The Daily Puzzles
The daily puzzles have become a routine, and I feel rather childish in clocking them up each day. I suppose I justify my puzzling by the rationale that they keep my brain functioning and help to stave off dementia. I have always been skeptical about that: you often read that doing crossword puzzles helps to delay the onset of dementia, but I doubt if any study has actually established causation. Maybe people who do crossword puzzles just have more energetic and enquiring brains that deteriorate more slowly.
So the day starts with the New York Times Spelling Bee, which I work on as I eat my breakfast--listening to the classical music station, but switching off if PBS News comes on Make words from seven letters, with each word including the letter in the center of the circle: words must be at least four letters. A four letter word counts as one point, and the longer the words the more points they garner. Words that contain all the letters ('pangrams') score very highly. My aim is to get to 'Genius' level, which is the highest level before you get to Queen Bee--all the words in the compiler's list. I never bother to try to get to that level. Generally, I do get to genius level..sometimes by accessing the hints that are available.
And then there is Wordle--again to be solved during breakfast. And I usually succeed at that, except when there are, say, two possible words and I simply choose the wrong one.
Some time during the day, I go into KenKen online and try the 5x5 HARD puzzle. I used to do the MEDIUM difficulty, but I found I usually got the right answer. So I started the HARD, and now my record is about 50:50. I often keep going until I find I have made a mistake somewhere, and I usually quit at that point, though sometimes I clear the puzzle and start all over again.
I also like to succeed--at sometime during the day--with the solitaire game Freecell. I am fairly good at it, and my wins certainly far exceed my losses. I get a lot of satisfaction when I manage to dig myself out of what seems like an impossible situation.
And there are crossword puzzles--online from the Guardian or in a book of 200 puzzles from the British Daily Telegraph. Incidentally, I learned to do the Telegraph cryptic puzzles as a boy--my father did them every day, and I learned all the tricks of the setters from him. These puzzles are not a daily routine--maybe a few a week.
So that's my puzzling day....
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