Cluemonia, the Craze of the 1920s

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I think I’m Grant Barrett.

I know you’re Grant Barrett, and I’m Martha Barnette.

In the 1920s, Americans were warned of a new phenomenon that was sweeping across the country. It was described as a national menace, a sinful waste, something that harmed people’s health, ruined their minds, and threatened their marriages.

I know the Internet’s not that old.

No, it’s not.

No, there was another culprit here. It was the crossword puzzle.

Wow!

I know.

I know.

It’s weird to think back to that time, but the first modern crossword puzzle was published in 1913, and those puzzles soon took off, and one newspaper described the craze this way. Everywhere at any hour of the day, people can be seen quite shamelessly pouring over the checkerboard diagrams, cuddling their brains for a four-letter word meaning molten rock or a six-letter word meaning idler or whatnot in trains and trams or omnibuses, in subways, in factories and homes, and even, although as yet rarely, with hymnals for camouflage in church.

I can imagine that.

Imagine the pastor in it, the lectern in front of the congregation.

Yeah, yeah.

Now, bow your heads, for about the seven minutes it takes me to complete this crossword.

Right.

But, you know, it was regarded as scandalous by some people. But on the other hand, some trained companies added dictionaries to their railroad cars. And hotels considered placing a dictionary next to the Gideon Bible in room.

Well, that’s a net good, right?

That’s a net positive.

Yeah, yeah, distributing dictionaries.

But on the other hand, in the UK, the Wimbledon Public Library reportedly removed dictionaries from their reading room because of all the wear and tear from people coming in to use them to solve crosswords. They had, as one newspaper columnist said, a bad case of clumonia.

No, dictionaries are consumables. Like, they’re there to be used, people. Use them. And if they wear out, replace them. That’s how it works.

Yeah, I don’t know how much of this was breathless hyperbole written to sell newspapers, but it really is fascinating to me that there really was this fair bit of hand-wringing about this new form of entertainment, whether you used a dictionary or not.

One writer said, young people who want to increase their vocabulary should not deceive themselves with crosswords. Let them read Shakespeare.

Is there any innovation? Is there any new entertainment? Is there anything that is invented that appeals to group A that isn’t excoriated by group B? And valued by group A because of that, right?

Right, right.

I’ll praise it all the more because you dislike it.

Well, and it’s interesting, too, now that people say do crosswords. It’s good for your brain as you get older. But also, it is a calming entertainment that you can do solo, but you can also do it together with a loved one.

And I would love to hear from our listeners about favorite crossword puzzle clues or how you do crossword puzzles, your strategies, or just how you feel about them in general.

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