Coup d' Ville

She is 20-ish and beautiful, living with an out of work electrical engineer turned tattoo artist, going to school and working nearly full time. She is bright and funny, self confident and assertive, quick to learn and unafraid of life. But behind her stunning smile there is a frightened child, estranged from her family and struggling for every hard earned dime, willing to accept far less than she deserves and uncertain of every step she takes. She is a mystery, getting straight A's in her college courses while not knowing the meaning of dozens of everyday words, so when she asked me to teach her how to do crossword puzzles, I readily agreed. A word looked up, my daddy told me time and time again when I would ask him the meaning of something I'd read, is a word remembered. The gold bound Webster's was always kept on the top shelf of the bookcase and it's pages were stained and worn with use.

So, I mused, how to teach someone to "think in crossword". How to explain how it is that you simply know a word is right when a half dozen other words fit the same space and work equally well. I reached back in my memory to my daddy's instructions - Start with something you absolutely, positively know can't be anything else, he told me, like here, three letters for "A Gerswhin". Neatly, I filled in "Ira". Build on it, he continued, remember a plural clue must have a plural answer and that words have different meaning according to their useage. Don't think just nouns when the answer might be a verb. He nodded as I filled in Gnat, four letters for "pest", beginning with "g". And there''re crossword rules - an abbreviated clue will mean an abbreviated answer, a clue in capital letters will mean an answer in capital letters. I filled in RSVP for "words on an invitation and he smiled. A clue in a foreign language will mean an answer in a foreign language, he added. And if you're stuck, think in context and use it in a sentence. Work around the obstacles. I filled in more and more blank squares with him providing occasional hints and re-direction, prompting me with praise and encouragement. Sometimes there's a theme, watch for it. And remember, every puzzle ever devised has a solution though it may not be what you first think or what you want it to be. You have to get into the mind of the maker. It was a very long time before I realized that he'd been teaching far more than just how to solve a crossword puzzle.

Of course, he had never met this pretty, young thing tapping a pencil on the counter and frowning with concentration.
I doubt he ever imagined someone who would see the clue "coup d'____" and fill in "vile" for "coup d'vile".

Then again, he'd have been laugh out loud delighted with seeing her mind at work. They put erasers on pencils because people make mistakes, he'd have reminded me. And he'd have been absolutely, positively right.







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