I’m new to writing blog posts, but I’m not new to reading them. I read lots of what you all write about our organization every day and I have a deep interest in social media. Today, I’d love to talk about the blogs I love to read and why.

My candy at the end of the day is the New York Times Crossword puzzle. No matter how exhausted I am or how late it is, I won’t shut off the light unless I’ve taken a crack at the puzzle and I’ve read a few pages of a  good book. By the way my latest toy is a Kindle, which is the coolest thing. So, I’ll Kindle a few pages of a good book and then I’ll try to crack the puzzle.

The beautiful thing about crossword puzzles is that they get harder each day. Monday is very easy, and Saturday is impossible. Sunday is fun, but about on par with a Thursday.

So, I’ve been doing these puzzles literally since I’m twelve years old. It’s something I used to do with my Dad and it was very special for us. I remember when I finished my first Thursday and now I can pretty much fill out Friday and Saturday.

My treat for having completed a puzzle is to go on two different blogs. One is Will Shortz Wordplay Blog and the other is Rex Parker does the NYT Crossword Puzzle. He will critique the puzzle in gory detail and pontificate on whether it was well-constructed, whether there was too much crosswordese, and whether he thought the trick in there was worthy of a NYT Crossword Puzzle.

When we rushed my Dad to the hospital – he had been sick for 4 months – I found the Sunday from the day he was in the hospital and it was 98% of the way filled out. He wasn’t stumped, just hadn’t gotten to the bottom right quadrant. His record was 4.5 years in ink without missing a box. The Saturday would take me 2 hours and take him 20 minutes. He was really incredible.

Filed under: Leadership