I wouldn't worry about your addiction, Seniorgal--they're probably good exercise for our brains! My husband and I always did the Sunday NY Times puzzle together when we lived in NYC, and then later I would buy books of NY Times x-word puzzles. But I don't do them as often as I used to, not since my Scrabble addiction took over. LOL

I enjoy them, as well as most other word puzzles. My favorites are anacrostics and word scrambles. I grew up playing Scrabble. I rarely play those games on paper anymore; play on the phone instead. Mom subscribed to several crossword magazines and had just renewed her subscriptions before she became ill. She passed away in March of this year and the magazines have kept coming and have now filled an entire drawer of my dresser. I won't let them go to waste. I'll get my pencil out and get busy.

Yes, but I can only do maybe up to Wednesday on the NYT puzzle. I like the daily one that is in addition to the Times puzzle. No way could I ever do the Sunday. Once in a while an answer or two.

Avid addict of crossword puzzles. You end up learning a lot of (useless) words?!? Did you know an ANOA is a miniature buffalo?

I go to several sites on a regular basis and print them out... will do back-to-back to save paper.... and they're portable (phone is just too small). You can't get FREE puzzles at New York Times on a daily basis, but every Monday they have 3 free ones from "archives". Brenden Emmett Quigley has free, challenging puzzles... Monday and Thursday. I go to a few newspapers Some papers "share" puzzles, so you have to figure out how to avoid dupes... Washington Post, USA Today and LA Times are always different from each other.

Some people say thing like... I just can't do them... I don't believe that. I can't do any of them in PEN, but even Sunday NYT puzzle is usually solvable... ya get clues from across to solve the downs.

I tried Sudoku, but just don't have the patience?? Learned how to solve cryptograms YEARS ago from a coworker... you can find free ones on line, too.

One of the great things about the Tampa Bay Times is that there are three (3) crosswords every day. By the time I get to the third one, my brain has gone into neutral. On Sunday, I will work for a couple of hours in the morning. After my early p.m. nap, my brain is in much better shape and I can usually finish two of the three.

I always do them in pen, keeps from ripping the paper. I am better with the downs than the across ones.

And, as I sit there, I wonder if I could create a decent crossword. Some of the answers are repeated and repeated. Could a smart guy like me do it? It would take lots of practice to come up with one, I believe.

I do the NYTimes puzzle daily...I subscribe on line. I also lately have been doing the sudokus, and I love the 7x7 kenkens on Sunday.

I'm definitely a puzzle hound.

no, I can't get into them. Even the find a word, after doing one I'm done!

We love them! If I start our mutually solved puzzle at the end of the day without my son, he gets MAD. Nothing makes him angry, and he will go ballistic. I bug him that way for fun, once every three or so months. He's good natured, so he gets unmad really quickly, realizing I was just chiding him.

jlm... gonna justify my use of pencil by saying a printed puzzle is on nicer paper and I'm less likely to rip?!? That and the fact that I'd likely make a mistake that couldn't be erased in about 4-5 clues?!?

Years ago I would go through a couple of Dell crossword magazines in a week. I haven't done any lately, though. I used to take them on trips with me and would usually get one in my Christmas stocking. I guess since getting the smartphone I have other diversions.

I enjoy doing crosswords online daily, but they tend to mess with the computer. So sometimes I quit in disgust at the computer antics.

No, they're not for me. I've tried a few times but I found doing them to be tedious. Puzzles and other word games are the same thing for me, not of interest

I like them and cryptoquotes.

I do the ones in my local paper, they're fairly easy..have a couple of sudoku books too.

Love them. I do the NYT Sunday puzzle every week (in ink). :)

I really like them. I'm not a whizz, if they're really tough, like the Times Sunday x-word I'll work on it to see how far I can go.

Love them. I do the Washington Post Daily Crossword online each morning with my cup of coffee. Then I do the 2 crosswords and 2 cryptoquips in our local paper during my lunch. Usually working a book of NYT crosswords in the evening...unless my DH decides he feels like talking to me :(

Years ago my DH would bring me home from work the Detroit Free Press so I could do the crossword puzzles. Many years later I found out he would buy 2 newspapers so he could do one at work and still take one home for me. (so sweet).

I used to love doing the Diagramless puzzles too!

So here's a question- Do you use reference books or google to complete crossword puzzles? I know someone who completes the NYT puzzle every week but refers to books. When my kids were young, I enjoyed working on the NYT Sunday puzzle with the other moms.

I do a daily crossword on my phone, but it's pretty easy. My daughter does it too.

I get what I can get without looking things up. Some Sundays i can finish the NYT Sunday puzzle, sometimes I can't. So be it!. I do pick it up later and sometimes can finish it then.

Well, if you really want to do a tough puzzle, do the NY Times Saturday puzzle. They get progressively harder as the week goes on, easy on Mon, hardest on Sat. The Sunday puzz is geared to be equivalent of a Thursday.

I've always found the Saturday Stumper by Stan Newman to be especially tough.

They now have a daily xword in the wall st. journal, and the friday puzz is a contest puzzle...a meta puzzle. You solve the puzzle and then have to find the imbedded clues in the puzzle itself to come up with the contest answer. A winner is drawn at random to win a mug.

Good for the brain - especially the older brain. I use pen which makes things more clear, and one can buy erasures for inked words.

I love crosswords and usually do three or four a day. I do mine in ink but I don't think of that as anything special. I just don't write anything in until I'm positive of the answer by solving a couple of the intersecting clues.

Crosswords take practice before they become enjoyable. I couldn't do a hard one when I first started, but one learns to recognize the clues to some of those enormously obscure words.

And then there are those days when I can't seem to solve even the simplest puzzles. Wierd.

Today's NY Times puzzle is taking me a l-o-o-ng time.

I love doing crossword puzzles, the harder the better. My Scottish Grandfather always had a crossword going on his clipboard so I was always curious to know what he was doing so he showed me how they worked. My brother, my Mom and my sisters and Aunt always loved doing them too. My sister and I were Scrabble fanatics too

Sometimes I do the US Today puzzle online. It is fun, but easy. It was fun to do the NYT puzzle with friends when we were stay at home moms. We collaborated, chatted, and had coffee while the kids played. (sounds like the stone age, doesn't it?) We generally did not finish the puzzle but continued working on our own and sharing our answers. Eventually as the kids got older, we got jobs and pursued careers. The Group still gets together but not to do crossword puzzles. Maybe we should resume getting together for crossword puzzle time, but we may be too busy in our retirement. I sound really old but I am not, really!

Seniorgal, I have been missing you. I suppose I don't visit here enough.