"Quicker and Easier Crossword Puzzles"

Original title: "Enigmatologists Welcome"

Copyright © 2005 by Jim Mahood. All rights reserved.

What’s a five-letter word that means “walk through mud,” a seven-letter word for “wide-brimmed hat,” a six-letter expression for “no-goodnik”? These clues appear in Will Shortz’s new book Quicker and Easier Crossword Puzzles published by The New York Times company and St. Martin’s Paperbacks in 2005. Answers to the questions appear at the end of the review.

The New York Times is the #1 name in crosswords, cranking out zillions of puzzles in the daily paper and in books such as Crosswords to Boost Your Brainpower, Crosswords for Your Breakfast Table, Crosswords for the Work Week, Daily Crosswords, Easy Crosswords, Large-Print Crosswords, Sunday Crosswords, Tough Crosswords, and crosswords for “young solvers.” This wide selection permits buffs to match the size and difficulty of puzzles to their own preferences, knowledge, and wits.

For Quicker and Easier, a 288-page mass-market (small format) paperback, Shortz assembled 130 puzzles (and solutions) by many different writers, not just his own puzzles; Shortz, after all, is the editor of the book, not its author. The names of contributors to the book such as Alan Arbesfeld, Marjorie Berg, Sarah Keller, Todd McClary, Nancy Salomon, and many others may ring familiar to devotees of the Times’s huge oeuvre.

Shortz’s new book is popular because it combines easy and difficult clues within a range that promotes the expansion of useful vocabulary, not just words, phrases, and terms you meet only in crossword puzzles. These are puzzles originally published in the Monday and Tuesday papers where the easiest puzzles appear.

Who works crossword puzzles? A great many senior citizens do. As we age, physicians, psychologists, and others encourage us to challenge our minds in ways to keep them sharp as a deer knife. Often, the advice is to study a foreign language, but at this age I’d rather improve my English because English is more widely written and spoken throughout the world than any other language in history.

Crosswords not only build vocabulary but can also teach resourcefulness and problem-solving skills. For instance: Successful puzzle-decoders learn to stick with problems until solution despite errors and the urge to quit. They learn to crack difficult clues by approaching them from several angles simultaneously. And they learn to be guided partly by intuition and the subconscious by working holistically on puzzles rather than by focusing only on a single clue or tiny section. This strategy also takes words you only recognize passively but do not really “know” or use and converts them to more functional, active vocabulary, thus reducing instances of “at a loss for words.”

Other individuals who gravitate to crosswords include word lovers, bookworms, writers, and puzzle nuts of all ages, sizes, and descriptions. Perhaps the classic New York Times crossword-puzzle fanatic is the daily subway commuter. Even strap hangers can turn their interminably long, hot, crowded rides into engrossing, productive sessions. The Times can be folded a certain way so only the puzzle is visible, forming a rectangle just big enough to completely block out the face of the stranger with his elbow in your ribs. The rest of the paper provides a hard enough surface to write on.

Where can you find this little gem? Bookfinder.com lists more than a dozen sellers of the book, including Abebooks.com, Alibris.com, Amazon.com, BooksAMillion.com, and Half.com. If you don’t insist on working puzzles only from the Times, you can find free crosswords at www.crosswordpuzzlegames.com, www.bestcrosswords.com, and www.quizland.com/cotd.htm.

By the way, Barnes & Noble book stores often devote an entire carousel to the Times’s large-format crossword-puzzle books.

Shortz is the only man in the world with a degree in “enigmatology.” He has been the crossword editor of The Times since 1993, is the puzzle master of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, and is founder and director of the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. On 60 Minutes, Steve Kroft called him “the crossword king.” Shortz can be reached at http://www.crosswordtournament.com.

Answers: slosh, skimmer, bad egg.