“Quick, what’s an eight letter word that’s a synonym of defalcate?”
This question and others like it have become common across and down campus as more and more Wesleyan students attempt to tackle the challenges offered to them by the New York Times crossword puzzle.
Students have different reasons for pursuing such ends, but most seem to agree with Liz Jones ’05.
“Crossword puzzles are wonderful for procrastination because they make you feel as if you’re being productive,” she said.
Many agreed that the magic of crossword puzzles is that they are intellectually stimulating.
“It makes my brain feel nice,” said Grace Nowakowski ’07.
Ben Louis ’07 has been doing crossword puzzles since he got “hooked” on them in high school.
“The only thing crosswords help you with is getting better at crosswords,” Louis said.
He supports his argument by admitting that there are tricks to doing crosswords that avid puzzlers pick up over time.
According to Louis and other puzzle fanatics, some words appear often in crossword puzzles, and there are ways to guess a letter here and there without actually knowing the words. Understanding how to use these tricks is an important part of becoming a strong crossword puzzler. Whether or not these skills translate to something in the real world is questionable, but it is clear that crosswords do require a great deal of trivial knowledge.
The New York Times puzzles are an obvious choice for Wesleyan students because the Times is provided free Monday through Friday in the Campus Center, the Science Center and at Mocon, and offers the most challenging crosswords.
“I only do the New York Times crossword,” Jones said.
The Times also provides varying levels of difficulty throughout the week to accommodate both the novice and the seasoned puzzler. Starting on Monday, the puzzle becomes increasingly difficult throughout the week. This results in the Sunday crossword being the most difficult and prestigious of the week.
Every student can therefore test their own skill by seeing how far into the week they can keep solving the crosswords.
“I usually do Monday and Tuesday’s crosswords during lunch, but sometimes it takes me into my science class on Wednesday,” Louis said.
The first crossword puzzle appeared in a Sunday New York World in 1913. It became a popular feature and soon the magazine was producing them every week.
The World was the only place to produce crossword puzzles until 1924, when a small publishing house produced a collection of World puzzles, and they were a huge success across the country.
The first crosswords usually had themes upon which all the clues and words were based. Over time, more were produced without themes, like most of them are today.
Surprisingly, the New York Times was one of the last newspapers in the United States to produce regular crossword puzzles. The Times produced its first Sunday crossword in 1942 and began publishing daily puzzles in 1950.
Leave a Reply