Puzzles

I have done quite a bit of traveling for my work (and sometimes for fun) over the last ten years. Most of the time when I fly I try to bring along something to read and/or listen to, and sometimes I read a little faster than I planned. Thank goodness the airlines provide their "in-flight magazine" for our reading enjoyment. There are articles that highlight the features of Tulsa night life or the great restaurants of Omaha.

Sanwiched between these journalistic revelations and the various airport maps, customs form instructions, and menu of available drinks, there are a few sodoku puzzles as well as a crossword.

The magazine that I pick up always has puzzles that have been started by a previous passenger. Started, not finished. And they didn't finish because they made some mistakes. They may be close enough that the words fit in some places but the blanks in the "down" entries don't have a chance of being right. I spend some time working through the obvious errors; but there are some that I can't clean up. I don't know what they were thinking and I've only got an hour on the plane wheels-up to wheels-down. It is frustrating that I can't get the puzzle completely fixed; if only the puzzle had been blank, maybe I would have had a chance.

It's like that with H sometimes - I feel like I've been given an incomplete crossword puzzle and somebody has messed up a big chunk of it. I have to go back and try to fix the wrong words and I only have so much time, I worry that I won't be able to complete the puzzle.