Well, they DID warn me that if I voted for Romney, nothing would ever be the same again…

All I wanted yesterday was a brief respite from politics. Normally I favor Sudoku, but on the occasions that I drift over to the daily crossword puzzle, I simply wish to have a semi-reasonable shot at figuring it out.

Now before anyone calls me a whiner, I’m not crying ‘foul’ on the weird, esoteric clues which require you to possess a Mensa-level intellect, nor am I upset when the subject refers to famous Fijian physicists, the mating rituals of Shetland Ponies, or some such nonsense. Just ’cause I don’t happen to know the answer doesn’t mean it’s not a fair question.

The salient point in all that being: “…THE answer…“, as in: ONE. A single, correct answer is all I expect from any puzzle. It’s when there’s an entire mutating HORDE of EQUALLY CORRECT answers that I get a bit testy.

See for yourself: in the Times’ June 19, 2013 crossword puzzle, the clue for #65 Down reads as follows:

a three-letter word for “organization in a 2013 scandal…”

Now seriously, does that seem to be even remotely fair to you? Let’s just consider some of the possibilities:

C’mon, New York Times: throw me a bone here!

Couldn’t you saddle me with a question that merely has only 3 or 4 Equally Correct Possibilities? You know, like: “Since it was passed in 2010, name the year that Obamacare polled negatively among the American people?”

That way, I’m not facing Powerball-ish odds… not until Obamacare has been around for a few more years, of course.

So, I guess it’s back to doing Sudoku, …or at least until Obama manages to somehow ruin THAT for me, too.