Word Up! ... and Across

So a funny thing has happened to me as I pass the statistical middle of my life -- what feels more and more to me like my elder years. I've gotten into crossword puzzles.

It may surprise some people that I'm not already into crossword puzzles. For years, I've had friends doing puzzles turn to me and say, "Here, Clinton. I bet you're good at crosswords." But the truth is I wasn't, and I felt stupid because of it. So I avoided them. But recently all that's changed. It started with a friend of mine.

You see, this friend writes a column for the local weekly city paper, so I started to pick it up to read his pieces. The problem was, now I had this whole paper, it felt weird to just throw it away. His pieces are near the crosswords, so I started doing them. I got to like to it. In fact it got to the point where I would nurse the crossword throughout the week, because if I did it too early and got stuck, that meant I was waiting days for the solution.

Enjoying those crosswords led me to watch a documentary on crosswords called Wordplay. It wasn't as much about how crosswords are created, which I was really curious about. It mainly focused on the crosswords in The New York Times. Of course The Times crossword is supposed to be the crossword. Even I know that, with each day's puzzle in the week, starting on Monday, getting progressively harder.

Daily crossword puzzles. Daily crossword puzzles! The idea nagged me until I finally shelled out the dough to get access to them online. So yes, I bowed down and threw money at corporate news ... but crosswords!! Monday to Wednesday I'm pretty good on. Thursday is like slogging through mud. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday beat me like I'm the poor kid at prep school. Fuck! Sunday may as well be in another language!

Still, it's fun. I'm going to throw myself against Thursday now.