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For a puzzle that consists of little more than a grid and a list of clues, the crossword inspires remarkable devotion. Some people have completed the same newspaper's puzzle every day for decades and would no 1. miss it than skip breakfast. What keeps them coming back is not simply the satisfaction of filling in the last square, but the moment 2. a baffling clue suddenly makes sense. Setters, as the people 3. write the puzzles are known, take great pride in clues that are fair but misleading. A good clue, they say, should send you in the wrong direction and 4. still give you everything you need to solve it. It has been suggested that regular puzzle-solving may help to keep the mind sharp in old age, although the evidence for this is by no 5. conclusive. 6. or not that turns out to be true, few solvers need a scientific reason to pick up a pencil. For many, the daily crossword is 7. much a ritual as a challenge: a quiet half hour that belongs to them and no one 8..