Crossword Puzzles Are Not For Sissies
The first crossword puzzle I ever did totally stumped me. It didn't make sense, and it drove me crazy that I knew (or so I thought) what the answer should be, but it wasn't! Nothing was right, and I tossed it aside and said, "This is stupid." I was about ten or eleven years old.
The next time I picked up a puzzle, I had help. My mother pointed out a few important things that crossword writers do, and reminded me that common letters mattered. I did better.
Then I started taking the LIRR into Manhattan when I was 21. I was determined. I mastered the puzzles in Newsday and the Daily News (I loved the Scramble best) and picked up a copy of the New York Times. I stared. And stared. I was on the train - people were looking at me! I'm sure I was a sight - jeans, work boots, tool bag. I was an electrician -and at 5'2" tall and 100 pounds, I must have looked like a child dressed up in her dad's work clothes. Struggling through the New York Times crossword puzzle.
Mondays are great days. There's a reason the hardest puzzle comes out on Sunday. It's daunting, to say the least. I had days when I took the puzzle and tossed it in the wood-stove in a fit of pique.
Some of my favorite clues have to do with books and authors. There's nothing like having "Boo" for an answer when the clue is "recluse in TKAM" and you cheer a little inside -first, just because you know what TKAM is, and second, because it's your favorite book.
I left New York more than two decades ago. No more Times puzzles. So I did the puzzles in the local paper, which take about six or seven minutes. I buy Will Shortz puzzle books, because he is the best of the best. I would like it if he were my friend. Then about five years or so ago, I discovered the app, NYTimes puzzles for my iPad. Great, but not quite the same.
It's 2017, and I've come home to New York. It's time to sharpen a pencil. Too bad I don't have a wood-stove.
The next time I picked up a puzzle, I had help. My mother pointed out a few important things that crossword writers do, and reminded me that common letters mattered. I did better.
Then I started taking the LIRR into Manhattan when I was 21. I was determined. I mastered the puzzles in Newsday and the Daily News (I loved the Scramble best) and picked up a copy of the New York Times. I stared. And stared. I was on the train - people were looking at me! I'm sure I was a sight - jeans, work boots, tool bag. I was an electrician -and at 5'2" tall and 100 pounds, I must have looked like a child dressed up in her dad's work clothes. Struggling through the New York Times crossword puzzle.
Mondays are great days. There's a reason the hardest puzzle comes out on Sunday. It's daunting, to say the least. I had days when I took the puzzle and tossed it in the wood-stove in a fit of pique.
Some of my favorite clues have to do with books and authors. There's nothing like having "Boo" for an answer when the clue is "recluse in TKAM" and you cheer a little inside -first, just because you know what TKAM is, and second, because it's your favorite book.
I left New York more than two decades ago. No more Times puzzles. So I did the puzzles in the local paper, which take about six or seven minutes. I buy Will Shortz puzzle books, because he is the best of the best. I would like it if he were my friend. Then about five years or so ago, I discovered the app, NYTimes puzzles for my iPad. Great, but not quite the same.
It's 2017, and I've come home to New York. It's time to sharpen a pencil. Too bad I don't have a wood-stove.
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