Fewer word finds, more crossword puzzles

I never liked word finds. To me, the certainty renders them pointless. Take the time, and you’ll win. It’s a problem that responds to brute force, but absent any spatial reward (as one gets with a jigsaw puzzle).

Yawn.

Crossword puzzles, on the other hand, require finesse. This is a good answer here, but does it mess another thing up? Will it hurt me later?

I was considering one morning this week that this might be a good analogy for what’s wrong with our problem-solving approach in this country. Too many of us, and too often, act like our problems are word finds. We prescribe “solutions” so we are “doing something,” with scant or no attention given to whether our “solution” for 17 across is going to screw us on 20 down.

Strict federal fuel economy standards are good. (Never mind that they were largely responsible for the SUV craze.) A high minimum wage is good. (Never mind that it devastates employment prospects for many young people.) Gun control is good! (Want to talk about Chicago?)

Still mostly believing that we have the government we deserve, I hold us, the people, more responsible for this than I do our elected officials. They merely reflect. Far too many of their constituents consider themselves “well informed” because they watch an evening network newscast, and then follow it up with a smirking jackass commenting on it a few hours later for laughs.

And their heads fill with word find “solutions.” So do their Facebook pages. Their government officials dutifully parrot them.

And here we are!

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