Crossword Puzzles

[colchar]

Does anyone here do crosswords regularly? I've never been much good at them (not that I've ever really tried to do many) and have always figured that you have to have a certain kind of brain to be good at them. But recently I've been around some people who do them to pass the time while at work and have discovered that I can usually get a handful of answers on each puzzle. This has piqued my interest in them and I am thinking of trying to do them more regularly.

Does anyone here who does them have any hints or tips that make doing them easier/less frustrating for a beginner?

[wilson]

Does anyone here do crosswords regularly? I've never been much good at them (not that I've ever really tried to do many) and have always figured that you have to have a certain kind of brain to be good at them. But recently I've been around some people who do them to pass the time while at work and have discovered that I can usually get a handful of answers on each puzzle. This has piqued my interest in them and I am thinking of trying to do them more regularly.

Does anyone here who does them have any hints or tips that make doing them easier/less frustrating for a beginner?

Be willing to suck at it for a little while, but make a point of trying every day. Also, spend as long as you can on the puzzle. Over time, you'll find that you're picking up the particular way of thinking that's needed for crosswords, and that you can do it all more and more quickly.

[Miles]

Does anyone here do crosswords regularly? I've never been much good at them (not that I've ever really tried to do many) and have always figured that you have to have a certain kind of brain to be good at them. But recently I've been around some people who do them to pass the time while at work and have discovered that I can usually get a handful of answers on each puzzle. This has piqued my interest in them and I am thinking of trying to do them more regularly.

Does anyone here who does them have any hints or tips that make doing them easier/less frustrating for a beginner?

I agree that there is a certain type of brain required to be good at them. Look for a beginner's book, to introduce some of the ways clues are phrased. After you master that book, or series of crosswords, take it up a notch. I used to do them quite frequently, especially on airplanes but then sudoku took over.

[Turk]

I'll be an obnoxious braggart and admit I'm one of those guys who do them in pen. I think there is a mind-set that some people are born with - I believe I am a natural puzzle solver. I developed a bit of a reputation at Duke as being one of the fastest on the daily puzzle in the Chronicle. (yes, and as the young Turks will point out, you can still see the big "L" on my forehead!) I loved Sherlock Holmes and Encyclopedia Brown as a kid, and sudokus are pretty simple. I don't even bother with sodukos unless they're rated the most difficult.

As for crossword puzzles, I'll fool around with the big ones in the Sunday paper once in a while to keep in practice. Like anything else, it does take time to get good at it. If you have a wide range of reading interests, some simple Latin. and decent knowledge of trivia, that's a good start. There are a class of standard crossword clues that you will never know on your own but will learn over time. (for me it's the "genus of....." clues, and fill-in-the-blank Broadway show tunes). Think of these as those odd two- and three-letter Scrabble words of all vowels that serious players know.

Here's my advice:
1. Get a daily newspaper that has a decent puzzle in it. If no newspaper is availabe, USA Today can be substituted as a last resort.
2. Work the puzzle as best you can on your own.
3. For clues that are still open, look up what you can. You'll need a dictionary, a thesaurus, and an atlas. Start with those and go "old school" as long as you can, because this is where you learn things while trying to find other things. Most people underestimate how much we learn that way. If you get hooked, then you can think about getting a good crossword puzzle dictionary later.
4. If there's anything still open, then DON'T look it up on the googler. You will probably find the answer but won't remember it later.
5. Get the paper the next day and check the answers. Retention for next time is better that way.
6. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Once you get comfortable with the dailies, then step up to a big Sunday puzzle. They usually have a theme in the clues that's related to the title of the puzzle. The long clues will often be phrases, or quotes that run through the entire puzzle. Be prepared for horrid puns and gimmicks where an entire word goes in one box, and fits the clue both up and down. Those will drive you nuts the first few times. Have fun!!

[wilson]

I'll be an obnoxious braggart and admit I'm one of those guys who do them in pen. I think there is a mind-set that some people are born with - I believe I am a natural puzzle solver. I developed a bit of a reputation at Duke as being one of the fastest on the daily puzzle in the Chronicle. (yes, and as the young Turks will point out, you can still see the big "L" on my forehead!) I loved Sherlock Holmes and Encyclopedia Brown as a kid, and sudokus are pretty simple. I don't even bother with sodukos unless they're rated the most difficult.

I'm in this club too. I remember being surprised when I got to graduate school and everyone thought it was weird how fast I could do the crossword. I had expected there to be a whole passel of fellow cruciverbalists in such a nerd-heavy environment as grad school.
I also do them in pen. For me, though, this is mostly a tactile thing. Pens just feel right gliding across newsprint (or in the case of the Sunday NY Times puzzle, magazine paper), whereas pencils decidedly do not.

[CathyCA]

I'll be an obnoxious braggart and admit I'm one of those guys who do them in pen. I think there is a mind-set that some people are born with - I believe I am a natural puzzle solver. I developed a bit of a reputation at Duke as being one of the fastest on the daily puzzle in the Chronicle. (yes, and as the young Turks will point out, you can still see the big "L" on my forehead!) I loved Sherlock Holmes and Encyclopedia Brown as a kid, and sudokus are pretty simple. I don't even bother with sodukos unless they're rated the most difficult.

I'm in this club too. I remember being surprised when I got to graduate school and everyone thought it was weird how fast I could do the crossword. I had expected there to be a whole passel of fellow cruciverbalists in such a nerd-heavy environment as grad school.
I also do them in pen. For me, though, this is mostly a tactile thing. Pens just feel right gliding across newsprint (or in the case of the Sunday NY Times puzzle, magazine paper), whereas pencils decidedly do not.

One of the biggest adjustments for me in law school was the sad fact that The Old Gold and Black newspaper came out weekly rather than daily. I had become so accustomed to picking up The Chronicle on my way to my morning class and folding it "just so" in order to work it in class. I went through serious crossword puzzle withdrawal in law school.

The weekly student newspaper was just one more reason that going to Wake Forest felt like going back to high school. I really appreciated the daily Chronicle at Duke for the crosswords and classifieds.

[wilson]

One of the biggest adjustments for me in law school was the sad fact that The Old Gold and Black newspaper came out weekly rather than daily. I had become so accustomed to picking up The Chronicle on my way to my morning class and folding it "just so" in order to work it in class. I went through serious crossword puzzle withdrawal in law school.

The weekly student newspaper was just one more reason that going to Wake Forest felt like going back to high school. I really appreciated the daily Chronicle at Duke for the crosswords and classifieds.

The Chron is a damn good student paper all the way around. I of course loved the crosswords most. We also really got a kick out of the Crime Briefs in my day.

[DukieInKansas]

One of the biggest adjustments for me in law school was the sad fact that The Old Gold and Black newspaper came out weekly rather than daily. I had become so accustomed to picking up The Chronicle on my way to my morning class and folding it "just so" in order to work it in class. I went through serious crossword puzzle withdrawal in law school.

The weekly student newspaper was just one more reason that going to Wake Forest felt like going back to high school. I really appreciated the daily Chronicle at Duke for the crosswords and classifieds.

The Chron is a damn good student paper all the way around. I of course loved the crosswords most. We also really got a kick out of the Crime Briefs in my day.

I hated the April 1st edition because I always forgot they screwed with the crossword puzzle until I started it. IThat sucked - but I liked the rest of the paper.

[colchar]

I think one of my biggest problems is that, at times, I tend to over think things so that I miss some very obvious answers. For example, I was trying an online puzzle today and one of the clues was 'lover's quarrel'. Now, common sense says that the answer is spat but it took me a few minutes to come up with it. Had I not been attempting a crossword puzzle that answer would've come to me right away but, because I was doing a puzzle, I blanked out.

[Turk]

That happens all the time. One of the reasons I like paper versions rather than online is the "glance" factor. If I happen to leave an unfinished puzzle on an end table and glance at a clue, it is remarkable how frequently the answer just pops into my head. Same goes for athletics too - there are shelves of books written attempting to teach golfers how to quit *thinking* so hard and just let their muscle memory swing the club. You have to let your brain get out of the way of your intelligence - call it "mental memory" if you will...

One trick is to skim the clues and use SAT test-taking tricks on them: if you don't know the answer immediately, move on to the next clue. Let your memory just react...

ooh I just thought of another tip: don't forget about checking one-word clues for both noun and verb meanings. e.g. "play" as a verb meaning "relax" or as a noun meaning "drama"... That gets me a lot...