A Cruciverbalist Fills Us In

Some 60 million of us do it at least once a week. Marc Romano gets anxious if he doesn't do it at least once a day. I'm talking, of course, about solving crossword puzzles. (What'd you think I meant?)

Marc's new book, Crossworld: One Man's Journey into America's Crossword Obsession, is about his wild and crazy adventures in the world of competitive crossworld puzzling. It's a great read. Recently, Marc stopped filling in squares long enough to fill us in about what it's like to compete with fellow crossword fanatics at a national tournament -- right down to hearing the "termitelike sound of hundreds of No. 2 pencils scratching on paper." You can hear my chat with Marc here.