I adore crossword puzzles. I am, admittedly, quite a pedantic person.
The two go hand-in-hand, I think.
I mean, you have to be, even in the slightest way, obnoxious about your intelligence to have the want to do a crossword in the first place. Crossword puzzles are a way to show off the fact that you know obscure words and several obscure synonyms to those obscure words. They are a way to dazzle folks with your brilliance, especially when you jot down part of a title of a lesser known Elvis movie (made long before you were born, of course) in a most casual manner.
The Matterhorn, for one? It is an Alp and you, as an expert crossword puzzle solver, aren’t afraid to let people know that you know that.
On my lunch break, a small group of us sit and do the daily crossword together. Those who happen to be in the room at the same time watch us as though they were watching C-SPAN; confused and opinion-less, but enthralled and in awe.
I think crosswords are fun not entirely because they make me feel brainy, but because they allow me to use my brain. I can feel the gears turning as I reel through all the information being stored between my ears to find that one word with the correct number of letters that will further me along.
That feeling is magical.
