Do you know this joke?
A crossword enthusiast was sent to hell! There he saw countless books full of; well Crosswords!
He was so happy!
What is the big fear of hell he thought to himself!
Then he took one crossword book and went to the old ‘hell’ librarian and asked for a pencil.
The old librarian gave an impish smile and said, “That is the HELL of it my friend! NO PENCILS!”
I used to love the Cryptic crosswords of the Hindu but do not have access to them or much time for them nowadays since you do not feel satisfied if you cannot solve them completely!
So the NYT quick crossword is the solution now! It is fun and fast!
In the men’s hostel in our medical college, we used to wait till 11 am to cut the crossword and run to solve it! It used to be fun!
Now did you know that the very famous word crossword is actually a typo!
So the story goes on how the modern crossword puzzle was invented by Arthur Wynne!
Wynne published the first “Word-Cross” in the New York World newspaper on December 21, 1913. It became a popular craze in the 1920s, leading to the first crossword puzzle book!
Wynne was inspired by an old word game called word squares!
The name “crossword” was an accidental result of a typographical error, originally intended to be “word-cross”!
After the first few months the puzzle’s popularity explodes, leading to a “crossword craze” with crossword-patterned stockings, musicals, and comic strips!
Simon & Schuster publishes the first book of crossword puzzles, which becomes a major success and helps establish the genre!
One of the most popular puzzles in the world is the NYT!
This was actually done by NYT for fun and reduce stress from war!
The New York Times begins publishing crossword puzzles, prompted by World War II, as a way to provide a distraction from the war news.
The best puzzles are actually the cryptic ones which were in Britain, featuring complex clues that require wordplay and lateral thinking!
The then Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, was known to enjoy doing crosswords, as does the Queen – whose cipher ER is a frequent allusion in cryptic clues. By the 1930s cryptic crosswords had become more sophisticated in design: clues can be full or partial anagrams, double meanings and clues leading to further words!
If you thought is was simply fun, solving crosswords can actually strengthen short-term memory and long-term recall by forcing you to retrieve information and link concepts!
They also enhance analytical thinking, pattern recognition, and logical reasoning, skills that can be applied to everyday problems!
The act of solving clues requires focus and can improve your ability to concentrate on other tasks! Regular solving keeps the mind sharp and may help delay cognitive decline by engaging multiple brain regions!
It also provides a mental break from daily pressures and can be a relaxing and stress-reducing activity!
The satisfaction of solving clues and completing a puzzle can boost confidence and provide a sense of accomplishment! It has also been shown to increase dopamine production, which can improve your mood!
While doing all this you can also learn new words and can help you become more fluent in communication! Just like reading books this can also be an effective way for reinforcing knowledge in various subjects, helping to identify and fill gaps in understanding!
Just do not end up in hell with no pencil though!
Then again today is not world crossword day but apparently world men’s day! Which is ridiculous since I would like to see what a ‘man’ would do alone! But to keep the fun, which man can be reflective of a ‘man’ other than HANUMAN! For us though Hanuman played by Dara Singh ji would always be the top!
Now both ‘men’ and ‘women’ do sleep! Days will come and go! Work will always be needed to be done by both!
Shubh Ratri!
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