Crossword mania

I did the Friday NYT crossword on line in about 14 minutes just now. This is putting me almost in the scary position of having only one truly challenging puzzle a week--the dreaded but wonderful Saturday. I'm convinced learned puzzle solving skill is more significant than inherent knowledge of esoteric words or names in solving these things. I get better the more I do, but I still didn't know who "Irish revolutionary Robert" was, in today's puzzle. This means that the way to get better at puzzles is to do more of them, rather than to memorize lists of words.

How much of puzzle solving skill, as opposed to intrinsic knowledge, is based on knowledge of a specific code, of "crosswordese"? I'm glad you asked. I think this is about 30% of it. You have to know that words with a lot of vowels are going to appear ("eerie"). And that words with the vowel consonant vowel consonant pattern are going to be overused as well ("elal"), since they fit in grids nicely with the more common consonant-vowel pattern ("Riga"). Another part of it is instinct. For example, I no longer think, "six letters." Usually I just look at the blank and know whether a word will fit there. The ability to think horizontally and vertically at the same time also helps to solve more difficult parts of the grid.

I never use any reference book or dictionary. Not because it is "cheating" but because I rarely need help. The only exception is with a Friday or Saturday puzzle when I am down to a few clues and come across proper names that are unfamiliar to me. The name of a Nevada county crossed with that of a sitcom actress I've never heard of. In this case I will just use google to find the answer.

I would like to go the crossword puzzle tourney next year, though I am not that good at solving with pencil and paper. It was only when I started doing them on line, a few years ago, that I developed a real skill at it.