Confessions Of A Crossword Fiend

By Author: Donald Ladew
Total Articles: 5
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Thoughts on why doing crosswords is good for the body and soul.
Do I really need to know the definition of egregious? You're probably thinking, oh, oh, not another one of those word nuts. I really don't need to know the definition ait or yurt. This little essay is about memory, trivia, the odd bit of history and the retention thereof. One viewpoint says if you leave things lying in the closet too long, you will forget they are there. Same thing goes for the garage. Maybe this is okay. Personally I don't think so. Another viewpoint might be that all knowledge is useful in some way. That's probably too simplistic. I suspect there is truth in both. There are other viewpoints. If you are a writer, you better know every word you can get your hands on, or into your memory. How much slower writing goes when the sentence that needs a special word goes unwritten because we can't find exactly what is needed. When I was ten I read so much I worried there wouldn't be room enough in my head and it would explode spattering my surroundings with brains and such in some really disgusting way. I did not know the pluses and minuses ...
... of having a vivid visual imagination at the time. I read more and discovered that it would not explode. I was greatly relieved. It still hasn't exploded many years later. Another example of the value or penalty of reading anything in print came in my twenties when I was working in the Philippine jungle. I happened across a large tome on tropical medicine. I should have used it for a doorstop. Instead I read it. For the next month I manifested twenty or thirty of the most horrible, disfiguring diseases known to medical science. Those diseases fell into the fertile soil of my mind like seeds on the jungle floor. Large, open suppurating sores and testes the size of coconuts played heavily in my waking and sleeping thoughts. Now I am somewhat older (the actual number is irrelevant). If I forget to call my brother he makes bad jokes about Alzheimer's. These jokes notwithstanding, I am convinced that the memory, like the mind itself that is not exercised will atrophy. Crossword puzzles are my way of exercising my memories. This is a garage that I clean and neaten regularly. The other garage I will clean if threatened with a baseball bat across the knees, having to date Hilary Clinton for a week or listen to Rap for two hours uninterrupted. Metaphysically I think that doing crosswords is like shining a light on the many corners of the mind, and that light, that particular energy is retained by those locations even after you have moved on to other memories. I am the pilot of this odd little boat and when I decide to visit the physical mind I generate energy and that energy adds a little life to each memory visited. There, that ought to be confusing enough for the average academic. A chemical engineer probably has a different take on this theory. Yes, I am addicted. Perhaps I should be standing in front of others who suffer from this terrible malady, admitting to my condition with great courage, facing up to my problem. I have the crossword monkey firmly astride my pitiful shoulders. Whew! I feel a lot better about myself. I think I'll go to the second hand bookstore; see if I can find a nice dictionary or four, I only have sixty one. About the Author Mr. Ladew has traveled and worked all over the world. He spent many years as an aerospace engineer. He works as a technical writer and trainer. Mr. Ladew is also a novelist (2 books published), writes articles, essays, short stories and Haiku. he has also written a best selling business book for mid-level supervisors.