Clued In About Crosswords

13 THINGS

- Emily Goodman

1 IF YOU'VE ever 1 picked up and then put down—a crossword puzzle, don't get discouraged. Crosswords are less about intelligence and vocabulary than you might think. The real key is understanding the clues. For instance, question marks indicate some element of word play. So, while the answer to "Job that involves watching the kids" might be BABYSITTER, add a question mark to the end of the clue and it's more likely GOATHERD.

2 SPEAKING OF kids, they were among the earliest solvers. Primitive versions of the puzzle first appeared in British children's books in the 1800s. But in the United States, crosswords developed into an adult pastime-and passion-after Arthur Wynne published his original "Word-Cross" puzzle in the New York World on Dec. 21, 1913 (the anniversary of which is now National Crossword Puzzle Day).

Weeks later, the name became "Cross-Word."

3 SOON, ALMOST all daily newspapers on both sides of 3: the Atlantic were running crosswords, with one notable exception.

In 1924, the New York Times described the craze as "a sinful waste in the utterly futile finding of words," and didn't publish a puzzle of its own until 1942.

Now, the maker of perhaps the world's most famous crossword has a different outlook, likening the puzzle to "mental yoga," both challenging and relaxing at the same time.