I have no ideas on this one, waiting for clues.

Annette

Hmmm...thinking of anything that turned out not to be just a craze. Some kind of clothing maybe?

Cynthia

The craze - "the fad" - stage has passed, but there are still people numbering to the millions who look for their daily fix!! The New York Times jumped on the bandwagon in 1942.

Hmmm.....

Nancy - who has cats stalking out, quite unhappy with her!!

If it has to do with a newspaper and a daily fix, the lightbulb is flickering :).

Annette

Did you get a brief emission of light, Annette?

Nancy.

Something to go with my morning coffee?

Annette

Hmmm...only you would know for sure, but mine goes better with one!! lol

Nancy.

I am a fan of these and think I remember reading this quote from the Times at some point in the not-too-distant past. In my case, I usually partake in the evening.

TM

Ahh TM - I didn't think I could fool you but the quote cracked me up. I was going to do a multiple about these, but the quote seemed perfect - especially since the two are linked completely now, in many people's minds!!

Nancy.

Jeepers. I was toatally heading in the wrong direction. Now, I have an idea, a couple actually. Will wait for confirming or correcting clues!

Cynthia

Don't be cross with me, Cynthia!!

Nancy.

Haha. That is what I was thinking! Don't do this daily-only on Sunday. :)

Cynthia

DH does ours as soon as the paper comes into the house. Seems that each day gets a bit harder from Monday through Saturday.

That is so true, Bobbie.

Cynthia

LOL!! Nancy, that was a dead give away :-)) I don't "fix" as often as I used to (geesh, I sound like a druggie!) but Sunday was always the toughest day for me!

Ahh, once the cat is near the exit of the bag, it is tough to keep the secret- lol. Do we have this fad now?

They became a regular weekly feature in the World, and spread to other newspapers; the Boston Globe, for example, was publishing them at least as early as 1917.

By the 1920s, the phenomenon was starting to attract notice. In October 1922, newspapers published a comic strip by Clare Briggs entitled "Movie of a Man Doing the _____-___ ______," with an enthusiast muttering "87 across 'Northern Sea Bird'!!??!?!!? Hm-m-m starts with an 'M', second letter is 'U'... I'll look up all the words starting with an 'M-U...' mus-musi-mur-murd--Hot Dog! Here 'tis! Murre!" In 1923 a humorous squib in The Boston Globe has a wife ordering her husband to run out and "rescue the papers... the part I want is blowing down the street." "What is it you're so keen about?" "Hurry, please, that's a good boy."

Such fervor!!

Nancy.

Crossword puzzle

My part is to look at the puzzle after DH gets most of it done to see if I can fill in any remaining. Sometimes I only get a letter or two but often it is enough for him to pick it up and finish.

One of the guys in DH's scrabble club creates crossword puzzles for newspapers.

My level is creating puzzles each night for DS as part of his bedtime ritual when he was 8/9 years old.

Agreed...crossword puzzle.

I used to do them daily (in the evening when I got home), but now I just do the Sunday one. I do a little in bed every night. Sometimes takes me two tries, sometimes three. Depends on how sleepy I am and how hard the puzzle is on a given week. Lots of fun. Can't imagine not having a paper with a crossword puzzle!

I had a friend way back when whose father commuted to NYC every day. He would work on the NY Times puzzle throughout the day, finish it, then buy a new copy of the paper, sit down on the train, and proceed to fill in all the answers without any trouble or hesitation. Bet it drove those near him nuts! That is such a tough puzzle every day! So funny.

This was fun and I am so pleased that I got it before I read your "cross" clue Nancy. My brain is not completely mush. Yippee.

Cynthia

It's so interesting to me that after I have filled in every word that I can, and set the puzzle aside, I can pick it up the next day and invariably figure out more words, sometimes all of them. I can often finish a tough Sunday puzzle this way, eventually. The brain definitely works in mysterious ways. I tend to believe that the subconscious is working behind the scenes while I do other things.

TM

There is evidence to support the theory that working crossword puzzles regularly will reduce the plaque in the brain that contributes to the development of Alzheimer's disease. Ditto with jigsaw puzzles. That's all the reason I need to justify this compulsion.

When I worked a regular 9-5 corporate job, I used to do the daily crossword at lunch. In ink. My coworkers would time me to see how fast I could complete it. Can't say the same for the NY Times Sunday puzzle -- that one stumps me almost every time. Devious minds create those things!

Well, good for you all!! It is the cross-word puzzle. Not as ancient as I thought!!

The title for the world's first crossword puzzle is disputed based on whom you ask. The first puzzle that was called a "cross word puzzle" was written in 1862 by Our Young Folks in the United States. The first "cross word" was "dream".

Crossword puzzles are said to be the most popular and widespread word game in the world, yet have a short history. The first crosswords appeared in England during the 19th century. They were of an elementary kind, apparently derived from the word square, a group of words arranged so the letters read alike vertically and horizontally, and printed in children's puzzle books and various periodicals.
Although Maleska is usually credited with the first crossword phrase in The New York Times, an 1862 puzzle in the Lady's Book had phrases that are considered modern such as the expression "I did it".
Crossword-like puzzles, for example Double Diamond Puzzles, appeared in the magazine St. Nicholas, published since 1873.
Another crossword puzzle appeared on September 14, 1890, in the Italian magazine Il Secolo Illustrato della Domenica. It was designed by Giuseppe Airoldi and titled "Per passare il tempo" ("To pass the time"). Airoldi's puzzle was a four-by-four grid with no shaded squares; it included horizontal and vertical clues.
On December 21, 1913, Arthur Wynne, a journalist from Liverpool, England, published a "word-cross" puzzle in the New York World that embodied most of the features of the genre as we know it. This puzzle is frequently cited as the first crossword puzzle, and Wynne as the inventor. Later, the name of the puzzle was changed to "crossword".
In 1925, the New York Public Library reported that "The latest craze to strike libraries is the crossword puzzle," and complained that when "the puzzle 'fans' swarm to the dictionaries and encyclopedias so as to drive away readers and students who need these books in their daily work, can there be any doubt of the Library's duty to protect its legitimate readers?"
The first book of crossword puzzles appeared in 1924, published by Simon and Schuster. "This odd-looking book with a pencil attached to it" was an instant hit and crossword puzzles became the craze of 1924.

So, for Annette, TM, Bobbie, Cynthia and Garden Gal:

Thanks to all for playing, see you all next week!!

Nancy.

Thanks, Nancy, for the weekend fun. I have a crossword app on my phone so there is always a puzzle handy when I have to cool my heels in a waiting room somewhere.

TM

Thanks for the question and interesting info, Nancy. I seldom do game puzzles of any kind. Prefer reading mysteries and puzzling out their solutions. I'm still trying to figure out the mystery that is my everyday life!

Thanks for the stars Nancy! That was fun.

TM, I have the same experience (getting stuck, putting it down, and coming back the next day to suddenly see other answers so clearly). Very strange. Wonder what causes that? Someone should do a study...
;)

Oh, and I also do them in pen-it's a pencil/newspaper texture thing. Gives me fits to write in pencil.