June 03, 2003

LAST CLUE

A sweet obituary for the Sydney Morning Herald’s crossword king, Lindsey Browne:

Browne started writing crosswords in 1935 to top up his wage as a cadet reporter on the Herald. He admitted later to crossword addiction, completing a puzzle before breakfast every day.

The kitchen table at his home in Greenwich was often covered with thumbed and torn reference books and notepads bulging with grids and words.

Browne’s final puzzle (of 40,000 or so) is here.

Posted by Tim Blair at June 3, 2003 04:37 AM
Comments

He'll be missed. Studies have shown that working crosswords does more to improve one's mind than almost any other cognative activity. Which is one reason for my intellect :]

Except that 6 years ago I stopped doing crosswords in favor of the computer...one of the reasons my mind has degenerated to it's present sad state.

Posted by: Wallace at June 3, 2003 at 06:48 AM

When Will Weng, NYT crossword editor, died, Imus on his morning radio show asked sidekick McCord ``What four letter word beginning and ending with `d' describes Will Weng?'' A national sendoff.

Posted by: Ron Hardin at June 3, 2003 at 11:19 AM

Cripes, his crosswords were one of the best things about visiting NSW. Cheerio, Lindsay.

Posted by: slatts at June 3, 2003 at 02:38 PM