It's all about priority. Every afternoon, I do the crossword first, the sudoku second, and the cryptoquote (often the hardest of the batch) third. That's in order of preference. Then I read the comics and maybe, if I have a chance, find out what's happening in the world. But only if I feel like I might care.
I don't get a regular cryptoquote. Well, actually, the only paper that I get delivered these days is the Times, so I don't get anything other than the crossword. But I wouldn't mind the cryptoquote, or the Scrabble puzzle. I do, however, get the Jumble! Man, the headaches I get matching wits against the Jumble . . .
Oh, wait, that comment doesn't make any sense. The Plain Dealer, delivery of which is currently on indefinite vacation suspension, lacks a cryptoquote and the Scrabble puzzle, but does have the Jumble. The New York Times does not in fact have a Jumble, other than Maureen Dowd's writing style.
My dilemma is that The Detroit Free Press has much better comics, but no cryptoquote, while the Detroit News has horrid comics (and lamentable politics) but a regular cryptoquote plus a cyclic string of daily alternative puzzle. Both have crosswords and sudoku. The jumble is only in the News as well, and I do that on occasion (we are speaking of the one with 4 jumbled clues and a "punnish" answer to a final question, no?) My problem is that I'll get the answer first and then suffer the dilemma of whether doing the actual jumbles is a question of intellectual integrity.
And Heh! on Maureen Dowd. I've had similarly disapprobationary thoughts about her logic skills.
Hey. A cryptoquote is a simple substitution cypher puzzle wherein a quote is encoded by changing all letters into other letters (i.e. "e" becomes "q".) They can be extremely easy or relatively difficult depending on the sorts of words used and the repetition patterns of letters in a given quote. You can probably google some examples.
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And Heh! on Maureen Dowd. I've had similarly disapprobationary thoughts about her logic skills.
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PS: Hi, Ran!
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