Nine-letter word, begins with C, means "addictive"

I'm having pretty good luck with this one.One of my favorite weekend pastimes is tackling the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle.

All right, that's a gross exaggeration. I rarely finish one of these monsters in a weekend. Usually, I start when The New York Times Magazine arrives in the Saturday portion of the newspaper and am still at it well into the week. Even then it's rare for me to complete the entire thing without at least a couple of empty white squares here and there.

I shouldn't even like the crossword. In general, I find games of all kinds sort of pointless, unless there's money involved (hello, Texas Hold'em). And I'm certainly not of a mind that crosswords make people smarter. All I have learned after all these years is a whole lot of arcane words that crop up again and again in the puzzle. "Imam" is a common one. So is "Eno," as in Brian, the musician, who is likely more famous to crossword people than he is in real life. Oh, and "orated." That's a big one.

The crossword also demands a working knowledge of high school French (check), obscure authors (check, sometimes), the names of characters in Ibsen and Checkhov plays (check, but only because I've now memorized "Nora" from A Doll's House), and extensive baseball history (uh, no).

Aside from figuring out individual clues, you must also decipher the main theme of the puzzle. A few weeks ago, all of the long answers were names of television shows and movies about King Arthur. This week, the title of the puzzle is "E. U. Doings" (the title is always a clue to the theme) and the clues are inscrutable phrases like, "'The bolt alone is sufficient'?" and "'I can't drink beer this late' ?"

What I really enjoy about doing the puzzle is the way I can be absolutely flummoxed by a word, stare at it for hours, give up, and then come back after a meal or a good night's rest and the answer is so obvious it's ridiculous. That happened this morning with 87 across, then 87 down, and then 88 down. Three clues with one blow! And, best of all, I've figured out the theme, so it's smooth sailing from here on out.

You're toast, crossword puzzle.

Comments

[Yoga Spy]

I discovered your blog by accident, due to a college connection. Very amusing posts! Here, I love your quip about Brian Eno and your use of "flummox," a word that I want someday to toss off in casual conversation (like George Costanza and "anathema").

Friendly regards,
Yoga Spy
www.yogaspy.wordpress.com

[Lauren Lipton]

Thanks, Yoga Spy!