Wordplay
I saw Wordplay tonight. Very, very, very cool. Anyone who’s into puzzles at all has to see it.
It reminded me that I’d love to do more crossword puzzles. They’re tons of fun and they’re the kind of thing where the more often I do them the better I get, but I’ve gotten out of practice in recent years. Maybe I’ll sign up for the New York Times’ Premium Crosswords; we’ll see.
One of the best things about the movie was the soundtrack. Many of the songs were ones for which I know that I’ll smile every time I hear them. The trick is hearing them again — I can’t find the soundtrack anywhere. I wonder when it’ll be out….
Nicholas Riley Said,
July 14, 2006 @ 9:08 am
Wow, I should see that - I got hooked on crossword puzzles a few years ago, and have found it’s the best thing for me when I can’t sleep; if I pick a hard one (which, despite plenty of practice, is usually a Thursday or later in the NY Times) I’ll tire my brain out and go right to sleep.
If you’re not otherwise a subscriber, the NYT Premium Crosswords service is good; one advantage over the newspaper is that you can print the weekday puzzles _large_ (and, in my case, I don’t get newsprint on the bed). Across Lite is pretty decent, or there’s MacXword too, which is a bit sluggish because it’s written with Cocoa-Java.
Andy Lee Said,
July 16, 2006 @ 9:44 pm
I keep meaning to see the movie.
I’ve been a NY Times crossword junkie for years. I have the online subscription, and print the puzzle every day. (That’s right, I subscribe online to avoid killing trees, so I can kill *other* trees by printing the puzzles.)
I use Across Lite because it lets me print with the grid in the lower right corner, which means my hand doesn’t obscure the clues as I’m filling in the answers. One minor annoyance about Across Lite is that I have to hit OK in three consecutive dialogs — Return, Return, Return — to print a puzzle. And for some reason there’s a long pause between two of the dialogs. I suspect it’s doing some font calculations to figure out how to lay out the clues around the grid. I’ve contemplated writing an app whose only job is to download the puzzle and print it just the way I like.
I used MacXword years ago. I don’t remember if I had any complaints other than it not letting me place the grid. I think it used to not have a ink saver mode like Across Lite does, but I checked it out just now and it does. Unfortunately, it doesn’t run on Intel Macs, so it wouldn’t be my choice anyway.
Ellen Said,
July 18, 2006 @ 11:32 pm
This blogger has links to the songs from the movie.
http://fuelfriends.blogspot.com/2006/07/he-moves-his-words-like-prizefighter.html
Andrew S Said,
July 26, 2006 @ 12:54 am
I highly recommend cryptic crosswords. They aren’t popular in the US for some reason, but are common in British papers (you can easily find some on the web). Once you do those, you may not be able to go back to regular crossword puzzles.