Webster’s forte (5 letters)
If you’ve talked to me in the past year, chances are good I’ve mentioned my thrice daily crossword puzzle routine. Yes, thrice. I orient my day around crossword puzzles and I’m proud of it. It adds structure to my day and gives me a regular dopamine boost of satisfaction.
As soon as I’ve made Irish breakfast tea, I grab my laptop to check my email and two favorite Discord groups. Then for the real treat: the Washington Post crossword. (Technically their crosswords are syndicated from the LA Times. You have to watch a 15 second ad but they’re free.) Are there some mornings where my eyes have trouble focusing on the grid or my mind moves a bit slow? Sure. But I cannot tell you how much joy it gives me to start off my morning this way. No matter how the rest of the day unfolds, I completed something.
Around lunchtime, I do the free crossword from Vox. After work, I do the Vulture puzzle—I have a New York Magazine subscription for this one. In fact, the Vulture crossword is where this obsession began. I subscribed a few years ago and loved working on the weekly crossword. Then I noticed they had a weekday one but they were almost too short and easy so I rarely did them. Until I thought to myself, “who cares if they’re easy??”
My routine changes slightly on the weekend. Vox and Vulture have puzzles Monday through Sunday, while WaPo is weeklong with not one but three puzzles on Sunday: Daily, Sunday, and Classic. The Saturday and Sunday puzzles are my favorite because they’re longer and offer more of a challenge. But I love the “easier” weekday puzzles for the way they allow me to feel proud and accomplished. It’s the little things in life.
Of course, there are days I oversleep, have lunch plans, or leave my laptop behind on vacation. It always feels strange to miss out on my routine. But it gives me something to look forward to when I get home.
I’m not precious about how I finish a puzzle. I have no compunction about revealing a letter or word once I get stuck. My only goal is to complete it, however it happens. To that end, I ignore the timer completely. If I come across a puzzle in a magazine or newspaper, I’ll fill it out in ink but I’ve come to prefer doing them on my laptop. (No apps on my phone. I don’t like the experience.) There are many people who are probably faster and more knowledgeable than me but this is one arena where I will not compare myself to anyone else—progress for this Enneagram Four. You might be wondering if I ever do the esteemed New York Times puzzle but that only happens if I’m visiting the Bogels. I’m not ready to add a fourth crossword to my day quite yet!
An unexpected benefit of doing crosswords for so many years is the assortment of knowledge I’ve acquired. Random Latin phrases, the names of rivers and obscure animals, pop culture trivia, and the three-letter words puzzle creators adore (kimono sash, med. care provider, Spanish for gold). Then there’s figuring out what the theme means, be it a play on words or an homage to a holiday, sport, or movie. Not to mention cracking the rebus. It’s not just what you know or can call up from the recesses of your brain. There’s a rush in determining the answer based on context clues, reasoning, or wild guesses.
Over time, you get to know the personality of the creators. I love when a clue contains a cheeky aside that encourages you to exercise your civic duty or lets you know how they really feel about a movie or type of food. Recent example: a 3 letter word for “news website that produces the “Today, Explained” podcast (my check’s in the mail, right?).”
Whether the Chicago Tribune newspaper or my grandma’s People magazines, crossword puzzles have long played a role in my life. In college, I had a phase of working my way through crossword puzzle books, doing one after another after another. (Unsurprisingly, this is similar to my approach to working on jigsaw puzzles: once I start, I can’t stop.)
They were a part of my post-work de-stressing routine after a long day of conducting home visits as a hospice social worker. That routine continued through my move to Nashville but my newspaper habit lapsed after another out of state move. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed working on crosswords until my New York Magazine subscription. Now I can’t imagine how I went so many years without this routine.
How do you feel about crossword puzzles? Please nerd out with me in the comments.
P.S. Check out our team’s whole Raving Fans series right here.
