Commuting Distractions Revisited

For most commuters, a book, even the newspaper would be enough.  For this hobbyist, super enthusiast, if you will, I need more.  Yes, as I mentioned before, I do my best to read a lot of books.  Sometimes, though, books are just a slog, or just aren't doing it.  When this happens, I turn to puzzles like crosswords, sudoku, the jumble if I can find one, or some other puzzle.  The one that has currently caught my eye is called codeword.

I get the feeling that for people in England what I am about to introduce is old hat.  As for Canada, I have never seen it in a newspaper here.  It sometimes appears in a book of variety puzzles, but I stopped buying those because never get through all of them and the book hangs around for years.

I was introduced to Codeword when I visited my friend in Japan.  He told me that he looked forward to his Sunday Edition of the Daily Yomiuri newspaper because they carried a Times supplement and had a codeword puzzle in it.  I could sympathize with my friend because I look forward to the Saturday Star because of the comics and the huge crossword.  As for Japanese newspapers every Sunday I read the Japan Times online because they have a great Dahl cartoon (check it out, it is pretty cool)

When I visited his place he graciously let me do his codeword (pretty nice considering he would have to wait seven days to do another one)  I was hooked.  It is different from both a crossword and sudoku, but contains some elements of both.  Basically if you like word games you might get a kick out of this.

I decided to repay my friend by sending him a codeword book, and since they had two I bought one for myself.  I have done about 143 of the 150 puzzles in the book.  There were 70 easy ones, 60 moderate ones, and 20 difficult ones.  I am not sure I appreciate the ratio of puzzles, but since it has taken me almost one year to do them, I really shouldn't complain.  I have enjoyed the puzzles, and even learned a few, slightly obscure words.

I wish a Toronto newspaper would carry these puzzles once a week, but they've probably got enough going on right now.  I certainly wouldn't want them to bump the jumble for this one, but.....

I probably won't buy a book of these puzzles again, just because it seems like such a big commitment. 

If you want to try some of these yourself, a quick google search and you'll find some that you can print up.  Let me know what you think.