Crossword Puzzles: Wordplay (and Crossworld)
Just saw Wordplay. Much fun! Probably not so much fun for non-crossword players, but I do play them, so it works out fine. (And I do pretty much only the NYT ones. I can usually do most of Thursday unaided, sometimes a Friday. I need help on Saturday. I can always do most of a Sunday, and often all of it. I am getting better.)
Of course, I’m totally not obsessive enough to be one of the real solvers. 2 minutes for a Monday? 10 for a Saturday? Please. I can do maybe 10 minutes for a Monday. (Well, probably less, but not that much. Anyways, I already read too damn fast, I might as well be slow on crosswords.)
I tried the puzzles on their website, but one keeps rejecting my obviously correct answers,[1] and another makes you search round on other websites for the clues. Then I gave up, because the interface also sucks.
I found I can only solve very short clues in my head.
Before you see this movie (or read the book Crossworld), solve this puzzle after downloading this software. You will regret it if you don’t and the solution is ruined for you. (People who remember a weird/contentious puzzle in 1996 can ignore this.) Seriously really, solve the puzzle. It’s, I think, a Tuesday, so it’s really easy. Plus, it’s totally worth solving. It is worth downloading software for.
Anyways, back to the movie. I liked it. I was disappointed in who won the tournament, though. And it was — of necessity — a bit light on some information (which I got through the book, though there’s supposed to be a companion book to this movie and what? I am so sane), which was a little disappointing. But at the same time, it *showed* in a way a book couldn’t. And I wasn’t sure how you could show a crossword puzzle being solved, it seems like the epitome of boring (you can’t even see the clues yourself), but it managed.
I was, I admit, sort of irritated by the pen(cil) thing they did. people, get a grip. Unless you never ever make a mistake with your pen, you’re just being an obnoxious snob.
Upshot: deserves all its praise. Go see the movie if you are any sort of nerd.
[1] Joshua’s conquest: JE_ICHO; Peak perfomances? ONEAC_PLAYS and, crossing those those, Short Havana misses, S__AS. I mean, seriously. There was no battle at Jepicho. I’ll make my mother try it.
June 28th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
I really liked this movie, too. I was half cringeing in sympathetic embarrassment, and half awed by the unabashed geekiness of the baton-twirler :)
I hadn’t done a crossword in a while, but after seeing that and finding my little cryptic crossword book, they’re my new obsession. I haven’t done a NYT sunday puzzle ever (and only just did the 2 free sample ones to see what they’re like), but it doesn’t seem like they could be so very hard, compared to cryptic ones where the clues are puzzles in themselves. I want to see a documentary about the people who win the cryptic crossword championships (that was apparently how they recruited people to work on code-breaking in WW2).
June 29th, 2006 at 12:16 am
I never got cryptic crosswords. Oh, sometimes I can get, like, a 4 letter word, but I never spent much time trying them.
Crosswords are easier — more crossing letters, and most clues are more straightforward. But they have their own vocabulary and rules. The ones on the site are very very easy.
June 29th, 2006 at 10:46 am
I meant to say I also liked the documentary about Scrabble players (Word Wars, I think). It focusses more on the obsessiveness of the players than on Scrabble itself, but they were interestingly freakish.
I figured the real puzzles were a lot harder than the examples, since I could solve them, even without knowing any of the American references. Actually, I think I just like the cryptic ones now because they don’t rely so much on knowing obscure words, so in a way, they’re easier. I shouldn’t have sounded so snobby :)
July 1st, 2006 at 12:18 pm
I don’t like Scrabble. I don’t like word games, really, so I guess that’s why I prefer crosswords to cryptic. But I don’t think it’s really argued that crypics are *harder* — they are.
September 23rd, 2006 at 6:23 pm
i don’t like scrabble but i do like word games and crosswords so screw what that says and i think all wolves are good whether they’re angels or devils or just themselves