Reason to be cheerful (RtBC):
Will Shortz.
He’s the puzzle editor of the New York Times.
My wife and I love crossword puzzles, though we’ve learned we can’t work on them together. (I’ll take the blame here.) And the Thursday through Sunday New York Times puzzles are generally wonderful. They are well clued, they are difficult and tricky without ever being unfair or hard-for-hard’s sake, and they are consistent in their quality.
Monday through Wednesday, we cast about for other crosswords. I’ve got about half a dozen sources, but nothing that makes me feel like I must check it every week. Some are large and easy. Some are the weekday-standard 15×15 and easy. Lots of them are clued based on the principle, “Let’s take each word and give it the most ridiculous, obscure clue we can.”
I can do those.
They’re just not fun.
I can certainly think right along in obscure and convoluted ways. But then it becomes ten or twenty minutes of hard work, not a breakfast wake-up-the-mind game.
So thank you, Will Shortz.