{"id":199,"date":"2006-12-13T22:52:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-14T05:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=199"},"modified":"2007-07-08T12:35:42","modified_gmt":"2007-07-08T19:35:42","slug":"five-letter-word-for-nincompoop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=199","title":{"rendered":"Five-Letter Word for “Nincompoop”"},"content":{"rendered":"

We just watched Wordplay<\/a>, a movie about crossword puzzles.\u00a0 Former President Bill Clinton, one of several players interviewed, talked about his\u00a0typical encounter with the Saturday* New York Times crossword.\u00a0 He said he almost always starts out stumped, but continues wading through clues until he finds a word he knows, then builds on that word until he solves the entire puzzle.\u00a0 He described himself as a person of average intelligence, and, using his own experience with crossword puzzles as an illustration,\u00a0went on to say that average people are capable of far more than they imagine.<\/p>\n

Say what you will about Bill Clinton . . . the man, his politics, his record . . . he can talk, explain, even inspire.\u00a0 He reaches out to you.\u00a0 He speaks your language, holds your attention, and helps you picture exactly what he wants you to see.<\/p>\n

Now try to imagine George W. Bush reaching out and saying something inspirational.\u00a0 No, strike that . . . too far-fetched.\u00a0 Try to imagine\u00a0Bush explaining how he solves a crossword puzzle.\u00a0 You can’t?\u00a0 Okay, try to imagine Bush explaining how he ties his shoes.\u00a0 Um.<\/p>\n

Jesus.\u00a0 What the hell were we thinking when we voted for him the first time around**, let alone the second?<\/p>\n

* Crossword fans know that\u00a0NYT puzzles follow a cycle: easy on Monday, then harder and harder through the week, with the Saturday puzzle being the hardest.<\/font><\/p>\n

** What, we didn’t vote for him<\/a> the first time around?\u00a0 Let’s hear it for the Electoral College!<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We just watched Wordplay, a movie about crossword puzzles.\u00a0 Former President Bill Clinton, one of several players interviewed, talked about his\u00a0typical encounter with the Saturday* New York Times crossword.\u00a0 He said he almost always starts out stumped, but continues wading through clues until he finds a word he knows, then builds on that word until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}