Thursday, June 12, 2008

Word Play and Crosswords

If I haven't yet mentioned it, the topic of crossword puzzles is one of my favorites. I actually wrote a paper about the semantics of crossword puzzles while working on my master's degree. Additionally, I thoroughly enjoy doing the daily crossword puzzles, mainly because of the word play involved. As is the case with many things, some puzzles are better than others when it comes to the creativeness of the word play.

Last week my daily newspaper ran a crossword puzzle with a very clever theme . The theme involved creative word play with the use of synonyms to describe how a person would steal different items in different venues (not that I condone stealing, I don't).

The clues and answers are as follows:

Steal books? palm readers

Steal produce? bag groceries

Steal coins? pinch pennies

Steal gym equipment? lift weights

For the clue steal coins?, my first thought was, pocket change (which actually did fit the spaces and would have worked semantically, to).

This was one of the better thematic crosswords involving word play I have seen in quite a while. If you are interested in seeing the puzzle in its entirety, it is a Tribune Crossword that was printed in the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday, June 4.

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