Like so many books I read, Crossworld: One Man's Journey into America's Crossword Obsession by Marc Romano was a recommendation gleaned from Bookmarks Magazine. For any voracious reader, Bookmarks is a must. In addition to current books and blurbs from a variety of review sources, it has classics, guides to certain authors, descriptions of book groups and what they are reading and very little advertising. I get a little shiver every other month when I see its familiar masthead in my pile of mail.
To preface my review, I come from a long line of crossword puzzle fanatics. My grandfather, Albert Miller , did the crossword in the Utica Observer Dispatch every day until he was in his late 80's. My father, Jim Miller , can be seen every morning on the couch with his glasses on his head, doing the crossword. I remember when Dell was a crossword puzzle magazine and not a major employer of Indians with mysteriously American names. I'm picturing the cute guy in The English Patient, who plays Kip and the Dell customer service guy tells me his name is Andy. Anyway, I spent lots of my babysitting money on those Dell Crossword magazines and reached a point where I would skip the easy ones and go straight to medium and hard.
When I ended up in South Florida, the Miami Herald had the Sunday New York Times Crossword in the Sunday Tropic Magazine. It was the prior week's puzzle, but who cared, we didn't have internet back then. And no my darling children we didn't have DVD's, X-Box or McGriddle sandwiches either. Surprisingly we survived. I would work at that puzzle until I triumphantly finished it (not in pen, thanks anyway) or until I gave up in despair and tossed it in the trash (we didn't recycle then either...here's me taking the hit for global warming...used aerosol hairspray on my way pouffed hair in the '80s as well).
As the years went by I got better and better at it and then the Internet came and now for a mere $34.95 per year, one can have unlimited access to the New York Times Crossword, including current puzzles and years and years of archives. So each week I print it out and putter away...finishing it by the end of Sunday (not in the hour that Amy optimistically attributed to me) meant it was going to be a good week...and spaces left blank meant uncertainty and danger lurked with the dawn of Monday.
Enough about me, fascinating though I am. Marc Romano decided to immerse himself in the fanatic, fiercely loyal, fastidious world of the NY Times puzzle. He spoke to and learned about the Editor-for-Life, Will Shortz who took over from then head maven of crosswords Eugene T. Maleska. He became friendly with some of the puzzle creators and knew intimately the nuances of what differentiates one puzzle creator's work from another. He researched and discovered the surprisingly short history of crosswords, dating only to the early 20th century (alas, no crosswords on the cave walls). He even practiced, prepared himself and competed in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford, CT. There he came face to face with some of the faceless millions who solve (or at least try to solve) the NY Times Crossword every day...except these people do it at warp speed whipping off an easy Monday puzzle in two minutes and maybe taking as many as 16 minutes to solve the larger more challenging Sunday puzzle.
The book is fascinating to anyone who does crosswords regularly or someone who is completely mystified as to why one would waste one's time on such a silly endeavor. Read it and think of my Grampa Miller!
Di
Awesome post! Laughed a ton! My ADD has allowed me to finish the Times Crossword Puzzle once and only once, and it was Monday's puzzle I am sure. We cannot be friends I now see: I am a lukewarm puzzler, I do NOT workout, and my golf score???? Well, let's just say I get a good high five from the bowlers...man, can I clean out your closet though.
Posted by: laura | August 22, 2006 at 04:40 PM