#328: The power of puzzles

When I was young we all, except my father and my grandfather, used to play hearts. My 80 year old grandmother usually sat back quietly, ran the table and beat us all to pieces while the rest of us laughed, sang made up songs about The Queen [of spades] and table talked.

My Aunt Debbie and I always have the Scrabble world championships when we get together, and for my birthday or Christmas one year she gave me the Deluxe Edition Scrabble game [a must have for nutso--about-Scrabble-people]. When I was in Dallas recently we played Bananagrams, a super fun word game that doesn't intimidate those who don't love Scrabble.

Tonight I saw this button while browsing the New York Times:

I clicked on it and started reading the puzzles to my parents. My dad listened with one ear but my mom walked in, sat down, and we worked on all six puzzles together!  Such happy memories being made this week!