Wordplay: The Movie

Last night I had some free time and sat down to watch the movie Wordplay by Patrick Creadon and Christine O'Malley. If you're a hardcore printable crosswords enthusiast, you will enjoy this documentary on the crosswords cult that exists in our society.

Witness the inner workings of Will Shortz, NY Times Editor and NPR Puzzle Master, and his brilliant, entertaining and often hilarious contributors as well as surprising celebrity fans. Wordplay takes us through the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament where almost five hundred competitors battled it out for the title "Crossword Champ" and showed their true colors along the way.

This documentary is not about the casual crosswords puzzler who occasionally does one while waiting in the doctor's waiting room. Oh no. This is about the hard-core, die-hard, live-to-solve puzzlers. There are individual interviews with different people from across America who share an obsession with printable crosswords. Some of the people interviewed include Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton, Ken Burns, and The Indigo Girls.

You also learn a bit of history behind the NYT puzzles, how they come up with ideas, how they construct them, how puzzles are made to be more difficult, the rules of puzzle making, and the effects of certain types of puzzles on it's solvers.

They also cover the World Crossword Puzzle Championship that takes place each March in Stamford, Connecticut. The viewer is taken through how the tournament is organized and operates, how players are ranked and scored, and finally taken to the final, where the top three finalists all compete against time and each other to solve their crosswords on large easels setup on a stage, while the crowd stares on.

Even if you only have a light interest in printable crosswords as a hobby, this documentary will be well received and will open your eyes to an entire almost underground-cult that exists around printable crosswords.

So check out the documentary Wordplay, I promise you won't be disappointed! If you enjoy the documentary, there is also the Wordplay Official Companion Book by renowned crosswords maker Will Shortz. I haven't had a chance to checkout the companion book yet, but from some of the reviews I've read, it's a great extension to what's covered in the movie. And a little secret, you can save a few bucks by buying them both together. Check out this page on Amazon.com, scroll down to the "Better Together" section to get your discount.

Free Solving Aide for Printable Crosswords

Still holding on to that crossword puzzle that you've kept coming back to for days, but just can't figure out the last few words you need? I found an online site called More Words that can help!

Here's how it works. Say you have a three-letter word ending in 'r', but for the life of you can't come up with the answer. Enter '--r' in to More Words, and it will return a list of words all containing three letters ending in 'r'. Or maybe you have 'pu--le'; You'll get back puddle, pungle, purfle, purple, and puzzle! Or maybe you want to know every word that contains the letters 'sswo' in the middle. You would enter '*sswo*', and get back that list of words. There are even more complex searches you can do, outlined on their examples page.

The only problem with this solution is that you'll have to have a computer, or access to one, and it will have to have Internet access. This probably isn't going to be a viable solution as you sit on the train during your morning commute. There is always the Franklin CWP-206 Pocket Crossword Solver. Twenty-five dollars might be a small investment in your sanity!

Pretty cool, huh? Of course you could use this site for a lot more than just solving printable crosswords, but it sure does come in handy! Cheating? Maybe! Satisfaction of finally finishing that damn puzzle, definitely!

Five Great Books on Printable Crosswords

Here is a list of my top five favorite crossword and crossword-related books out right now that I would personally recommend. All of these are inexpensive and easily available from Amazon.com. If you are a crossword-fiend like I am, you'll definitely want to check each of these out! But if nothing else, take a look at the last one in the list: One Man's Journey into America's Crossword Obsession.

The New York Times Monday Through Friday Easy to Tough Crossword Puzzles - The New York Times are known for their crossword puzzles. Any any serious NYT crossword solver knows that the puzzles get harder as the week goes on. By the time you get to the end of this puzzle book, you'll be pulling your hair out, and enjoying every minute of it!

New York Times Crosswords for Your Coffee Break: Light and Easy Puzzles - The same great quality New York Times crossword puzzles that your used to, but shorter and easier. This is a small paperback book that will make it easy to have on hand when you're waiting at the doctors office or in-line at the grocery store.

The People Puzzler - People Magazine is also well known for their crossword searches. In fact, by reading a few of the reviews on Amazon.com, that's the sole reason a few people even buy their magazine! Here you can get an entire book of their world-famous crossword puzzles for less than ten bucks. You can't go wrong with this one.

Simon and Schuster Super Crossword Puzzle Book #13 - If you'll recall back to our recent post on the history of printable crosswords, you'll remember that Simon and Schuster were the first publisher to start off the crossword puzzle book craze. Their latest edition builds on their known success for producing quality and challenging puzzles.

Crossworld: One Man's Journey into America's Crossword Obsession - We covered this book in our recent post Printable Crosswords Drama in World War II, and should be noted that this is NOT a puzzle book. The book's author, Marc Romano, looks in to the world of the crossword addict, covering the history of printable crosswords, and even claims puzzle solving can make you into a better, more informed, fairer, and more tolerant person." If you're a true crossword junkie, this is one to have on your shelf.

So there you have it - my personal list of my top five favorite printable crosswords books at the moment. The good thing with this hobby is, the material istypically inexpensive, and these five are no different. But keep in mind, even though they are in inexpensive, they are still in extremely high demand. It amazes me that I'm already making money selling my own printable crosswords that I've come up with myself!

Two Cool Gadgets for the Printable Crosswords Geek

If in addition to being a printable crosswords junkie you're also a technology geek, then I have two extremely cool, inexpensive gadgets that you won't be able to live without.

The first is the Franklin CWP-206 Crossword Puzzle Solver. It comes in at less than $30, and amazon has a few used up for around $25 or so. It's pre-programmed with over 250,000 words and phrases taken directly from Merriam-Webster. In addition to crosswords, it can also easily and quickly solve Scrabble and Jumble puzzles too! It's best feature is that it's built with a typical clam shell design, meaning you can close the lid to protect the screen and keyboard while storing it in your pocket or purse. The instructions were printed on the inside of the top case, so every time you open it the directions are readily available.

Next is The NY Times Electronic Crossword Puzzle. This is a small and compact handheld crossword game platform, pre-programmed with The New York Times' best crossword puzzles. Complete with a full QWERTY keyboard, it sports automatic power-off to save the batteries, which are only 2 tiny AAAs. It also allows you to save unfinished puzzles for later play! There is also a convenient check key that will highlight incorrect answers.

While these two devices wont allow you to make printable crosswords, they are two handy gadgets no crossword geek should be without!