Kitchens and Crosswords
-----------------------

Back in the 70s, my best friend's mom, 
a stay-at-home wife, liked to work the 
crossword puzzle in the newspaper every 
morning; especially the New York Times 
Sunday crossword.

She looked so cozy and content sitting
at her kitchen table -- 

bathrobe, slippers, hair in curlers, 
chain-smoking, endless coffee, WCCO AM 
talk-radio on, and the Times crossword.

She used no dictionary or any other 
resource, and she always quickly worked
even the Times Sunday crossword to 
completion -- ink pen only.

She was of average intelligence; not 
remotely an intellectual.  She became an 
expert by virtue of making crosswords 
her hobby.  Nice.

I like crossword puzzles too, and always 
stick with the ink pen and no resources 
approach.  Clean and simple.  But I've 
not worked more than a couple dozen of 
them in my life, decades ago, and never 
bothered to learn the "variations" and 
obscure abbreviations.  Therefore, 
I always considered them complete if I 
could fill in ninety percent of the 
boxes, which I typically did.  Good
enough for me.


 That was the old way of telling the 
 little story.

 The problem is that I've short-changed 
 my friend's mom, her son (my friend) 
 and certain concepts by virtue of 
 "labeling" them.  They are so much 
 more than their "labels".


Updated telling of the story:

Back in the decade that was the 70s in 
the country that is the United States 
(it was also the decade known by various 
other numbers in other countries and 
cultures), the person of subject, who 
I believe identified as a female, and 
who is a person who is the birthing 
parent of the person who was my best 
friend, and who was a person who was 
not professionally employed, and who 
was a person who was a married partner
to the person who was the non-birthing 
parent of the person who was my best 
friend, liked to work the crossword 
puzzles, especially the one in the 
New York Times which appeared on the 
day that is Sunday in the country that 
is the United States.

The person of subject looked so cozy and 
content in that same person's room which 
functioned as a kitchen -- 

bathrobe, slippers, hair in curlers, 
chain-smoking, endless coffee, WCCO AM 
talk-radio on, and the Times crossword.

The person of subject used no dictionary 
or any other resource, and the person 
of subject always quickly worked even the 
Times Sunday crossword to completion -- 
ink pen only.

The person of subject was a person who
had average intelligence; not remotely 
a person who was an intellectual.  The 
person of subject became a person who is
an expert by virtue of making crosswords 
the person of subject's hobby.  Nice.



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