Here's an anecdote I heard from a friend who was addicted to
The Times (UK) cryptic crossword puzzle. He'd begin his day (which started at 4 pm) with a cup of coffee, a hand-rolled cigarette, and a copy of that morning's
Times. It took him about 30 mins to solve the puzzle, but his goal was to get it down to 10 mins, which was considered the unattainable holy grail.
One day he boarded the train to London as usual, sitting in one of those old compartment carriages with long seats facing one other. No corridor. Exit was through one of the two side doors.
No sooner had the train moved off than the commuters pulled out their copies of the
Times and their pens, and got down to the crossword puzzle. Silence reigned. One new passenger, however, appeared to be sailing through the puzzle, filling in one or two squares a second. A minute or two later he folded up his newspaper and spent the rest of the journey staring smugly out of the window. At the terminus station he was the first to alight, leaving the newspaper on his seat.
The other passengers leapt at the abandoned newspaper and stared in disbelief at the puzzle. It had, indeed, been filled in, but with rows and columns of neatly penned X-X-Xs
Clearly a joker with a very sophisticated and slightly malicious sense of humour.
The thing is, that friend never finished his dissertation and we were all concerned about his job prospects. We needn't have worried. Rumour had it that he'd found a position in a certain government agency that he couldn't mention, even to his friends.
I believe the crossword solving test in the new film about Alan Turing isn't factual but makes for good cinema. However, it's not so far off the mark.
Hilda, who was blessed with many interesting friends.
