One of my anal-retentive habits is that I must do the New York Times crossword puzzle every day. Seven days a week. I haven’t missed one in months. If I don’t get a chance to do a particular day’s paper, I save it for the next day. Sometimes I let them pile up and have to do three or four of them in a night. I pride myself on (usually) finishing the Friday and Saturday crosswords, the hardest puzzles of the week. (Not that it’s easy; I usually do the Saturday puzzle for a while, set it aside, and come back to it a few times before finishing it.) Oddly, New York Times crossword puzzle editor (and former Games Magazine editor) Will Shortz is, like me, a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. Maybe there’s a career for me yet.

Anyway, to acknowledge the “web” in “weblog,” here are some cruciverbalist links.

New York Times Crossword Reference
The Cru
Ray Hamel’s site
Cruciverb.com

Have fun.

I’m at the end of a four-and-a-half-day vacation. I had today off for Columbus Day, and I took Thursday afternoon and all of Friday off as well. It’s all gone by way too fast.

Matt has a really good post about what we did on Saturday. It’s true, Matt needs a little help with chopsticks… but he did get the food into his mouth, so I think that counts as a success.

I also got to see Matt use his PDA a lot, and it only made me want one even more. I spent several hours yesterday researching PDAs online. I found a Sony Clié comparison chart and a Palm comparison chart, and there’s also the T-Mobile Sidekick, which seems amazingly cool. I could tool around Manhattan, stop into a coffee shop, and IM with my friends. Amazon.com is offering a great rebate on them right now.

But I’m also thinking, if I get one of these, will I really use it? I don’t know. Maybe I should just get a low-end Palm or Clié to start. I’m also thinking, maybe instead of a new gadget I should get a new bed. I have a cheap mattress, and hey, you spend a third of your life in bed, so if we’re talking about value per dollar spent, that would be lots of value.

Other things I did this weekend:

– Saw the doctor again. Even after a 30-day course of antibiotics, I’m still having issues, although not quite as bad as before. Apparently there’s no more bacteria — just residual inflammation. So I’m taking an anti-inflammatory drug, and apparently it might take another week or two until I’m completely better. They still don’t know what caused it — apparently doctors don’t know a whole lot about the prostate. This isn’t all that fun when it flares up — I’m tired of it already. Hopefully it will be over soon.

– Bought Will Shortz’s Favorite Crossword Puzzles, and I’ve done about a third of them already. I enjoy the New York Times daily crossword, so I figured, why look forward to just one per day when I can curl up at home and do as many of them as I want? Will Shortz, the New York Times crossword editor, is a hero of mine: like me, he has a law degree from the University of Virginia, but unlike me, he enjoys what he does, and his career has nothing to do with the law. It just goes to show what you can do with a law degree.

– Bought Tend Skin, which supposedly works wonders for ingrown hairs and razor bumps. Shaving is really hard on my neck, and I hope this helps.

God, I’m usually not this consumeristic. (I’m not even sure if that’s a word.) But I guess we all go through phases.

Puzzled

Apparently the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is this weekend. Among other things, the official website has a short biography of its director, Will Shortz (he’s also the editor of the New York Times crossword); a sample tournament puzzle; and a Brief History of Crossword Puzzles. Enjoy.