Puzzling

I feel a little silly that the one Times crossword puzzle that I do, the one that comes in the magazine, is technically an easy one. Who's to judge? I started doing them around Christmas. In the past I was stopped by the fact that I could only get about three answers to my first run down the clues. But I guess I've developed more patience in my 27th year, and with that, my crossword mind is developing, slowly but sure. But I still haven't completed an entire crossword. There’s always about three clues in a side area that baffle me, but they don’t effect the rest of the puzzle, so I let them go.

Well last week’s really stumped me, even after I got the theme “High Five” -- with 5 letters repeating... You guessed it — O-B-A-M-A! Usually the older or extremely academic cultural references get me, anything with “#1 song in 1976” or “BBC frequent commentator Phillip.” I mean, come on! 

I had been feeling a little defeated about this week’s puzzle situation, until I went to Rex Parker’s Times Puzzle Blog. He labelled it easy, and finished it correctly, and seemed to be unphased by the whole deal, but when I read through all his notes, I felt so validated! I had made a lot of the same misakes he had, even if I a) hadn’t known they were mistakes or b) knew my answers were incorrect but had nothing else. Made me think I should keep at it. And one day, yes, one day, I really will complete all answers of the puzzle -- even without googling for answers on my Blackberry! Having Rex’s blog will console me until that day.