TBI Tuesday – Letting the brain work it out

Chew the cud, or the fat. Just relax.

This won’t surprise anyone who tries to understand their brain, but it feels magical to me. I can’t tell for sure if this is primarily brain-related or age-related, but I broke my brain the summer I turned sixty, and the two things happening together has been a source of confusion.

Anyway, I am a fan of the NYT Crossword Puzzle. All of them. Every day. I subscribed to the paper once, but the fact that I paid for the paper made me feel I had to do the puzzle. I’m an old Slovak peasant, and we take spending money seriously. The puzzle lost its fun; it became a job. Now, I buy puzzle books at the bookstore. I used to buy The Times and The Wall Street Journal at Starbucks, but like many companies with the crazy idea of making money, they quit carrying them (Publix, B&N, Starbucks, my local Piggly Wiggly…). I noticed it one Saturday and asked the manager why they quit…

“Dude,” he said. “We sell like one of each per week.”

“But I’m that one a week,“ I said.

I should have known. I’m a writer, and no one buys books either. Reading is an out of fashion sport these days.

Regarding my brain, here’s what I’ve noticed: I don’t get a lot of the crossword words or clues. Especially on Thursdays or Fridays. But I don’t fret for a minute over it. In fact, I intentionally don’t fret over it. I put the puzzle away for a few days, and when I pick it up again, violia!, the clues cry out like bawling babies. Three-down? It snaps in my brain like Jiffy Pop. Lundi! What else could it be? How did I not see it? Fourteen-across: Familytree. Jeesh. What else? It’s as if there where gauze over the puzzle, and I see it clearly now and the answers flow like sticks down a stream.

Most do. There will be some – for reasons unknown – that my mind is still working on. I let it sit for a second time, and the same thing happens.

The Popcorn Effect

I’ve learned that this popcorn effect happens only twice. By the third time I pick up a puzzle, I’ve reached my threshold. These are words or clues that I don’t and won’t get. For these, I’ll look them up one at a time and try to solve the puzzle. If I can? Great. If not? I throw it out, sure that no more magic looms.

This seems to be how my brain works now: I get stuck on something, and whatever I think is there just won’t materialize. With time, thinking about other things, it usually will. “Let the gray matter percolate,” as I’ve heard it said(1).

So, don’t be too hard on yourself. Give your mind time to chew its cud, to ruminate, to think. To sift through its millions of neuronal connections. It’s not really magic, and it doesn’t always happen, but most of the time it will pull you to the answer you’re looking for.

Be patient, and good luck!

Go here for a review of Outside the Box. Everything you did or didn’t want to now about crosswords.

Note 1. I speak here of the charming TV Britcom Good Neighbours. It’s from the 70s, I think, and I still watch it, capping almost every line. And laughing with a British accent.