The late C. Jackson Simmons, a prominent local attorney and historian, spent his life enthralled by the meanings of words. He often cited his mantra for the study of language namely, “A word is worth a thousand pictures.” Some individuals might not go that far, but when one reads Jack’s books, the precision with which he selected his words is obvious.
Another lover of words was the late Isabel Gough, a local columnist, who wrote about the Northern Neck for both regional and Richmond newspapers. Isabel worked with words, either personally or professionally, virtually at every moment of the day. Her consuming interest was the crossword puzzle, any crossword, for she was bonded to solving all of them that came her way.
Isabel would attend public meetings to report on the happenings, always arriving early, sitting in the audience working a crossword until the meeting commenced, when she put the puzzle away to focus on getting every detail of the session recorded. In one of our conversations, she said that she told her family and friends never to give her a book of crosswords, as such a present would put her on the horns of a dilemma, either doing her work or working her puzzle.
Towards the end of her career, she achieved a lifetime goal of having her own newspaper, The Northern Neck Tide, which she published at Wicomico Church. As one might have suspected, each issue of the paper contained a crossword. As with Jack Simmons, Isabel was captivated by the power of words. She spent six decades working and playing with words, always showing that she wrote nothing in haste, but carefully pondered every syllable before putting it to paper.
Personally, I can relate to Isabel’s epistemological pursuits, as every Sunday I pursue two crossword puzzles as found in The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times. The Times’ puzzle is the product of a different constructor each week, thereby providing the solver with a variety of forms and methods. As a result, the reader is exposed to a different mindset from puzzle to puzzle.
For many years, the Post puzzle was the product of the late Merl Reagle, who syndicated his column to over 50 newspapers from its beginning in the San Francisco Chronicle. When he began appearing in the Post, initially, I found his method to be off-putting, as I could not get a handle on it. That phase was short-lived, and I came to understand, and enjoy, his methodology. When he died in 2015, I thought I had lost someone whom I knew.
Merl was followed in the Post after a short gap during which his old puzzles were recycled, by Evan Birnholz, another constructor with whom I spent the first few months learning his style and format. I especially like his “Themeless” puzzles, which he offers rarely, but when he does, the solver starts with a tabula rasa, a blank slate, without a titled clue to afford a frame of reference as to the theme. As I noted, when one works puzzles over a long period of time, one gets to know the constructor’s mindset, thereby increasing the challenge of solving the puzzle.
As Christmas draws near, I am following the sage advice of Isabel Gough in alerting my family that they should not think they are giving me a great treat by having a crossword puzzle book under the tree on Christmas morning. Should they not heed that warning, I probably would be “lost” for the entirety of the holidays. I rigidly limit myself to the two puzzles a week, and even then, I think my Good Wife might be overjoyed if I stopped at only one.
To all of our readers, the publishers, editor and staff of the Rappahannock Record, I send best wishes for a Merry Christmas! I am spending these days thinking of a nice present to get for Gladys, perhaps a cornucopia of corn in seasonal colors, or better yet, a fresh head of iceberg lettuce. I know she would enjoy tearing the latter apart.
