What's a 5-letter word for a person whose mental acumen is well below par?
I'm obsessed with The New York Times crossword. I started doing the puzzle in high school, and it's been a regular ritual ever since, with the exception of the four years I spent assassinating my liver on a hilly tract of land in some rural town somewhere. Of course, despite the fact that I've been enjoying the puzzle for nearly eight years, my crosswording capabilities generally end around the Thursday offering. I can nail a Monday puzzle in 5-10 minutes, Tuesday's usually 15 or so, and Wednesday, while a bit trickier, I can still complete.
Come Thursday though, all bets are off - every so often I'll get lucky and fill in around 3/4 of the puzzle, but usually it's more like 1/4, if that. As a result, I don't even bother attempting Friday or Saturday. Sometimes I'll pick up a Sunday crossword, but have never even come close to completing one, with the exception of this one bizarre time they decided to print an additional set of Monday-Wednesday-level clues.
I'm not sure what to attribute my Thursday-Sunday crossword deficiency to, other than just not being bright enough. Granted, these are considerably harder crosswords, but I would've thought after years of puzzling I might have reached a point where I could comfortably tackle the end-of-the-week beasts.
Regardless, as my appetite for The Times crossword is insatiable, I own my share of puzzle books. However, editor Will Shortz and publisher St. Martin's Press seem determined to let the rest of the world know that by purchasing an "Easy" crossword puzzle book, you are in fact an idiot, and barely even worthy of doing The Times crossword.
Check it out:
Thanks guys, really, for allowing "Easy" to take up nearly half the cover. Honestly, why beat around the bush? Let us know how you really feel:
posted by LA at 7:32 AM
7 Comments:
I think it's all mental with the Thursday-Saturday puzzles. I read the clues thinking, "These are hard. I may think I know it, but I'm probably wrong." Except when they offer clues like, "Third Mongolian prince of Dutch descent." Then I really don't know the answer.
Crossword, and all literary skills, increase with age. That's why grandma can rock an acrostic in teh time it takes to take her cocktail of pills.
Nice photoshopping on that one. But what they need to do is release omnibi for each day of the week.
I only own Volume 1, but I believe subsequent editions of the Easy omnibus actually include both Monday and Tuesday puzzles, so at least there's a little variety in difficulty. A Monday-Wednesday omnibus would really be perfect.
my father has been trying to teach me for years how to make thurs-sat my bitch. but i just don't think it's in the cards for me.
I definitely wouldn't consider Monday and Tuesday level Times puzzles chump-worthy...I've witnessed some math and science geniuses being completely stumped by the chumpiest of crosswords...you either get it or you don't, whether you're a chump or not.
Sunday crosswords are less difficult than Friday and Saturday, they're just bigger and have clever themes. Not that I can do them in one sitting, but if you leave the Sundays alone for a few days, you'll come back to them later with some fresh insights. It also helps to have a partner, though that can be less satisfying. My girlfriend and I can do a Sunday in two hours. Separately we would either fail or take all week.
What a motivational post ... I'm not very good at croswords and I don't have the patience you do with these... but I am almost ready to run out and get one now cause I have always loved words and how they fit and dance and interface.... You'd be interested to know that you are likely very high in logical or mathematical as well as linguistic intelligence.... which are the domains of the brain that click in for crosswords. Just another bit of trivia you likely already new but thanks for the fun post!
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