Unbelievably, it’s been two weeks since this event. But so it goes.
A fortnight ago, the wife brought me to see Will Shortz over at Berkeley, as part of the Cal Performances series. The NYTimes crossword puzzle editor and enigmatologist extraordinaire just walked on stage, talked about the history of crossword puzzles, answered questions, and led the entire ~2,000 seat auditorium through a series of verbal puzzles. Nothing terribly hard, but his “Beat the Champ” game divided the entire audience into two ad-hoc “teams,” in an effective, polite, competitive game.
Maybe American culture is on the decline, but getting a collection of people together to simply enjoy verbal gymnastics makes me think we’re not all done yet.
Two days later, I soaked up the sun in the left-field bleachers at SBC / Pac Bell / AT&T Park watching the visiting Mets edge out the Giants in an afternoon game. Yes, I skipped out before the 9th to head back to work, but a pleasant afternoon. And I’ve been here long enough that this Yankees fan doesn’t think twice about rooting mildly for the now hometown Giants.
Still, if I had to choose, I’d go with Shortz and the rest of the word geeks again. 😉
The only really tough question is… what would my mother choose: watching her Mets win or quietly enjoying matching wits with the former Games editor, whose various puzzles have tickled her mind for at least two decades now? Mom?