Art, my 83-years-young adopted grandpa from Starbucks, works on various print puzzles every morning from crossword to logic to keep his mind sharp. (See my previous blog entry about him and his crew.) Today, Art brought in a puzzle for me from one of his Penny Press books as an assignment. That’s right, he threw down the crossword gauntlet, and I accepted! He said, “I am giving you a beginner level puzzle first and if you do well, I will bring in a harder one.” (Gee, thanks Art.) He went on to explain that he started the puzzle for me by filling in two of the entries, and that I should be sure to use a pencil when I work on it. I look forward to completing the puzzle this weekend and seeing if Art promotes me to the next level.

[The puzzle Art gave me is called Brick by Brick. It is a special crossword puzzle in which the answers to the clues are provided in a stack of bricks. Working back and forth between the clues and bricks helps you to enter words in the diagram.]

Notation Added on May 3: Art just told me that he’s been doing crossword puzzles since 1953 when he was serving in the army … 63 years and counting of puzzle solving!!!!!