Sept. 10, 2005 - 12:22 MDT

CWW

As I learned to read the fascination of watching Mom doing puzzles in the paper grabbed hold of me. My first attempts were just that, attempts. I lacked the vocabulary and the understanding to do much more than try. But that led me to my interest in words and meanings and of course along the line my love of the English language and its vast arrangements of definitions, often a silent cacophony that in itself whetted my curiosity.

So little by little I entered into the avocation of Cross Word Puzzles.

A life time excursion into the semantics of our language it has been for me and very pleasurable too.

Of course this can be applied to trying to understand the media and politicians. What they really mean by what they are saying. Then trying to understand the media reports of what the politicians are supposedly saying is another thing altogether.

How they can say one word, but twisting things to where the definition is 180 degrees out of phase of its actual meaning.

Nowadays, I feel like a stranger in a stranger land trying to understand the real meaning behind what is being said. Jargon, argot, localisms all twisted together into a rapidly tumbling stream of jabber it appears to me now.

In crosswordese there are words like "gel" and the words to use for that definition can be: Solidify, Set, Hair Goo and probably a few others. Definition of "friend" can be words such as, pal, ally, ami, amie, buddy and associate. Definition of "unwritten" can be oral, understood, accepted and routine among other things. And then "brash" is a whole other ball game, can be, rash, sassy, pert, bold, unmannerly, brassy and many others.

One looks at the definition and sees how many letters there are spaces for and tries to fit a word known to that person in there.

But then, sometimes it is a good idea to see if a word going across there will fit -- sometimes it helps to run into a word that is set and sure in our language that will cross and confirm the choice.

So, after the mental exercise of doing a crossword there is no monetary reward, no medal, no fame, just the satisfaction that one has applied his vocabulary into fitting words to each other crossways.

Nowadays I feel like a character in ? Spider Robinson's ? "Cross Time Saloon." A place where all the words are spelled differently with rapidly changing definitions. Ya' know, the games the same but the rules change on someone's whim.

So I live in a Cross Word World it appears and it's acronym is CWW . . . . . . . . .

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