THE CROSSWORD HABIT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 123, 26 May 1932, Page 6

THE CROSSWORD HABIT.

When the crossword puzzle made its sudden eastward leap acrose the Atlantic some ten years or so ago, most of us were ready to predict for it a passing hardly less rapid than the swoop of its invasion (eays "The Times"). But it ia still with us ae one more instance of the futility of prophecy. It lias struck roots deep and strong in our everyday life. No one who moves about in suburban trains or tubes can have any doubt about it. In that sphere alone it must be responsible for an appreciable boom in. the sale of lead pencils fitted with india-rubber butts. It _is rumoured to have brought consoling occupation and entertainment to the Stock Exchange in recent periods of stagnation. It Las beyond all question wW<jht a change in the life of residential hotels and similar refuges of the homelees and unoccupied. Lounges which were once mere day-dormitories of retired service men and lonely gentlewomen are now alive with the hum of crosswords. Once-frigid units coalesce into little bands of co-operators, or at least reciprocate carefully-regulated assistance with rival seekers after the truth. The day's paper is seized in a frenzy to check the results or 1111 up the gaps of yesterday. It is only by an effort that the conscientious man .forces himself to read at least the- summary of the news before he turns to the crossword page. Por once there he is surely lost. He. may flatter himself that he will be content with the merest glance at the clues before he turns to more serious things, but he is led on, whether by a swift initial success or by the apparent hopelessness of the first encounter, until he finds himself once more enmeshed in the toils eo familiar and yet always new. If circumstanceor conscience is too strong for him and he is compelled willy-nilly to break away, he comes back to the contest at the earliest opportunity and is unhappy until he has found some occupant for all his gaps. He is fortunate, or strongminded above the ordinary, if spaces or doubtful, and therefore unlikely, solutions do not pursue him to his nightly couch. It seems odd that what at first sight looked like no more than a passing craze should have taken so firm a hold. The explanation doubtless is that the crossword puzzle has changed its character and has successfully adapted itself to its environment. It began as the substitute o one word for another. As the number of rea or plausible synonyms is limited, there had obviously soon to be an end of interest and satisfaction in crossword puzzles on that basis. The use of unusual or technical words could do little to fill the gap. The turning point came when clues ceased to be mere synonyms and substitutes and became exercises in wit and ingenuity. The limit now is a question not of number but of ,the intricacy and resourcefulness of the human, mind. At present it looks as if the brain of man could go on indefinitely putting the same old words and phrases into new lights and new contortions, ufling to that end all the artifices of unnatural division, similarity of sound, rearrangement of letters, incomplete quotation, and,_ with •bated breath be it said, ,puns at times achieving an atrocity which would have called for instant reprisals in the days before crosswords were. That ingenuity calls (forth an answering quality in the solver." He gradually learns the twists and turns of his customary puzzlemonger, and develops a Shorlockiaii skill in tracking him down through all his assonances, ambiguities and prevarications. He develops, in fact, the crossword mind.

NEW ZEALAND DESPONDENCY

It is as well to realise that New Zealand is not the only country that is hit by the depression (writes Miss Nellc M. Scanlan from London). It is a universal complaint. But personally one thing has struck me very much of late. Private .otters are full of calamitous howling. That is bad enough, but in a way it is for family consumption. But for moiil'iis past every message that emanates from New Zealand is of the most dismal, depressing, despondent and alarming character. There may be need for some plain speaking to each other out there, but must it be shouted to the world? How can you expect the world to believe in you if you have lost faith in yourselves and your country? Never, never comes a cheerful, optimistic or hopeful word over the cables. Are you surprised if people take you at your own estimate? Credit is a sensitive thing, and if New Zealand wants to improve her credit abroad she must stop crying "stinking fish." at I home.