Crosswords

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Do you do crossword puzzles? I used to do them all the time, and then I slowly set them aside when I became addicted to quilting. I resumed doing the puzzle in the Chicago Tribune earlier this year, on-line. There are times when I have a few extra minutes, and I pick up a book of New York Times puzzles and try to wade through one.
Why is it that the first time you work a tough puzzle, you can stare at the blanks and not get a thing, and when you walk away in frustration and come back later, answers fall into place with ease?? I frequently feel that “Duh!” response, when the answers are obvious and generally easy. Is it just that I’m working against myself, expecting the answers to be a lot harder?
I’m VERY glad that I took Latin. It amazes me how many times an answer to a clue will be a Latin word. Many times, I can guess the answer to a Spanish, or Italian word because it’s related to Latin.
It’s odd, but I find that the vertical clues are easier. You’d think that seeing the boxes in a pattern other than our usual left to right, would make it more difficult. I tend to fly through the puzzle starting from the upper left (Northwest) corner, and answer as many of the horizontal clues as I can. Then I make a run through the vertical clues. More than half of the answers will fall into place on the vertical clues. The hardest clues for me are those that pertain to the young stars who are likely to be found on the pages of “People” magazine. I admit it…..I’m an old fogy.
Years ago, the editors of the puzzles provided information concerning how many words made up the answer. Now, they limit their advice to “var.” (variation) or different ways of indicating that the answer is an abbreviation.
Today, one of the answers was “music.” In another life, I was a band director, so you might expect me to find all the music clues easy. WRONG!! I over-think the clues, and they are often the last clues I answer. I dread having someone assume that I will get all the music questions. In fact, I can usually guarantee that I’ll miss anything that took place between 1975 and 1990, and a lot of the more recent stuff, too. I’ve got COOKING terms down, though! lol

9 thoughts on “Crosswords”

  1. Although I enjoy NY Times puzzles, the LA Times puzzles are more popular in our house. If I am doing a puzzle, alone (very rarely), I start at the upper left corner and do horizontal and vertical “at the same time”. If I am starting a puzzle for Hunky Husband to work on, I do a quick run-through on the horizontals, then one on the verticals, and turn it over to him. In this mode, I leave out anything that I’m not fairly confident in, to leave more for HH. (He has me start the LA or NY Times crossword puzzles for him using the excuse that they are “too hard”. The daily puzzles he starts, and often finishes, before I see them. If he finds one of the crypto quizzes “too hard” (a rarity), he gives it to me and I fill in one word for him. Actually, the crypto quizzes are not “too hard” for him–he just doesn’t want to put in time to figure them out.)
    Like you, I find vertical words easier to figure out than horizontal on crossword puzzles. I’ll leave the Sudo Ku puzzles to you and HH, totally.

  2. i do enjoy a crossword puzzle but don’t do them nearly often enough to be particularly good at them. mind you 1975-1990 i’m your girl!

  4. I haven’t done any crosswords for a while. I used to do them all the time, but eahc year seems busier than the last, so something had to give.
    I too have problems with people’s names (or movie / TV show names) since I don’t really watch much of the tube or silver screen.

  5. Cop Car, I’ve never heard of someone starting a puzzle for another. There have been times when I’ve picked up a puzzle someone has left unfinished, but I generally don’t collaborate on crosswords. It amazes me that you don’t need two newspapers delivered to your home. *G*
    I’ve never seen an LA Times crossword. I’ll have to check them out.

  7. janeywan, and cop car, suduko leaves me cold. One of my nieces was addicted to those puzzels, but I don’t know if she still does them. I pass. I loev working with words, not numbers.

  8. Bogie, I did the crosswords in my 20s, got too busy to keep up with them, and let them go. I found it difficult to get back into the Dell puzzles at first, so I started with the Chicago Tribune crossword and then expanded to others. Right now, because I’m short on time, I do them on-line, and let the computer tell me if I’ve entered an incorrect letter. I figure eventually I’ll return to the paper and pencil mode, when my life is a bit slower moving.

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