Rosenbaum takes on the puzzle people: Crossword, Sudoku Plague Threatens America! "Doing puzzles reflects not an elevated literary sensibility but a degraded letter-ary sensibility, one that demonstrates an inability to find pleasure in reading. Otherwise, why choose the wan, sterile satisfactions of crosswords over the far more robust full-blooded pleasures of books?" And: "Sudoku has been turning ordinary humans into pod people for less than a decade."
I don't get why people do crosswords and sudoku. It's frustrating and you don't learn anything. It just doesn't make sense when you have an entire newspaper (or if you have a mobile device, THE WHOLE FREAKIN' INTERNET) at hand, why not use your spare time to expand your knowledge of the world around you? At best, doing a pen & paper puzzle makes you feel a bit smug at besting someone else's cleverness.
posted by Kiyoshi Martinez at 12:25 AM on August 22, 2008 
Puzzles do at lease engage people in thinking, something that this reading post and leaving this comment didn't do for me. Or short version "bawwww other people have fun in their own ways"
posted by Robosheep at 9:26 AM on August 22, 2008
I don't like how he lumps together sudoku and crosswords! Some of us just like clever wordplay, OKAY??
posted by katiebakes at 3:55 PM on August 22, 2008
This reads like a more sophisticated Andy Rooney rant.
posted by mokin at 5:17 PM on August 22, 2008
Of course you learn from crosswords. You learn about obscure rivers and architects. Heh.
Seriously, it keeps your wits sharp to do a little puzzle-solving on a regular basis.
Also, it's not a one-or-the-other proposition. Most people who do crosswords are also ardent readers. I know several writers who do the Times crossword fanatically, myself included.
posted by Kurtis at 10:31 AM on August 25, 2008
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