My husband and I buy the New York Times every Sunday. I freely admit this: I only buy it to do the crossword. We have fun solving it together and are getting faster at it, but we’ll never be invited to one of those puzzler’s conventions where people knock one out in 10 minutes. I can’t even read the clues that fast. If there’s ever a sequel to Wordplay, we won’t be interviewed. It’s still fun, though. Every week we go up against an obstacle and defeat it together.
I also like to read the magazine. The last page is always a first-person short essay by someone new, usually a college-educated 20-something living on the East Coast whose limited life experience leaves something to be desired. This week’s is really fun, though: the author of a novel that’s not well-known here (and I’d never heard of him or his novel before today) finds out that he’s rock-star famous in Japan and tells of his weird alt-life when he goes abroad.
Take a look: Big in Japan
Categories: Brain Workouts
Flabby Brain 
Fun read. How surreal.