My mother Josie, brother Ric, and I are profiled in today's El Diario (the local Spanish daily paper) for participating in the crossword puzzle tournament. It's nice to be recognized.
My translation of the article follows:
A family passion for crosswords
by Carolina Ledezma
Josephine Quiñones will celebrate her 85th birthday playing with words
Brooklyn -- For a decade, Josephine Quiñones, 84, has celebrated her birthday with her children Enid Enrique [sic], 64, and Christine, 43, at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
This year, from March 16 through 18 at the Marriott Brooklyn Bridge Hotel, she already has her place among some 700 participants from all over the country in the 35th edition of this annual competition.
Born in Brooklyn in a Puerto Rican and Venezuelan family, Josephine is able to solve over 20 puzzles in English per week, as her mother did years ago. "The hardest thing is to finish quickly," recalled this former Brooklyn school board secretary.
At the tournament, founded in 1978, each competitor must solve seven crosswords in between 15 and 45 minutes each, depending on its difficulty. The winners can finish each puzzle in 7 minutes or less.
After retiring, Enid Enrique, who has a computer business in Boston, decided to enter the tournament. When Josephine found out, her son says, she used her biggest smile to win him over to joining him. Christine, who is a translator and library volunteer in Brooklyn, at once joined up with the clan. So it happened that a passion that each of them nurtured from a young age became a family tradition.
"These are people who take the SAT for fun," says the son, to give an idea of how they are members of a group marked by their mental agility and incredible capacity for storing knowledge. "At 15, I used to memorize the answers while riding the A train to high school, because the cars were so full I couldn't write them down."
Finishing is not the only challenge in this competition. It has to be done as fast as possible and without errors. "It's better to sacrifice time to review patiently, because each mistaken letter costs 225 points," advises Christine, for whom clues on sports, military, and cars are a headache.
Josephine, on the other hand, worries about completions, and at her age, she laughs because many of the history questions are easy because she lived through them.
Her son runs into trouble with myths, Biblical references and pop music. Don't ask him about Lady Gaga, Enid Enrique says; but do ask about opera, another habit that he feeds by going to at least 20 performances a year.
United States crosswords are more rigorous than their counterparts in Spanish, Christine says, but, in contrast to British or French ones, the great thing is there is always a way to get out of a jam. "If there's a hard down clue, the across clue is always easier," and so it's possible to keep going forwards.
Each of them has tricks for putting their minds to work. Josephine looks for words with hard letter such as Q, X and K. Enid Enrique looks for clues asking to fill in the blank. Meanwhile, Christine looks for abbreviations or examples of the word being sought.
This year, tournament creator Will Shortz commented over the phone, the youngest participant is a 15-year-old from California, and Josephine may be the oldest. "It's incredible to see people so young; how can a 15-year-old know so much," says Josephine, showing a dozen books she will read this week and a smile that lights her up from knowing that her "birthday celebration" is coming soon.
My translation of the article follows:
A family passion for crosswords
by Carolina Ledezma
Josephine Quiñones will celebrate her 85th birthday playing with words
Brooklyn -- For a decade, Josephine Quiñones, 84, has celebrated her birthday with her children Enid Enrique [sic], 64, and Christine, 43, at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
This year, from March 16 through 18 at the Marriott Brooklyn Bridge Hotel, she already has her place among some 700 participants from all over the country in the 35th edition of this annual competition.
Born in Brooklyn in a Puerto Rican and Venezuelan family, Josephine is able to solve over 20 puzzles in English per week, as her mother did years ago. "The hardest thing is to finish quickly," recalled this former Brooklyn school board secretary.
At the tournament, founded in 1978, each competitor must solve seven crosswords in between 15 and 45 minutes each, depending on its difficulty. The winners can finish each puzzle in 7 minutes or less.
After retiring, Enid Enrique, who has a computer business in Boston, decided to enter the tournament. When Josephine found out, her son says, she used her biggest smile to win him over to joining him. Christine, who is a translator and library volunteer in Brooklyn, at once joined up with the clan. So it happened that a passion that each of them nurtured from a young age became a family tradition.
"These are people who take the SAT for fun," says the son, to give an idea of how they are members of a group marked by their mental agility and incredible capacity for storing knowledge. "At 15, I used to memorize the answers while riding the A train to high school, because the cars were so full I couldn't write them down."
Finishing is not the only challenge in this competition. It has to be done as fast as possible and without errors. "It's better to sacrifice time to review patiently, because each mistaken letter costs 225 points," advises Christine, for whom clues on sports, military, and cars are a headache.
Josephine, on the other hand, worries about completions, and at her age, she laughs because many of the history questions are easy because she lived through them.
Her son runs into trouble with myths, Biblical references and pop music. Don't ask him about Lady Gaga, Enid Enrique says; but do ask about opera, another habit that he feeds by going to at least 20 performances a year.
United States crosswords are more rigorous than their counterparts in Spanish, Christine says, but, in contrast to British or French ones, the great thing is there is always a way to get out of a jam. "If there's a hard down clue, the across clue is always easier," and so it's possible to keep going forwards.
Each of them has tricks for putting their minds to work. Josephine looks for words with hard letter such as Q, X and K. Enid Enrique looks for clues asking to fill in the blank. Meanwhile, Christine looks for abbreviations or examples of the word being sought.
This year, tournament creator Will Shortz commented over the phone, the youngest participant is a 15-year-old from California, and Josephine may be the oldest. "It's incredible to see people so young; how can a 15-year-old know so much," says Josephine, showing a dozen books she will read this week and a smile that lights her up from knowing that her "birthday celebration" is coming soon.