Do you like puzzles?
National Puzzle Day is celebrated on January 29 each year. There is some argument as to whether the observance was created by Jodi Jill, a newspaper puzzle maker and editor who wanted to “honor her passion,” or by game companies who wanted to make money. Either way, there’s no reason we can’t both honor our passion for puzzles while allowing game makers to cash in.
In fact, one of the things I like most about puzzles is that I rarely pay for them—directly at least. I don’t pay Microsoft for solitaire, mahjong, minesweeper, sudoku, or jigsaw. I just let the commercials run with the sound off. Now that I am retired, time is of little value to me.
Puzzles, as you know, come in wide variety of forms. There are jigsaw puzzles, word puzzles, logic puzzles, mechanical puzzles, mazes, and many more. I like all kinds of puzzles, probably because analytical thinking is one of my strengths and procrastination is one of my weaknesses. Puzzles are a great time-waster.
I like word puzzles most of all. I waste time on Wordament a lot. I can’t reach the top ten, but I have made it as high as 38th. Since I use a mouse on a desktop instead of a finger on a smart phone or tablet, I am inherently slower. But I usually run out of words before I run out of time anyway.
Word games are an entire world unto themselves. In addition to the usual crosswords and acrostics, there are jumbles, cryptograms, and word searches. Word games can be played with paper and pencil, electronic devices, or on boards. Probably the most popular of the board games is Scrabble.
One type of puzzle that I love is the rebus, which is generally solving a word or phrase using pictures (like the old TV Concentration game). A sub-category of the rebus is the wuzzle. Wuzzles are word puzzles consisting of combinations of words, letters, figures or symbols positioned to create disguised words, phrases, names, places, sayings, etc.
I used to subscribe to Games magazine, and one of my favorite features was Eyeball Benders. These are close-up photographs of ordinary objects, and the goal was to identify them. There’s a sample to the left of this paragraph. Can you figure out what this object is? I’ve left a clue.
I have bragged before about how my nephew is a world-class puzzle champion. For a number of years he has competed in the World Puzzle Championships and the World Sudoku Championships. Obviously, in international competitions, word puzzles are not included. The puzzles are generally math-based. Although my nephew has been the highest-finishing American in Sudoku several times, he hasn’t cracked the top 25 worldwide. He has done better in the puzzle competition, finishing in the top ten worldwide individually on several occasions and being part of a winning US team. In the puzzle competition in the Slovak Republic last October, he finished eighth individually and the US team was third. He was always a mathematical prodigy. He could add triple digit numbers in his head when he was five years old. It was scary.
AARP says puzzles are good for old people like me. That gives me a good excuse to waste time on silly puzzles instead of cleaning the bathroom. Not that I really need an excuse. So how about you CUActors? Do you like puzzles?
THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY