticeships the future of ow economy? >> you can have a great living and great career without getting a four-year college education as long as you get the skills and training you need. >> the president pushes a new model for training workers. could the plan make america more competitive? the inventers of the miracle foot brace join us live next. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise?

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this week president obama unveiled a new effort for economic opportunity aimed at the struggling middle class. the method, apprenticeships.

the president talked about the new plan in the state of the union address on tuesday. take a listen. >> i've asked vice president biden to lead on across the board reform of america's training programs to make sure they have one mission, train americans with the skills employers need and match them to good jobs that need to be filled right now. that means more on the job training and more apprentices p apprenticeships to set a worker on an upward trajectory for life. >> all right. now rob lerman is a fellow at the urban institute and written extensively on the benefits of apprenticeship. thanks for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> you wrote recently nearly after of 25 to 49-year-old men are high school graduates without a college degree and long-term trends to the current economic weakness and this can be really, really bad. how bad could it get for these young men? >> well, it's getting bad.

probably not much worse than it is today, but the problem is they're not really generating the kind of skills that link them to good careers. and one of the problems is they don't do nearly as well in formal academic settings. >> so are apprenticeship it is way to go? is that what's going to get them the skills you talk about? how can we understand how this effort that the president is pushing is actually going to solve the problem? >> well, it's going to take a while to solve the problem. we're way behind in apprenticeships. nearly every other advanced industrial country has much higher shares of apprenticeships than we do. for example, canada has about ten times the rate. australia, more than ten times the rate. england is growing dramatically in apprenticeship and they don't just cover construction and manufacturing jobs.

they cover information technology positions. hotel positions. finance. all kinds of fields. veterinary specialists. all kinds of fields that lead to good careers but they do in it a different way than college. they do it through work-based learning with some courses that are relevant rather than sitting in classes all day and when you're done trying to find a job. >> yeah. so there are a lot of benefits to it. what can the administration do here? can washington force businesses to adopt more apprenticeships? >> not force them but if we try to encourage them we'll do well. in south carolina, just four or five people have managed to make their program grow by about ten times. they had about 700 apprentices and now they have about 6,000. >> what's the key to that? how did they do that?

>> they went out to firms, they explained why apprenticeship can work for them and how it helps solve their human resource problem and how they can upskill their jobs. not just their workers so that they make a lot of jobs that might seem not so advanced and difficult much more advanced and capable. so that's what we ought to be doing. >> okay. robert lerman -- >> it takes a while to do it. we haven't really tried. >> it's throughout and you spoke to that point that it's out there. people need to know it's available and it can help with the job situation. robert from the urban institute, thank you for your information today. >> thank you. let's get back to the super bowl now. if your team loses tonight, you may want to watch what you eat tomorrow. yes, you heard me correctly. a new study finds that when people's favorite nfl team loses, hay actually end up gaining weight proving that we are more tied to our eating

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arm and four empty bags believed to be heroin nearby. hoffman's family released this statement saying we have devastated by the loss of our beloved phil. this is a tragic and sudden loss and we ask that you respect our privacy during this time of grieving. please keep phil in your thoughts and prayers. joining me is kim seraphim. people just hearing this news trying to from sesz it all. the medical examiner's office will have to determine the cause of death. what do we know right now about the struggles with drugs? >> yeah, exactly. you reported on what the police are now saying. sources saying. we know that he had struggled in the past with some drug issues, with some substance abuse issues. he had checked him into treatment back in may for heroin treatment and apparently clean for 23 years but then he said that he had fell off the wagon, started with prescription drugs and developed into heroin and got treatment right away and

someone who was very open about it and wanted to put that out there, let people know about it after being clean for 23 years. >> sometimes people want it to be quiet and private and then he was trying to fix the situation. what has the response been like from the hollywood community? what kind of legacy does he leave behind? >> just even looking at the tweet there is an are sent, it ranges from whoopi goldberg to justin timberlake and so many people worked with hoffman. the kind of movies he's been in, everything from the indy films like "the masser" and "moneyball" and won for "capote" and young people know him from "the hunger games." that was -- he's obviously plays a big role if you know the books. that character plays a huge roll in "mocking jay" which is filming and part of "catching

fire" film and ranges the parts he's had and movies he's been in. tv shows. working on a showtime series show and he has to kind of keep his place in the world. so, it's just really incredible thinking about the kind of movies, tv shows, broadway he's been involved in and people he's worked with. >> very tragic, too. this was also a man with a family. three young kids i understand. what do you know about his family? >> yeah. i mean, we don't really know much. he does have these three young kids and which makes it more tragic that he's got a family. he is a guy who as you're reporting found in new york in the apartment and so many people saying i even just got e-mails from people saying we saw him walking around the west village. he was accessible, walking around new york. a guy that didn't live in a hollywood world. >> yeah. he didn't let fame get to him.

>> yeah, exactly. really seen around the streets of new york. he wasn't that kind of hollywood guy out of touch with real people and i think that showed in the acting work he did. he was a true actor and actor's actor in so many ways and directing and writing and working on so many projects varying from stage to screen to the small screen to tv. >> it is very tragic. >> thank you very much. here's a quick look at some of the other stories making news now. two contractors and a firefighter are dead after two cell phone towers collapsed yesterday in west virginia. they were tethered to a 300-foot tower when it collapsed just before noon. they were trying to reinforce the tower support and it collapsed o. officials are investigating. california's drought already taking a toll on the state's crops. could soon cause unemployment to soar. state officials say a less than

normal snow pack this winter could lead to a water shortage for the state's farmers cutting production and jobs. ladies and gentlemen, punxsutawney phil! >> oh, and then there's this. punxsutawney phil saw his shadow this morning and you know what that means. we will get six more weeks of winter. say it ain't so. but unfortunately, it is. i think. if this is true. if it had been a cloudy morning, it could have been an early and welcomed spring. we'll see how it plays out. okay. now the super bowl. just hours away and those ads that sometimes get just as much attention as the game and it might seem inokayo enough, produce it and then scarlet johansson has sparked controversy that reaches beyond endorsements going to the center of the middle east conflict.

sodastream's factory is in an israeli settlement. let's bring in a rabbi and also author and tv host and journalist and contributor rula jabril. thank you for being us. when people saw this, they thought, oh my goodness, i can't believe it's gotten to this. this is how it's played out. scarlet johansson resigned as spokesperson for ox fam and they said, quote, this. they believe that businesses such as sodastream operating in subtlements further the ongoing poverty and rights of the palestinian communities we work to support. rabbi, did johansson make the right decision here siding with sodastream? >> she's heroic which isn't about protecting palestinians but bullying israel. the real problem with the palestinians in the west bank is

corruption of the palestinian authority. you have the chief financial adviser saying that abbas stolen millions of his two sons and controlling the monopoly of trade of all the cigarettes in the west bank, rampant corruption and hamas with honor killings of women. yasser arafat died a billiona e billionaire. to build up their society and gaza and west bank and all the money stolen so bombs and bullets are bought to kill israelis. israel is in negotiations. why would we single out sodastream? they receive twice the salary of palestinians working for palestinian companies. they have a place of worship. they were brought to meet the israeli president on equal terms and model company and amazed they're singled out.

>> we asked the ceo of so sodastream for a statement and come on the show. he sent us an e-mail. this is in the response right there. it says sodastream's plant the a dream for both politicians and activists on both sides of this conflict. it's a model for peace. the rabbi shaking his head in agreement. where palestinians and israelis work side by side each enjoying equal pay, benefits and opportunity and it is unfortunate that oxfam wants the company to shut down the factory, fire 1,300 people and send them into unemployment and poverty. this will not happen under my watch. so does sodastream's response in your eyes make sense? >> of course not. i mean, let's be realistic here. i understand that they live in a dream world and i understand that -- but if you listen to the imf, to the real financial organizations, united nations, imf, world bank, even their

community telling you that the reason number one for poverty in the occupied territory and the reason number one for the high unemployment is actually the israeli occupation. i understand that most people they don't see the occupation 2.5 million people occupied by military. sodastream benefit and thrive using and abusing the occupation so you have, you know, very cheap plant. you have a very cheap labor. think they that. >>'re equally paid. give them equal rights and that means the right to vote and the rights for self determination. you cannot go and say, okay, i'm going to south africa during apartheid and doing a business with white south africa. utilizing black south africa and think this is good for the black people. give them their basic rights and i'm actually -- >> what happens to those jobs? i mean, what happens to the people that took over those jobs? >> this is what it's called. captive economy.

not according to me but the european community that decided. to boycott any products from the settlements. i think the palestinian community willing to cooperate with factories that will be working there and everybody's encouraging the factory but if these people don't have the right to, you know, to not only to vote, even to sell their products or trade between cities, how we can call it equal opportunities and rights it is about, you know, the right of these people to have self determination and the freedom for them to build their own opportunity. not somebody else community. you can't take their own water, resources and sell it to them saying this is good for you. >> rabbi? >> it's a pleasure to be appear beside her because i appreciate the spokesperson but the west bank was a territory conquered by israel in a war of annihilation. israel tried to give it back almost as soon as they gave it.

the arabs responded in 1967 with no peace, no negotiation and no recognition. in 2000 at camp david trying to do a deal to give it back. yasser arafat was blamed. that's the major problem. >> we are not talking about settlements. >> that's not the conflict in the middle east. it's a refusal of the palestinians to accept the jewish state. abbas in negotiations with john kerry not willing to say that israel is a jewish state. it deserves to exist. the only reason there are check points in the middle east, i went the palestinian places, no check points because they didn't kill 1,000 israelis. you will have the check points. >> israel deserve to thrive, succeed and standing together with millions of israelis like barack, ex-prime minister who i will be touring with colleges

here to promote the two-state solutions and the settlement is a main obstacle to peace. this is said by the state department here in the united states and the world. we cannot defend the settlements enterprise and accept happiness for the israelis based on injustice for the palestinian. it is unacceptable. >> definitely got people talking as you both have pretty much said a lot of what people are saying on both sides of the issue. thank you. >> nice to meet you. >> thank you. >> we appreciate it. >> we have much more coming. competition? not concussions. "the new york times" puzzle editor joins us live with games to exercise your mind. that's coming up. really? 25 grams of protein. what do we have? all four of us, together? 24. he's low fat too, and has five grams of sugars. i'll believe it when i -- [ both ] oooooh... what's shakin'? oops. [ female announcer ] as you get older, protein is an important part of staying active and strong. ensure high protein... 50% of your daily value of protein. low fat and five grams of sugars.

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and that's heart healthy. ♪ [ dad ] jan? how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪ welcome back, everybody. did you know that one out of every 750 kids worldwide is born with a club foot? birth effedefect that's treated wearing an orthopedic brace costing hundreds of dollars but

a new design may treat it and very affordable. it's today's big idea. the miracle feet brace just under $20. colorful, detachable and they can wear their own shoes. students at stanford university, thanks for being with us, guys. >> thank you for having us, betty. >> what led to both of you developing this brace? >> yeah, so the idea for the brace initially came out of a class at stanford's d-school and through that course we were partnered with a nonprofit called miracle feet whose mission is to tackle the very charge problem of untreated club foot in developing countries and through the class and research we quickly discovered that the main contributing factor is due to the bracing phase of treatment. we found that the currently existing braces are either

prohibitively expensive or very difficult to use resulting in low compliance. >> it's one thing to talk about or see it. show us how it works. >> right. so i guess first of all i want to say the brace is an integral part of the now fully accepted nonsurgical treatment of club foot and if you've seen other braces before, you can recognize that this is made entirely out of plastic which means it can be injection molded to meet mass production needs at relatively low cost. it's colorful, meant to be playful wias a toy to increase compliance. it's meant to be easily functional for parents to use. so the shoes are detachable. easy access on and off after lacing the child up and see that the bottom is flat and meant to

be flush with the ground so they can stand and walk with stability that is unique. >> really important. very quickly, we are almost out of time. you brought this down from what? $300 to 20 bucks. how did you do that? when it's going to be access snbl. >> over the course of the design affordability course we were able to figure out what our users' true needs were to bring the costs down and as far as what point we're at right now, we're actually in a production run right now to make 200 to do a small pilot in miracle feet's clinic parts all over the world. >> that's teric. good luck to you both. this is an amazing invention and we just really applaud you for that. ian and jeffrey, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> thank you. and do you have a big idea that's making a difference? tweet us with the #whatsthebigidea or e-mail us.

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there are plenty of aggressive competitions that could serve as alternatives. they'll work your brain, but they won't cause permanent damage. we're talking about tournaments like the national scrabble championship, the world chess championship, and the american crossword puzzle tournament, which was documented in the movie "word play" where even famous athletes chimed in about the tough nature of puzzling. >> well work every time i go out on the mound, i want to finish the game. it only happens occasionally. those games are really special. puzzles can be the same way. you can go through it to a certain point and bring if help from behind you to help close it out. those days are fun too. sometimes we'll go through as a group and try to plow through it as fast as we can. whoever is doing the writing doesn't even get to look at the clues. three people are leaning over your shoulder, firing out answers. >> joining me for a fun take on alternative competitions is the crossword puzzle editor for "the new york times" and director of the american crossword puzzle tournament. i was just saying, you have the

best job ever out there. >> it's great. i love playing with words. >> absolutely. i don't think a lot of people understand how sundays can be super -- not just a super bowl day, but a super sunday because a lot of people wait for that crossword puzzle to come out. how big is the competitive world of crossword puzzle competition, if you will. >> yeah, well, this year's championship is march 7th and 9th in brooklyn. it's an average person, if they can solve "the new york times" sunday crossword at all. >> you're just average if you can solve it? is that what you're saying? i would say above. >> the reigning champion can do it in average six to eight minutes. >> really? that quickly. we had a teaser about one of the words on there, so we definitely need to get to that. there are a couple things i want to ask you about. when it comes to sundays and puzzles and throughout the week as well, which is the hardest day? >> the hardest day is actually saturday. monday is the easiest.

it builds up to very hard on friday and saturday. sunday is a bigger puzzle. it can take you longer. it's about a thursday in difficulty. >> how do these games really work with your brain? obviously it exercises them. it's not the kind of work they're doing out there on the football field. you're not getting those concussions. but you're really utilizing it in a way that people don't really think of when it comes to a sport, but it can be. >> it is a sport. it's a weird sport, as word play showed. but you have people, the top solvers will train on six, eight, maybe 20 puzzles a day as they get ready for the tournament. you might think that's an all-day exercise, but they can do a crossword in two minutes. maybe they can do a whole training program in an hour or so. >> well, how fast can you do one? >> i'm a pretty good solver -- >> i would think so. >> but i'm nowhere near the national champion. i think his record solving a "new york times" crossword is 1:07 or something like that. >> i can't even imagine. is it harder to try to come up

with the puzzles than it is to solve the puzzles? >> they're different skills. what i do and what the puzzle makers do is creative. we're trying to play with your brain, but we do want you to -- >> try to trick us too a little bit. >> but we want you to get the answer eventually. solving, you have to know a little of everything, be a good speller, have a flexible mind, see through the tricks. >> speaking of tricks, this just came out recently talking about brain activity. arthur chu, he's been playing jeopardy for a while. he's been winning big time. in fact, the last few nights. but he has an interesting method when he plays. he's not going for the categories that he knows he has the answers to. he's actually strategically picking squares that he thinks the daily double lies in. so what that tells me is that a lot of this is all about strategy. >> strategy is so important in any game you do. some people would say you go into a crossword championship, they change the way they draw the letter "e" for example. most of us do it in three or

four different strokes. you can do it in one stroke. i'm not sure that really helps you. that's a strategy you can try. for every split second that you cut off your time, you know, that helps. >> absolutely. you know, we wanted to make sure that we get to you before the end of the show, the crossword puzzle. i'm going to hold it up. as you can see, it's completely brank because i have done nothing with this today. plus, i didn't want you to see how bad i am at it. but when we get to, what, 35 down, okay. this was our little hint earlier. magazine since 1977 for creative minds at play. can you give us the answer? we're going to cheat a little today. >> it's kind of cheating of me because i used to be the editor of "games" magazine. by the way, this is a special crossword. just don't fill in games in the grid. you have to rearrange the letters of games to make a new word that goes in the grid. >> you're getting all kinds of tricky on us. not only is it hard enough to solve it, now you're adding these other things to it. >> there's another twist.

anyway, i think it's mages. >> oh, got it. thanks for your time today. puzzle master will shorts. there you have it. thanks for watching, everybody. super bowl sunday. i'm betty nguyen. we'll be back next sunday 2:00 p.m. eastern time. first, "disrupt" with karen finney. have a great evening. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state. move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years... we're new york. if there's something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses... we're open to it. start a tax-free business at startup-ny.com. i takbecause you can't beatrning for zero heartburn. woo hoo! we're open to it. [ male announcer ] prilosec otc is the number one doctor recommended

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delicious, but say i press a few out flat, add some beef, sloppy joe sauce and cheese, fold it all up and boom! delicious unsloppy joes perfect for a school night. pillsbury grands biscuits. make dinner pop. hello, disrupters. i'm karen finney. in today's forecast, a super bowl special as we examine how chris christie is using high school memories from the late '70s to defend himself. plus, we'll try some great beers. >> good afternoon, everybody. >> david wilde steen, appointee on the port authority, suggesting chris christie is not telling the truth. >> one of the things they're doing in the governor's office is hitting wilde steen hard. >> they put out this memo basically trashing him. >> five things you shoul