7.16.2009

I’m on a crossword puzzle kick. I worked on two puzzles in moving cars during the past couple of days and had to stop before throwing up.

This little thing started on our June trip to Maine. We had some healthy layovers and delays, so I worked on a crossword puzzle. The time passed quickly. It was a satisfying, somewhat gainful way to pass the time. It’s satisfying, in that completing a crossword puzzle allows you to feel on par with the people who you believe create crossword puzzles. I think they’re wildly knowledgeable and clever word players. It’s gainful because you learn things from the crossword. Here are three things I’ve learned in the past month, all because of crosswords (answers below):

1. How miners get inside
2. What a marigraph measures
3. Immature salamanders

I do as much as I can without help, then I start looking up things. I want to learn the material.

I also do Jumbles in the paper. They’re supposed to be “ordinary words.” Today, for instance: DONKEY, PANIC, GROUP and HAMPER. Ordinary, indeed.

Earlier this week, they had SHOMAN as a clue. I tried and tried to solve it. I gave it 15 minutes, which is my limit. I’m not going Captain Ahab with the Jumble. Finally, I turned to the Internet Anagram Server, into which you can type a group of letters and it with spit out all possible arrangements. I typed SHOMAN, and it spits out HANSOM as the only real word. An ordinary word? Maybe in 1850, but how often have you used or even read “hansom”?

I’m now paranoid. I fear every Jumble has some archaic word, which I’ll never be able to solve.

Answers:
1. ADIT
2. TIDES
3. EFTS