2024, Family, History, Media, Uncategorized, Words

Cheater

29 Comments

I love crossword puzzles. I subscribe to the New York Times online, and get their crossword puzzles all week as well as the one in the New Yorker each edition.

I hope none of you think of me as a cheater, but I feel it entirely within my rights to look up crossword clues on line. Given the number of sites I see for just this purpose, there must be many like me. I view these puzzles as research projects, not as measures of my intellectual acumen. It is so satisfying when they are completed and correct!

Today would be my mother’s 100th birthday. She didn’t mind bending the rules at all! She got secretly married at 19 against the 1942 rules of Mankato State that students couldn’t be married. Ha! She showed them!

What are your favorite puzzles to solve? When do you bend the rules?

29 thoughts on “Cheater”

  1. Logic puzzles come up frequently on Mind Your Decisions.
    Most of the math problems are over my head but still interesting to see how the calculations are made. I am familiar with algebra but trig and calculus are beyond me.

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  2. I’m not quite the crossword geek that you are, but I DO spend time with the weekly New Yorker puzzle when it arrives through the mail slot. I used to get defeated by “information” questions, like “the protagonist in (name of movie)”. Then my sister in law pointed out that she looks them up. I began to differentiate “information” from “vocabulary”, and now I look those up, almost without pausing.
    I lived outside of the USA for 40 of my 72 years, so lots of movie and TV questions are outside of my knowing. I do love, though, a clever twist of meaning in the clues, that might pick up an obscure use of a word. When I get one of those, I feel like a crossword champion.

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  3. I seldom do constructed puzzles like crosswords. I did Wordle for a while but quit when I got to 100. It just doesn’t feel to me like a worthwhile use of my time or like much of an accomplishment. The puzzles I like best are, for example, ones I discover and try to solve in genealogy.

    Regarding rules, my first question is, “whose rules?” Followed by “what is their authority?”.

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    1. My favorite geneology puzzle that I solved, I wrote about here years ago. It was the Johannes Hammacher riddle in which all eight sons were given the first name Johannes, then referred to by their middle names. So my ancestor was Johannes Christian Hammacher. But all eight of them served serially in the same Revolutionary War Pennsylvania Militia under the same enrollment card with the name “John Hammacher” on it. So, the Independence effort got eight soldiers for the price of one.

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  4. I do an occasional Sudoku when I’m bored, but I’m mainly a crossworder. However, the daily puzzles are too easy for me, so I only do the NYT Sunday and the other Sunday puzzle that comes in the Sunday Strib.

    I only look up answers when I’m totally stumped. Usually after an hour of working on it, then a rest, then a return with fresh eyes, which allows me to solve almost every time. Only then will I look up an answer.

    One thing I’m noticing is that the puzzles get harder because of the pop culture references that I don’t keep up on any more. But I can still figure out most of them by filling in adjacent answers. Sooner or later, either my brain will turn to mush and I can’t finish a puzzle, or I’ll take one look at the clues, see no names, titles, or events that I recognize and realize I’m now a fossilized relic of days gone by. 🙂

    I bend rules quite often, usually on the golf course when I’m not competing for anything, or local-state-national laws that are virtually impossible to enforce–like speed limits. 35 in a 30 in perfect weather with little or no traffic (car or pedestrian) is fine with me. Jaywalking? Pfft! Only if I cause an accident (highly unlikely). Not triple-checking my tax return for math errors? Go ahead and audit me, IRS. If you want to squeeze an extra dollar or two out of me by spending hundreds on an audit, you need to reassess your priorities.

    Chris in Owatonna

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    1. I find on the crosswords that now I don’t know the cultural references, i.e. pop singers of the younger generation. Which tells me the crossword creators that are my age retired and the young ones are taking up the job.

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      1. This is how I feel about Connections. Any categories having to do with current music — I don’t even get the references after they’ve been given to me.

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  5. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I still play Wordle, but now I find it pretty easy. I also do the one called “Connections” about categories of words, and now I usually get the puzzle. I like crosswords, as well, but I find it far more satisfying to do it on paper with a pencil than on-line. I wish NYT would allow the puzzle to be printed daily. If I have a migraine, of which I have had many lately, then I cannot come up with the words, though. That is very frustrating.

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  6. Your mom sounds feisty, Renee!

    We do the Wordle almost every day, as it’s a good brain exercise. We can usually get it in 4 or less, but if it’s getting too late, we’ll finally get a hint from something like Mashable – if you’re careful, you can just get their meaning hint; then if we still can’t get it, you can get the first letter, which almost always does it.

    Crosswords – yes, by all means look up the informational stuff you don’t know.

    I figure it’s only cheating if you lie about it, and say you solved it without the looking up.

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  8. I’ve always loved puzzles of various kinds. I like Sudoku, Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee, and the NYT crossword puzzle. When doing crossword puzzles I’ll resort to looking up the answer if I have to. If it’s the name of a celebrity, chances are I won’t remember it for long. I don’t think there are any rules against looking up answers to crossword clues, but it’s more satisfying coming up with the answers on your own.

    Compared to husband, who breaks rules just for the sport of it, I tend to follow most rules, but I’m no more virtuous than the average Joe. I don’t think I’m any less virtuous, either.

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    1. my dad had a feisty friend who was told by his doctor that he had to quit drinking or smoking or it would kill him

      in how long he asked

      2 years

      and how long will i live if i do it

      5 years

      i’d rather live 2 years my way than 5 years in a way i’d hate

      he died happily in 2 years and made sure he enjoyed those last 2 years

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  10. I’ve always thought that rules don’t apply to me. I go in the out door. I roll through stop signs. Closed? Really?

    I like word search puzzles. And I play solitaire on the phone every day. Never could get the hang of sodoku.

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  12. Every once in a while, when the line for the Women’s Room is way too long, I’ll use the men’s room if there’s no one in it. I’m not talking about places with multiple stalls – just an individual one… usually no one ever knows…

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    2. I went to a show in a theater a couple of months ago, and during the intermission the line for the ladies’ room was so long that a member of the staff ushered a group of women into the men’s restroom. They had put up a sort of screen between the stalls and the urinals. The stalls became an auxiliary ladies’ room.

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  15. Puzzles aren’t really my thing. I like crosswords the best, but I don’t always finish them. I do the daily Wordle. I also play solitaire on my phone, but only when I’m just sitting with nothing to do, such as in a waiting room. I’d rather read.

    The teacher for my knitting class is an excellent knitter, very skilled. She’s not a great teacher though, at least not for me. I have learned a lot in 3 hours. I’ve supplemented what I learned in the class by watching YouTube videos. I taught myself casting on and casting off by watching videos. Is that cheating?

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  16. i got into farmville and had to dump it because it became additive

    i recently started dualingo for chinese and it feels similar i play baccarat online and do daily sports stuff with baseball football and basketball as the season rolls around (gave up golf)

    my time is not conducive to crosswords and jigsaws ( but the way i saw a jigsaw that came in 12 or 20 one hour packets within i thought it was genius) and other brain teasers

    cutting the corners on the straight and narrow …YES

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