Gridlock: Battling Wits at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
“For this puzzle, each answer will be a 7-letter word. I’m going to give you the first and last letters, and the middle 5 letters will be an anagram of the word ‘inset.’ If you think you know the answer, yell it out. Ready? F, S.”
“Fitness!”
“D, T.”
“Dentist!”
“J, G.”
“Jesting!”
“Ok, this next combination has two possible answers. D, Y.”
“Destiny—and density!”
I scribbled furiously. All around me, the best puzzle solving minds in America were gleefully shouting out answers. Meanwhile, I could barely keep up recording the answers on paper. Clearly, my brain was missing some wiring in the verbal juggling department.