ooh, and i'm horrid about unfinished crosswords.
today at lunch, one of my colleagues started one - threw down her pen after about 3 words. I finished it - and the one in the Globe and Mail she challenged me to do. I just couldn't leave that first one alone.
oh, ossoB, I know what you mean about the patina.
my paternal Opa, hamburger's dad, was a mad puzzler. he worked in ink, and sometimes the pages were shiny by the time he had the difficult ones done. there's something of a nice childhood memory to that. i didn't know any of my grands well, as they lived in Germany, but I remember those worked-at crossword puzzles.
Oh, that's nice to know, that I tuck in behind some tradition. I don't remember my mother or father doing crossword puzzles. It turns out my cousin does, but our families were in what I think of as irishgrudge time during our adolescence so we didn't find out we each did them until we were in our twenties. That's another story, of course. We met at the university bookstore, she astounded that I was going there (yet another story). We ended up lifetime buddies who happen to be cousins.
I haven't done them in a while as I get the nyt online, but not the puzzles. This topic is making me want to get started again.
My mother has been a crossworder for as long as I can remember. She used to bitch about a friend of the family who'd do the sunday puzzle in ink (we used to spend lots of weekends with the other family). Now she does them in ink. So do I. It is just easier to see what your wrote. So, my crosswords are always messy, who cares?
I've found if I use fine-tipped colored magic markers I can write overmyself without smudging myself.
For example, start with a purple red, then the next layer is purple and the next layer a sassy blue....
Ok, ok, we've all got patina!!!!
Except maybe ehBeth? Do you ... er... mess up ever, ehBeth?
Seems to me there are two ways to approach crossword puzzles; the first is as a personal challenge and the second as a way to improve vocabulary and expand knowledge. If you attack the puzzle as a challenge, then the objective is to take it as far as you can without assistance. But then you may have some empty boxes that don't mean a thing until they're filled in. I like taking the puzzle as far as I can go with it, then taking the second path and using any available references to fill in the empty spaces, growing the challenge into a learning process.
I have a sort of set procedure.....I try to do as much of the crossword as I can without resorting to any reference books and/or dictionaries. When I reach a stage when I can no longer proceed without assistance, then I either take pride in what I have achieved off my own bat or sulk about my apparent dumbness. Then I bring out all the books to finish the job, hopefully. If there is a prize involved at the end of it who cares about cheating? :wink:
I have a sort of set procedure.....I try to do as much of the crossword as I can without resorting to any reference books and/or dictionaries. When I reach a stage when I can no longer proceed without assistance, then I either take pride in what I have achieved off my own bat or sulk about my apparent dumbness. Then I bring out all the books to finish the job, hopefully. If there is a prize involved at the end of it who cares about cheating? :wink:
Ooops......two postings for the price of one.....must be a BOGOF!
I have found waiting helpful. I often can finish much more on another day, or a week later. And then wait some more.
Not that I have done this lately, as I don't buy the Actual Sunday NYTimes much anymore, out of thrift and failure to exert myself. (It isn't home delivered here, is only available at a few shops in this and the next town, and often isn't delivered to these either. It's a five hour drive, more or less, to here from San Francisco, and deliveries to us are somehow last in line, especially if it is raining or the moon is in astroturf.)
I know the puzzle is available online NYT for a fee, but haven't checked out what the fee is lately.
Brom, I am probably the worst person at a2k for double posting. I know with me it has to do with clicking on the back button after I post. I am not sure yet if it is because I do it at all (sometimes I do it and don't see double posts later) or because I do it too fast. Sometimes people get quite irritated about this... but I don't MEAN to do it.
