Crosswords for Keeping the Mind Healthy

If you have been doing crosswords for a long time now, you might have noticed that it takes a certain amount of brain activity to process and solve all the clues and finish filling up all the white boxes on the puzzle grid. So the question of does crosswords keep the mind healthy has been one of the more frequent ones being linked to crosswords.

Studies have been conducted on how certain activities enhance or influence the brain. Now it is common knowledge that the brain becomes dull when left unused, which may not be the best term to use but the simplest one to help drive the point. It is also a known fact that most elderly people who have kept their minds and body active are livelier and healthier compared to those who did not but belong to the same age.

Of course, crossword puzzles are not the only thing that can keep the mind active. Others involve mathematics other than word play. But crosswords apply to most people since not all are mathematical geniuses or have the stomach to tackle numbers, fractions, and equations. So, most people prefer tackling crossword puzzles instead. Now as people, especially the elderly, practice crossword puzzle solving everyday, they will eventually become good at it. The feeling of satisfaction and sense of accomplishment can also help the emotional and psychological well-being of the elderly.

This health of mind relationship with crossword puzzles has already been explored with various diseases. The possible influences the game has on the brain and how it relates to a healthier and longer life is still not conclusive. Nonetheless, some findings suggest that activities that engage the brain to process helps people remain sharp and mindful.

Although, some studies and experts negate what people think about crossword puzzles and brain or overall health. The fact of the matter is that there are no conclusive findings yet which would indicate with finality and assertiveness that crosswords can cure or prevent brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

According to some studies, what engaging in crossword puzzles can do to the brain is to improve fluency or the ability to find words. Of course, if you do practice crossword puzzles long enough, you get trained and become better at it. So even though crossword puzzles cannot be attributed as the overall direct relief of a certain brain ailment or condition, engaging in such activities still helps improve some of the functions of the brain.

Here are the things we found so far: intellectual activities, including of course, crossword puzzle solving has the potential to prevent brain disease. So even though it is not proven that crosswords can prevent Alzheimer’s, it has been found out that regular brain exercises can actually reduce the risk of contracting the disease by half. Crossword puzzles join activities like chess, board games, card games, sodoku, reading, playing musical instruments, and ballroom dancing.

The key element in keeping the brain healthy and reducing the effect of ageing is the right combination of brain exercise. Crosswords puzzlers are good but it has been found out that no single brain enhancement activity can actually provide a complete brain workout. It is usually a combination of various activities both mentally and physically which can help maintain a sharp and active mind.

June 21, 2009 · Filed Under Crossword Puzzles

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Rules in Making a Crossword

Everything has there own conventions. Rules or guidelines are there to help maintain quality and ensure a uniform standard which becomes the basis of evaluation which promotes, eventually, further improvement or development. You might ask why the serious tone. We’re talking about crossword puzzles and the first few sentences you read are about rules and standards like I was talking about ISO standards that need to be followed. You have to pardon me for the seemingly out of place and an over reaction of an introduction. I was so accustomed at enjoying crossword puzzles that it never occurred to be that there are actually rules in making a crossword.

Yes, believe it or not, that small square of entertainment that you fill out in your daily newspaper does follow certain guidelines during the creation process. Although, it appears that the guidelines may differ depending on the editor of the entertainment section or the editor of the newspaper. For example, some newspapers will require crossword puzzle submissions to be of a symmetrical nature. This basically means you will get the same pattern from the crossword grid when you view it upside-down. But make no mistake, the symmetry is purely the reference for patterns only and does not really affect the answers in the puzzle.

Despite having no standardized guidelines for making crosswords, there are some well accepted rules that most papers follow.

One guideline that seems to be followed by conventional puzzle makers pertains to the use of black squares. Traditionally, only 16% of the squares in a crossword puzzle grid should be black ones. But today, editors and even the target audience frown upon a crossword puzzle with too many black squares clump together. Today the idea is to create a puzzle with as few black squares as possible. It is also now strongly suggested that puzzle solvers can go from one corner of the grid to another.

The minimum length of an answer in a crossword should be less than three letters. Two-letter words should be avoided. You should take care of not accidentally creating two-letter words from the intersecting words. When selecting words for the grid, you get the longest one and make sure that the across and down boxes are symmetrical. I do maintain that this practice is a personal reference. There are several crossword puzzles out there that are not symmetrical in any way. So it would be your decision if you want to publish an asymmetrical crossword grid.

Other guidelines include not repeating words in the grid. This is something that a puzzle maker should do. In the first place, there’s no need to repeat a word in grid since there are a lot of word or terms out there that can be used in a decent crossword. Repeating word entries is inexcusable. Also, inventing your words to accommodate a word resulting from intersecting answers is never allowed. Often, editors will require puzzle makers to produce their set of references for the answers they placed inside the crossword. Also, wrong spellings and punctuations in both the answers and clues are unacceptable.

Speaking of clues, you need to write concise clues. Avoid writing questions as clues. Such practice is often avoided unless absolutely necessary. When writing the actual clues, be sure that you follow proper grammar rules. The first word of each clue should be capitalized as well as proper nouns and names.

When making your own crossword, do not forget for whom you are creating the puzzle. Coordinate with them closely to see if they still have other specific rules and guidelines.

June 20, 2009 · Filed Under Crossword Puzzles

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Crosswords Where it All Began

One across, ten down. Crossword puzzles, you can love them but sometimes you curse them. Okay, maybe I’m just going overboard. But those little square boxes and the crisscrossing words can be quite addictive. But have you ever wondered where they came from or who started all this. From the easiest one to the most complicated, these puzzles must have an origin which we can trace back to as early as 1913.

It was journalist Arthur Wynne who is often credited as the inventor of the first crossword. This journalist from Liverpool, England was working for the World back then. His “word-cross”, which was what he called it came out in December 21, 1913. Although, it is not the same as the puzzles we know today, there are a lot of similarities and basically the idea is the same. The puzzles were later renamed as “crosswords” and slowly began to be popular. Other papers began publishing these puzzles as well. And by the 1920s, one can no longer deny the popularity of the crossword puzzle. To add to its fame, Simon and Schuster published a crossword puzzle book in 1924. The book was even sold with a pencil attached to it so people can get on it the minute they bought the book.

The puzzles popularity even went as far as the reference sections of libraries. In fact, it is known that the New York Public Library even considered banning people who were at a fix with their puzzles from the dictionaries and other materials they have from the library’s reference section. The library claimed that these crossword puzzlers, as they call them, prevent students and other readers who need the dictionaries and encyclopedias more.

From the 1920s to the 1930s, the popularity of the crossword puzzles soared. In fact, there was so much attention given to it that the issue of it becoming a fad was not gone unnoticed by critics. Some has called it as nothing but a meaningless and mindless waste of anyone’s time. In fact, there were some publications that insisted on not including crosswords in their papers because they believe that it was nothing but a craze that soon will pass. The crazy phase did die down in the 1930s but the impact the crosswords had remained and continue to be a part of the daily lives of millions of people today.

In terms of popularity and prominence, the New York Times crossword puzzle is notorious for being one of the most difficult to solve. The Times began publishing the puzzles only from 1942. The paper was among those publications that did not feel to ride on the popularity of the puzzles more than a decade earlier.

During World War II, some military intelligence officers became paranoid with crosswords. They thought that the appearance of some words that coincides to secret military codes for the upcoming invasion of Germany was being passed on to the enemy. The puzzles in question were the ones that appeared from May to June 1944 on The Daily Telegraph. However, it was proven that the appearance of certain words in the puzzles were mere coincidence. Nevertheless, that fact that crosswords can be used to transmit coded messages was never disregarded by the military.

The puzzles have come a long way since then. But the truth remains that it still has a horde of followers today and will continue to have so even in the distant future.

June 19, 2009 · Filed Under Crossword Puzzles