"I have never subscribed to the 'breakfast test.' Of course the puzzle should be polite, but it should follow modern standards of good taste..."

"... and those have changed over the years. The word 'ass,' when it appeared in crosswords in the old days, it was always the animal. Now there might be a polite way to clue it in terms of the rear end. I remember I submitted a crossword to Will Weng, one of my predecessors at the Times, in 1975, and it had the answer 'belly button.' And he returned the puzzle saying that was indelicate.... An answer that got controversy once was 'scumbag,' which was clued in terms of the person, of course, but it has a literal meaning that’s really not nice, and some people objected to that.... I remember early on I had the answer 'brownnose' in a crossword. To me, the common meaning is so far removed from the literal origin of the term that it’s not a problem. But some people who know the origin don’t like to see that in a puzzle.... Once somebody—this is hilarious, I think—sent me a puzzle whose theme was four anagrams of 'Adolf Hitler.'"

I'm reading "Will Shortz’s Life in Crosswords/The veteran Times puzzle editor discusses his favorite clues, debates in the crossword community, and unexpectedly finding his first serious romance" (The New Yorker).

The "breakfast test" imagines people doing the crossword at breakfast and therefore not wanting to feel like puking.

About that first serious romance:

I’m struck by the wonderfulness of finding love at seventy.... I never expected to find love at my age, never expected to have a relationship like this. This guy is the perfect person for me, the only person in the world I think I would be partners with. We match in so many unusual ways. I don’t really believe in fate, but our connection feels like fate. 

 Asked why it happened only so late in life, Shortz says:

I’ve never come out publicly. I’ve told lots of friends, but I’ve never been public about my sexuality. I’ve known that I’ve been interested in guys my whole life, but it wasn’t a life I wanted to lead. 

First of all, I was in denial for years, and I fought my inclinations. By the time I was in my thirties, I accepted the way I was. But I didn’t want to have a gay life style, if that’s how you put it. I have a wonderful career. I have a wonderful life. I have great friends. This wasn’t something I needed. 

It just dropped in my lap when I was sixty-nine and I thought, Wow, this is amazing. We’ve moved in together, we own a house together, and our intention is to get married, maybe this year.