As part of my continuing effort to ward off dementia, I am now doing the Monday and Tuesday New York Times crossword puzzles. If you are not familiar with the Times puzzle scheme, they start off easy on Monday and the hardest puzzle is published on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday make me feel like a genius each week; Wednesday makes me feel like an idiot, and Sunday makes me feel illiterate. Which is why I only work the Monday and Tuesday puzzles for now. Given me handwriting and the need for multiple corrections, I not only don't work the puzzle in ink, I work it on line. (By the way, you must see Wordplay)
My mother has been working the Times puzzle (reprinted in the Oregonian) since the 1960s, as has her friend Deanie. While Monday makes me feel like a genius, Deanie sometimes refuses to do the Monday puzzle on the grounds that it is too easy.
