Summertime, and the livin’ is easy, as the song goes, and one way people enjoy relaxing is to do crossword puzzles, alone or with a partner. Some people even time themselves on how fast they can do the really hard ones.
Crossword puzzles are a popular pastime that appeared in the 1800s, and now every newspaper seems to carry one. During the crossword craze of the 1920s, it was said that people lost their jobs for doing them at work, and obsession with crosswords and disputes about them even destroyed marriages. They’ve been touted as keeping your mind active, being good for your memory - even slowing down Alzheimer’s and improving hand-eye coordination.
Over 100 years later they are still around, and in Canada, we have our very own crossword puzzle creator, Gwen Sjogren, of Calgary. She has created 18 books of 100 puzzles, to date. The first six were called Cross Canada Crosswords, and the latest are the O CANADA CROSSWORDS (Nightwood Editions, Harbour Publishing). Sjogren is already working on her 19th (due out this fall). She’s created more than 1,000 puzzles, and half of them are Canadian-themed.
“I started like everyone else, solving them, and then when I had some free time, I started thinking I could create some myself,”says Sjogren. Her first few were published in the U.S., but she wanted to create crosswords that referred to life in Canada, not relying on U.S. baseball statistics, geography or politics.
So what comes first, the grid or the words?
With Sjogren, it’s the grid, or framework. “That takes me about one hour and 15 minutes, and it’s always symmetrical, then I find the words and make up their clues and that takes at least another four hours. To proofread the whole book of 100 puzzles takes about 50 to 60 hours. I try to cram as much Canadian content into them as I can. I like to do themed puzzles, and clue each puzzle differently every time, trying to use a lot of word play and humour.”
She likes to include a few experimental puzzles, using different-shaped formats, and clues.
“The longest words I use are about 11 letters, and they usually go in first. The hardest thing is to find smaller words that end in a vowel,” she says.
That’s why you find some words used that are real but often only found in crossword puzzles now, like “etui” (It’s a small French pocketbook, or purse).
Her latest compilation of crossword entertainment should be out in the fall, but you can find the first 18 at many bookstores.
MORE SUMMER READS
Other books for summer reading are as varied as our many regions, with times for gardening, hiking, fishing, sailing, or just relaxing with a book.
Here are some that touch on all these activities:
A FIELD GUILD TO INSECTS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, by Dr. Robert Cannings (Harbour Publishing): Over 50 insects are photographed, clearly, their habits and occurrence described, with fascinating facts included, like those of the Kirby Backswimmer, which swims upside down, using their legs as oars. The guide is compact, folding flat 4 ½ inches by 9 inches, less than ¼ inch thick, so easy to carry for the walker, hiker or traveller.
GRIZZLIES, GALES AND GIANT SALMON – Life at a Rivers Inlet Fishing Lodge, by Pat Ardley (Harbour): A story for lovers of B.C.’s wild wet coast, of a young couple who start with life at an isolated lighthouse, then work as fishing resort staff, to eventually building their own remote wilderness fishing lodge at Rivers Inlet.
SUMMER OF THE HORSE, by Donna Kane (Lost Moose): Kane’s love for and ability to create pictures and poetry in her writing make this more than just a story about running a horse ranch in B.C.’s remote northern mountainous wilderness.
LISTENING TO THE BEES, by Mark L. Winston and Renee Sarojini Saklikar (Nightwood Editions): Winston is the bee scientist and expert bee-keeper, and Saklikar is the poet, both inspired by the world of bees. Winston’s years of research into varieties of bees and their habits is especially concerned about the threats to their existence, and how vital they are to our own, while Sakalikar responds to their mystery in her poetry.
AWESOME ANCIENT GRAINS AND SEEDS – A Garden-to-Kitchen Guide, by Dan Jason and Michele Genest. (Douglas & McIntyre): All those ancient grains are supposed to be so good for you, but where do you get them and how do you cook with them? These questions and more are answered in this unique, well-illustrated gardening book/cookbook.
EXTRAORDINARY ORNAMENTAL EDIBLES – 100 Perennials, Trees, Shrubs and Vines for Canadian Gardens, by Mike Lascelle (Douglas & McIntyre): This is one book that’s a pleasure to look at and to learn from. We know about raspberries and currants, but not everyone knows there’s an ornamental dogwood, whose fruits are good to eat, or parts of bamboo, pine or the ostrich fern. The photographs are clear and beautiful, a book all gardeners, gourmands and would-be gardeners should love.
NORVAL MORRISSEAU – Man Changing into Thunderbird, by Arman Garnet Ruffo (Douglas & McIntyre): The life of Norval Morrisseau is as convoluted and mysterious as his art, and the writer who befriended him and writes his story doesn’t gloss over the artist’s years in addiction and living on skid row. There are the happy early years with his grandfather, teaching him the ways of his elders, then the lows of losing family, sickness and drunken rages, to the highs of shows at prestigious galleries and getting the Order of Canada.
