As long as I have been solving crossword puzzles, there has been debate over the inclusion of certain types of trivia. Anecdotally, it has always felt to me as though trivia is the thing that will rile people up the most. Something that’s obvious to one solver might be totally opaque to the next. For every person out there shaking a fist at Bebe Rebozo’s being in the puzzle, there is another cursing the inclusion of Lady Gaga. I would say the category of trivia-related complaint that finds itself in my inbox most often is probably baseball. Something that may surprise people who know me well is that I did not grow up as a sports fan. I would even go one further: I was totally anti-sports until I was 19. To see Mel Ott or Enos Slaughter in a puzzle was an affront to my adoration of musicians, authors and actors. My stance began to soften in college, where I met a friend who talked about Fenway Park as if it were a church to the Boston Red Sox, not just the place where they play. All this to say, I have been on both sides of the debate. The key thing I’ve learned — other than what a balk is — is that being open to learning new things is essential to my personal enjoyment of puzzles. Ultimately, having fun is the entire point of a game, and the crossword, like any other game, is meant to be fun. It generally lifts my mood to discover something I might not have known that I even wanted to know, and puzzles are full of these little moments of discovery. If you’re really stuck and can’t get it off the crossers, I think it’s OK to look up an answer or two. As I read more about solvers and puzzle makers, it has become clear to me that the crosswords I like most are for everyone. Jack Dreyer, a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, made a crossword last year that Major League Baseball wrote about. In that article, Sonja Chen, its writer, called solving a crossword or a sudoku one of the “classic pregame pastimes” for players and team staffers. In the 2006 documentary “Wordplay,” Mike Mussina, who pitched for the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees, is featured solving in the dugout. I’m assuming that neither Ms. Chen nor Mr. Mussina struggles to fill in baseball trivia, but they probably have other puzzle hangups, just as we all do. We can’t know everything, but I won’t deny that it’s fun to try to.
Solve Today’s Capture
Column of the WeekThis week, Elie Levine, a community manager on the Games team, wrote: “Joel Woodford made his debut last year with an inventive Thursday puzzle. His contribution today is spirited and fun. While it’s simpler than his debut, the theme adds a level of complexity that you might not find in a typical Monday puzzle. Still, this one should be fairly straightforward for seasoned and inexperienced solvers alike.” You can solve Mr. Woodford’s latest puzzle here.
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