Puzzling in the Digital Age

A couple of weeks ago, juggling time and dollar considerations, I finally subscribed to the NYTimes premium crosswords online. AcrossLite, far from something to avoid, is a marvel to be embraced: put the grid and clues where they work most comfortably for you on the screen, and solve away with abandon and no fear of eraser crumbs or ink blots. No disappointment when the newsstand has run out of the Times, or waiting until the newsstand opens -- solve the day's puzzle at 4 a.m. if you'd like and be on your way ...

So the theory went, anyway. In practice, I was beginning to wonder if all I'd done was waste the $40 annual fee. In two weeks, I'd used the site once, and scrambled for the paper version the rest of the time. It was nonsense. I'd spent the money. I felt guilty about trees dying to supply my habit. And, even if I missed getting the paper, I still did not log on to get my solving fix.

Sunday's second puzzle was the expected Double Acrostic, which I've challenged myself to solve from now on, since Ellen recently broke the spell of my never managing to finish them. I found this one, as I usually find them, a bit of a rough go and took several wrong turns in my determination to get further than a word or two into it. I was using pen, not pencil, absolutely a mistake, but I really don't like pencils, especially on the slick paper of the Times magazine.

I needed to go online anyway to look up a couple of references in the puzzle, so, looking at the ink-blotty mess the Acrostic was quickly becoming, I logged into the premium crosswords for some onscreen solving. I filled in the few entries I already knew, looked up Maine's state tree, realized what event it was other than childbirth (much on my mind what with the Valentine's Day arrival of my 3rd grandson) that involved an umbilical cord, and used the Visual Thesaurus resource to help figure out the heavy useless burden clue ... and, voila, had the Acrostic happily solved sans crumbs and blots.

I still did the Monday puzzle on paper ... but I can see I'll be doing the Acrostics online from now on ...