On Puzzles

Evening Star, Issue 23143, 17 December 1938, Page 3

On Puzzles

1 am one of the few women in the world. 1 should imagine, who have never succeeded in solving a puzzle of any kind. 1 ought, 1 know, to he ashamed of this admission, for puzzles of all sorts are extremely popular forms of mental gymnastics to-day. The most surprising people confess themselves to be addicts; for example, I have an aged and highly conservative relative to whom in a moment of passing affluence I once presented a year’s subscription to the ‘ Manchester Guardian Weekly.’ Of course, I didn’t convert her to its politics—supposing 1 had wished to do so—by means of this Grecian gift. Indeed, she lound herself increasingly at variance with the paper’s opinions, and yet remained, 1 noted with surprise, a subscriber long after' my gift had exhausted itself. At last one day she confessed the reason—she simply could not bear to miss its cross-word puzzles, which are, I gather, of the super.-cross-word order; therefore she took the paper, and, moreover, she read it. “ Nonsense, my dear M.; 1 subscribe to the wretened thing; Pm certainly going to read _ it—otherwise it would he most unjustifiable extravagance.” Need I add that she belongs to the Scottish side of my family P But I have another friend whose politics are at the other extreme; she is, in fact, more than slightly pink. Imagine, then, my astonishment to find her secretly perusing the * Times ■Weekly’! ‘‘Yes, yes; I know what yon are-going to say,” she remarked defensively as she met my eye. ‘‘ But —have you ever strdied their bridge problems?” I asked her if that was really and truly all she ever read of the paper? Did she find, for example, that the illustrations had a contaminating influence? But she merely said coldly that all journalists went about trying to reveal inconsistencies in other people’s characters, and that it was quite time I learned that I hadn t a v hope of getting an article out of her. (But I have succeeded, and. should this catch Her eye, I think that I may claim, despite my uselessness at puzzles of V all sorts, to bo distinctly one up.(’) It is trite that I did once allow my- ■ self to become involved in one crossword puzzle, culled front the pages of ‘ John o’ London.’ It was done to please a friend who was ill, and I felt that I was not committing myself to anything. Never was I more mistaken. Apparently we - met with moderate success.' Since the whole process was wrapped in mystery to me, I cannot say what it was—but the result was very stimulating to the invalid. She raised herself in bed and demanded dictionaries and papers and pencils; her eyes became brighter and her manner more authoritative every moment. When at last her nurse intervened, I found myself ‘involved in a visit next day. ” And, if you haven’t time to go into that point to-night, you might just go ‘ down to the public- library to-morrow before you come and look it tip in the dictionary there.” I did as I was told, and hi the end I believe that she solved the puzzle; in any case, she recovered from her illness more quickly than was expected. And now, whenever we meet,

Written by MARY SCOTT, for the * Evening Star.’

she speaks of this temporary collaboration of ours and says wistfully; “ You and I could do quite well ; I believe we’d make money if we worked at cross-words seriously together.” But she is mistaken. I am utterly useless at such things. 1 was merely hypnotised by her energy and her brilliance ; my part was to look up words in the dictionary; the brain-work was hers. Indeed, had she only realised it, the whole business sent me into a state of coma from which 1 did not emerge for some time. It reminded me exactly of my mental condition when, in the sixth "form of my secondary school, our mathematics teacher dealt with the more abstruse problems. So crass was my stupidity in all matters mathematical, so abysmal my ignorance, that my teachers could hardly believe that a pupil not otherwise sub-normal was not merely pretending, or being lazy. “Of course, you can do riders,” said the mathematical mistress severely; “ every girl can. You don’t try. Now, just - stay hero till you’ve done this ' one.” And there I should have remained for more years than I care to tell you—in short, until the present day—a venerable but ridiculous figure, if a kind hand had not eventually passed the solution to me under the desk. And that is how I achieved the modest distinction of being the only pupil to go through that highly mathematical school without ones doing a rider. But I don’t feel at all the same about crossword puzzles. I wanted passionately in these schooldays to be able to do riders; it seemed so silly to -possess a brain that simply shut up like an oyster at sight of a problem. It was so inexplicable, for in those days nobody talked about inhibitions or complexes; they simply said you had a lazy mind.’ Therefore _it was ray cherished, if secret ambition, to emerge a passable mathematical student. I did not succeed, and it was a humiliation to me. I don’t feel at all like that about puzzles; I am merely thankful that I have never been bitten by the taste for them, for I should never have been at all good at them and much time and nervous energy would have been wasted. I-am quite content to he one of the few people who not only can’t solve them, but don’t want to.

It always seems to me that there is so much to solve in- life without making up puzzles to complicate it all more than ever. The world is so full of re a 1 problems—how to thank Cousin Alicia pleasantly bill not insincerely for that yellow satin cushion ; how to criticise the manuscripts that my friends send me and yet be neither a liar nor a brute; how to think of a now pudding for dinner each day; how to account for the distressing fact that nobody has yet assassinated a dictator or two —these are just a few of the many problems with which we might all be worrying our brains without troubling about made-up puzzles. And then there is the worst and hardest puzzle of all —how to think of Christmas presents for all one’s relatives and friends that are original, charming, useful—and cheap!