People sometimes express amazement that I insist on doing crossword puzzles in ink. It's not because I'm so smart, but when I do a puzzle in pencil, there's so much erasure that I either tear through the page or the whole thing is just one big smear by the time I'm done.

No, I like doing them in ink because you can see the struggle, and even re-live it a little if it was a particularly tough puzzle.

We were finished today's Times puzzle by about 3:30 in the afternoon (starting at about 11:30 and taking a good hour lunch break when our brains started to hurt). Not our best day, but at least we got it finished with minimal Google.

In a way, I also think a hard-fought puzzle looks kinda artistic when it's done:

People sometimes express amazement that I insist on doing crossword puzzles in ink. It's not because I'm so smart, but when I do a puzzle in pencil, there's so much erasure that I either tear through the page or the whole thing is just one big smear by the time I'm done.

No, I like doing them in ink because you can see the struggle, and even re-live it a little if it was a particularly tough puzzle.

We were finished today's Times puzzle by about 3:30 in the afternoon (starting at about 11:30 and taking a good hour lunch break when our brains started to hurt). Not our best day, but at least we got it finished with minimal Google.

In a way, I also think a hard-fought puzzle looks kinda artistic when it's done: