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Always a Cross Word

Recently, I paid $3.99 to watch “Wordplay,” a movie about the now-retired New York Times Crossword Editor, Will Shortz, and the crossword puzzle championship he created. The movie showed participants who had won and some who continued to compete without winning. It even showed a man creating a puzzle and the techniques he used to make one.


My mother would have loved the movie, because the only thing she liked better than a jigsaw puzzle was a crossword puzzle. She worked one or more every day of her life—at least while I knew her. Since I had enjoyed jigsaw puzzles with her, I thought I’d try my hand at crosswords.  I was terrible, laid the book down and never looked back. I couldn’t figure out how my mom knew all those complicated words and was a bit in awe of her because of it.


I didn’t try again until I was in my 60’s and voila! I could do them! Maybe it was my increased vocabulary with age. It’s probably the other way around; my vocabulary increased because I worked the puzzles.  I’ve certainly learned new words through puzzling:  qua, or hame, or carl.  Who knew?  Certainly not me before crosswords.

The puzzles have also increased my patience and problem-solving skills.  I don’t know the name of the Rapper with a hit on the Top Ten?  No problem.  I’ll figure it out when I fill in the words crossing it. I’m stuck and can’t finish the puzzle in the Sunday paper? No big deal. I’ll set it aside and work on it tomorrow. It’ll still be there waiting, and I’ll have a whole new set of ideas.


I also find my memory strengthened. Pulling the name of some long-ago movie star from my memory is mental exercise, and brings a smile to my face, remembering that handsome man “back then.” And I’m hoping it’ll keep me a stranger to Alzheimer’s.

“Practice makes perfect” certainly applies to puzzle-solving, too.  At first I’d get stumped on fairly obvious clues. Eventually, I learned to read clues with an eye for possible double meanings, or even jokes. The clues with question marks at the end are usually examples—a pun for an answer to a clue purposely misleading.


Somewhere my mother is smiling at the kid who couldn’t get a single word correct in the simplest of puzzles. Now this Old Schooler can do the Sunday crossword IN INK.  She would be so proud! 

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Jan 21
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Nice!

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