Crossword

Guest Blogger and I do the Washington Post crossword puzzles. She is much better at the game than I, with a mind more on point and agile than I have ever had. I admire this. I generally just sit next to her and say, "Yep, yep, that sounds good," bobbling my head up and down. I will occasionally be "on" and get a few answers, but usually, nah. It's still fun. She does them in pen. When I note that this is the hallmark of a confident albeit arrogant individual, she interjects that, no, doing the New York Times crossword puzzle in pen is the archetype of the arrogant. I suspect she secretly does these in pen as well. Not because she is arrogant, but because she is brilliant.

To try to keep my hand in the game as well as in an effort to stave off the Alzheimers I'm certain will inevitably settle in, I do the occasional generic crossword puzzle on my own. I can go slowly this way, using pencil with a large eraser. Since it's getting harder and harder for me to see the words without additional ocular intervention, my nose is pressed pretty closely to the page. And I never do the Washington Post Crossword puzzle on my own. I did that once and the reaction from Guest Blogger was akin to a wife learning that her husband just slept with a much younger more naturally blonde woman.

So it was in the execution of one of these generic crosswords that I became flummoxed. The clue was KEEP _ _ _ _ (persevere). I got a few of the down answers and came up with :

A _ IT.

I got the down clue, which was TSAR, making the answer ATIT. It took me a while to realize that the answer was KEEP AT IT.