Crossword crazy
Crossword puzzle fan? So am I and we're not alone.
Askwonder.com reported in 2019 that about 50 million people did crosswords, including 30 million scribing away on newspaper versions and about 20 million going for magazine, online and book versions.
I've been doing crosswords since I was kid. My mother turned to the Poughkeepsie Journal's puzzle page to complete the daily crossword (along with the word Jumble) while dinner cooked. The more often I did the crosswords with her, the greater my fondness for them grew. In fact, now my daughter and I do the same, although usually after dinner. Still, one puzzle a day isn't enough to my feed my ongoing fascination with them, so there are various crossword puzzle books scattered around my home, including a cherished spot on my nightstand.
I love the challenge and satisfaction of figuring out the answers to a crossword grid and seeing the resulting words read in accurate horizontal and top-to-bottom lines. Of course, there’s the fun of working with word-driven clues, too – no Sudoku for me!
More than that is the intrigue of how the crossword's creator came up the puzzle, especially when their logical aspects are considered. After all, clues have to be compiled (the best of which feature ingenious wording and timely topics), whereby each answer is spelled out in designated boxes, with the letters of the resulting words aligning with the answers to other clues per the puzzle’s cross pattern and overall format. So cool.
Last year, Helen
Rosner wrote for The New Yorker about her passion for the puzzles—the challenges, rewards and absolute fun of
them—including an insightful video interview of the publication's crossword editor, Liz
Maynes-Aminzade, talking
with crossword constructor, Natan Last, about
his quick-witted process.
In case you’re wondering, the first crossword puzzle is widely credited to journalist Arthur Wynne of Liverpool, whose debut design was published in the New York World in December 1913.
A big part of my crush on crosswords is how the clues often get me thinking about things in different ways than I normally do to come up with the correct answers, for instance:
· What can fall off a shelf (seven letters): Trinket? Booklet? Platter? Nope. An iceberg.
· Part of a foot (four letters). Toes? Heel? Arch? Nope. An inch.
My favorite clues have me widening my perception of what is or what I thought was by pushing my mind around-the-bend into hidden alleyways, thoughts and ideas to come up with the intended answers. The process not only gets me thinking about specific topics in new ways, but also reminds me that my perceptions about anything are my own and that all kinds of things can be interpreted in broad variety of ways. It challenges me to see things differently – with a creative eye – and I love that.
Click for crosswords:
Karen Maserjian Shan is a communications professional, editor and writer with an expertise in connecting people and businesses through written communications in print and digital platforms.
Love it! I never thought about how puzzling out a crossword clue can change perception.🙂
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