The Crossword

"It is one of man's curious idiosyncracies to create difficulties for the pleasure of resolving them." - Joseph de Maistre

In Taps we love our crosswords….well…I should more accurately say that in Taps many of us love our crosswords. The corollary of which naturally being that in Taps some people hate the crossword.

And they hate it for the reason that we love it. Because it consumes our attention and our time, such that we neglect their conversation and, as a result, their feelings.

This bothers some people more than others (Irena and Gerry for instance).

Unfortunately for them though is the fact that a good crossword should be something of a struggle. It should be difficult and devious. It should be obscure and subtle. It should, above all, be hard.

There’s no fun in just whizzing through filling everything in [Jade] – you might as well just be writing out your shopping list if you do that.

The fun comes in the puzzle. In looking at it from every angle. In breaking it down into its composite parts. In deciphering the cryptic clue. In reevaluating your previous answers. In ransacking your memory for meanings and definitions, and then – and only then – getting it.

That moment of epiphany when you get it.

That House eureka moment when it suddenly comes to you. That brief moment when for a second you feel like a bloody genius.

Of course, in the Taps, the crossword is more than just a personal mental challenge, because in the Taps crosswords are communal. They form the centerpiece around which conversations revolve. We can spend an evening puzzling over a crossword together – sometimes giving it all of our concentration and focus, and sometimes only half a mind while we talk about our desert Island food and whether if a secret passageway were to appear in the Taps we would go down or not.

So, in that sense, the crossword is something of a prop. A familiar contrivance around which evenings are sometimes built, as well as being valued in themselves just for the enjoyment they give.

Or at least that’s my take on it anyway.

Anyway, Hate the White Spaces, yo.