The best crossword-solving tactics reflect life’s best lessons

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For nearly three decades now, I’ve started my mornings by doing the daily crossword. That is, by drinking several cups of coffee, while working on the crossword.

I’ve found crosswords give me a sense of accomplishment and a bit of fun — before I plunge into my day’s to-do list. Did you know “fun” was the first clue to the first crossword published on Dec. 21, 1913?

Crosswords challenge me, increase my vocabulary and knowledge, and improve my spelling. Puerto Rico and avocado still trip me up. My default is Puerto “Rica” (like Costa Rica) and I still want to transpose some of my As and Os in avocado.

Above it all, I’ve realized the best crossword-solving tactics remind me of life’s best lessons. Here are a few examples:

Practice makes perfect, or Try, try again.
I started doing crosswords in the mid- to late-1990s when I lived and worked in Boston and took subways and trains to work. At first, I failed miserably at them.

But today, I give myself a solid A-minus and can complete most, if not all, of the more difficult Saturday crosswords in the L.A. Times and NY Times.

I’m not smarter, or much smarter anyhow. I’ve improved by doing the daily crossword every day; even early on when I had no shot of finishing it.

Over time, I’ve learned the vowel-heavy words that today’s some 150 crossword constructors use as bricks to build their puzzles. Words like oleo, Oreo and area.

I’ve also learned to see through the tricks in the clues and to embrace other tricks, er life lessons, like these:

Make no assumptions and consider all angles; in other words, a single word can have several meanings.
A fond memory of my childhood was when I was a preteen celebrating Christmas with a slew of relatives at my maternal great-aunt’s home in Okay, OK. My late father, who was inherently funny, practically spun an entire stand-up comedy routine over the fact that he, or someone else, read, in a camera’s instructions, the noun wind (like Oklahoma’s blowing down the plain) versus the verb wind (like twist).

Mulling through the various meanings of words is imperative in solving crossword puzzles. For example, one clue in a recent puzzle was “even things.” Instead of a plural noun, the answer was the verb atone. Meanwhile, another recent clue was biblical mount and the answer wasn’t a mountain (like Sinai or Moriah), but a ride (“ass,” as in donkey).

Be a lifelong learner.
In Saturday’s New York Times puzzle, I was down to four blocks when I “cheated” (no cheating; that’s another life lesson) and looked up “axolotyl,” an amphibian that rhymed with bottle in an Ogden poem. I’d never heard of the creature.

Thanks to crosswords, I also now know the meaning of doppelganger: a biologically unrelated look-alike, or a double, of a living person. As an identical twin, I’m fascinated with the word. My twin sister’s eldest son is a doppelganger of Leonardo DiCaprio, so it’s fun to send my nephew memes of himself, er the actor.

Take your time and check your work.
I’ve made plenty of mistakes because of my sloppy handwriting or not going back over my answers. And yes, I like to use a pen because it’s way more fun than using a pencil.

Be willing to take chances.
If you’re stuck, you need to tiptoe out on a limb and lightly pen in some guesses, which undoubtedly will bust open the puzzle for you. Playing it safe, and doing nothing, will get you nowhere. Also, be willing to change what you think for sure is right; another big life lesson.

Get back to basics.
Sometimes, you just have to make yourself run through the alphabet to find that missing letter. Or, the Greek alphabet, which isn’t so hard for me because I can sing it, thanks to pledging Kappa Alpha Theta at Oklahoma State University in 1977. Now, remembering my Roman numerals is a whole other story. …

Details matter.
Clues and answers must agree in tense and singularity or plurality.

Two — or more — heads are better than one. I’ve hooked my sister on doing crosswords, and by collaborating together or with friends on vacation, we’ve built many social bonds. One of the earliest images of crosswords on the Internet is of phone operators at the New Yorker Hotel working together on a Daily News Crossword Puzzle Contest in 1934.

The daily crossword — and good coffee — are among life’s simple pleasures.

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