I have always wondered (just once in a while) how crossword puzzle-makers set about to make crossword puzzles.  If you stop and think about it, there’s more than just picking out some words that intersect conveniently like they do in a Scrabble game.  There’s some sort of guild rule that says the black separating squares have to be laid out in a balanced, symmetrical pattern within the puzzle.

Now I could understand some people having the patience and cranial tendency to carefully craft a crossword puzzle in a week or two.  But the rate that they are turned out – by the dozens every day – indicates a trade-secret that hastens the construction.  They are not only used in daily newspapers (who buy them from a news syndicate, therefore some duplication in several papers), but in various magazines and in paperback books that are entirely filled with a couple of hundred puzzles.

Personally, I have never met nor even heard of anyone who creates crossword puzzles.  Maybe they’re not allowed out during daylight hours, I don’t know.  But I am curious about how long it takes a pro to make a new puzzle from scratch.  And I’d be interested to find out just what sort of formula they use to slap one together so that it lines up just right with those symmetrical squares.  I tried running a Google search for “How to make a crossword puzzle” and all I got was 1,150,000 links to computer programs that do it for you.  That’s great.  I can make a puzzle now if I wanted to.  I don’t want to.  But it still doesn’t answer my questions. 

I’m afraid that the craft of creating crosswords from scratch will soon die out much like that of creating ornamental ceiling plaster.  Not only will computers be taking over the task, but people aren’t solving crosswords as much anymore.  Have you noticed that the numbers of dedicated books in the drug store magazine racks has diminished?  There used to be a dozen or more choices to purchase.  Now there are only about four to choose from.  And the skill level of them is noticeably lower.  Why is that?   Funny you should ask, because I think I have the answer.

The big deal now in casual puzzling is this Japanese number puzzle game called Sudoku.  Using just the ten basic digits, they’re another form of mental challenge.  But I believe that the real reason that it’s taking over from crosswords is directly related to the recent collapse of the public school system.  Children are not being taught much of anything any more and two glaring shortcomings are vocabulary skills and spelling.  Most people under the age of 30 are seriously deficient in the range of their vocabulary and they just cannot do a decent crossword anymore.  Thus the dumbing down of the crossword difficulty being published nowadays.  But they can all remember ten basic digits, zero through nine.  So here comes Sudoku.

And here we go to check out this equipment for today.  I’ll go get the coffee started.  I can count the scoops needed.

I’ve got some unrelated loose-ends to drop on you this morning.  I promise that they won’t take long.  First of all, Monday won’t be disrupted by the Tour de France.  Today is a rest day for the cyclists, and it’s probably a good thing after yesterday’s mountain climbing.  Two hefty ascents in about three hours and one of them was a 7,000-ft.-high monster.  That was their third and final day of their jaunt through the Pyrenees mountains (is that redundant?), so we’ve got a week of relatively flatland stages coming up this week.  But the scenery will be just as great, especially the small towns.

A week from today will be the first stage in the Alps, and that’s where the heightened competition begins, too.  I think the only rider’s name that I’m able to pronounce consistently accurately is “Armstrong.”  I’ve never figured out those colorful tongue-twisters like “Nocentini.”  Is it a hard “c” or a soft “c”?  Doesn’t matter to me.  I just have fun watching those motorcycles weave through the peloton (the what?).

*  *  *

It’s not just the American car-makers that are undergoing an upheaval these days.  The German car industry is trying to reshape itself, too.  While Daimler-Benz is shedding itself of as many of their unprofitable lines as they can and Opel going down the drain with GM, Volkswagen and Porsche are engaged in flat-out fisticuffs over who’s going to control who.

I don’t pretend to understand it all, nor do I even follow it closely.  So I can only be a bit sketchy about what’s going on.  As I understand it,

• Last year Porsche mounted a concerted bid for a hostile buy out of VW.  It failed.
• Porsche came out of the battle very heavily in debt and holding a bunch of VW shares that it now wants to get rid of.
• Now VW is counter-attacking, offering to take control of Porsche by purchasing 49.9% of the company for just over 4 billion Euros.
• Porsche is so indebted that they will have to sell something to somebody or go under.  But they have refused VW’s offer.
• Enter the Emirate of Qatar, the world’s 2nd-richest oil nation and their new offer of 7 billion Euros for 25% of Porsche plus all of their VW holdings.

Will we be seeing Europe’s two powerhouse auto companies suddenly under the control of an Arab country?  Hard to imagine.  Please don’t quote me on any of this, but if any of you have been following this drama, how about filling the rest of us in on what’s going on there?

*  *  *

And finally, a little bit of reading for you later on during lunch time.  There’s an interesting  ARTICLE HERE about the growing numbers of “big box” stores that are being vacated and left derelict in shopping centers all across the country.  I’ll not get into the why’s and wherefor’s of it all now, but it raises some flags for firefighters. 

What I’m thinking of primarily is how do you keep up with what is really going on inside these “empty” monoliths?  After the major tenant, like the late Circuit City, moves out, what happens next?  Don’t become lax on your preplanning for these places.  In an effort to salvage something from their investment, some of them may become leased storage facilities loaded up with stock from other businesses that sell an entirely different product.  Do you know what’s in there?

Some of them are being renovated into smaller units in an attempt to revitalize the building.  There may be a lot of construction going on inside that you can’t see because there aren’t any windows!  Sprinklers?   Sure, all of those places were built with sprinkler systems.  But after they’ve been sitting vacant for a couple of years with no maintainence being performed, you can’t rely on them.  But you’d better be checking them out.  It’s all right there, a disaster-in-waiting.  Huge confined area with no ventilation….high ceilings topped off with lightweight trusses …. dubious sprinkler or standpipe connections …. unknown amount of stored materials.  You get the picture.  After you read the article, make up your own list and use it as a drill topic this afternoon.

This morning, though, we need to get the equipment checked out.  I’m late getting the coffee started, so let me get going.  I’ll see you back in the day room.

For the past several years now, I’ve been watching the Tour de France bicycle race on TV.  It takes up most of the month of July, running about 21 days and due to the time zone difference it comes on around 7 am, sometimes a little later, each day.

Now I don’t give a hang about who wins this thing, or what team is in the lead, or even who was the most recent pedal-phile to get caught blood-doping.  I watch it for the scenery.  It’s a beautiful travelogue every morning for a month.  And since the route of the race is completely different each year, there is no repetition.

The race course is designed to include X-number of days, or stages, in mountainous regions so we’re treated to some lovely landscapes.  The entire stage is covered by a helicopter and the tv production utilizes it frequently and we get to see many medievel towns and tiny burgs that we’ve never heard of, many of which are placed alongside a photogenic river.

The race itself is rather baffling to me.  They have all kinds of ways of accumulating points, not just the fastest time.  And it leads to some racing strategy that makes no sense whatsoever to someone who travels about by automobile all the time like I do.  When the 150+ riders push off each morning they soon divvy themselves up into two groups.  The lead group is called the “peloton” for some reason.  This gaggle of about 40 riders suddenly bolts out about a ½-mile ahead of the rest of the pack.  Why all those guys in the second batch are content to remain there is incomprehensible to me.  Why don’t they catch up?  What good is it to just trail along a few minutes behind the peloton?  Why bother with it?

Another puzzling tactic is the practice of one of the peloton leaders to suddenly dash out about 100 yards ahead of the rest of them, pedalling himself along like crazy as if the finish line is just a block away.  Then after a minute or so, the rest of them, after watching this dashing rider with some amusement, will expel a little effort of their own and catch up with him.  They’re all right back where they started except they’ve used up more energy to do it. Crazy, eh?

Team colors and jersey designs are something else again.  Most of the designs are rather complicated with not much in the way of style.  Odd-ball colors and mish-mash lines are the preferred choices.  And the sponsors are mostly outfits that I’ve never heard of.  Although Skil Saw is one of the major sponsors this year.  We’ve all heard of them.  But what in the world is Robobank?  There’s one team whose jerseys are covered by a design that looks like a bunch of paw prints all over them.

And then there’s one special uniform that is worn by whoever is the current points leader for the “King of the Mountain” trophy that is awarded at the end.  This poor guy has to wear a uniform that is all white and covered with bright red polka-dots all over the jersey and his pants.  Even his socks are the required white with polka dots.  I’m wondering if maybe the sponsor for that award is some French porno film production company.

I’ll never understand all these confusing rules , roles and strategies.  But I always enjoy the scenery.  So let’s get this equipment checked out while I go start the coffee and then we can watch the rest of today’s stage.  I’ve noticed that nobody has been “texting while pedaling.”  But Lance Armstrong has a Twitter account ( http://twitter.com/Lancearmstrong ).

Let’s clean off this pile of snippets that are cluttering up the desktop.  Here are some updates from previous reports:

*  You may recall our report back in February on the lap dancer who was set on fire by a rival at the Babes & Beer Sports Club in California.  (click HERE to review the posting.)  The victim was so seriousley burned that she wasn’t expected to live.  As it happens, she is still alive and remains in the burn hospital and has had several surgeries already.

The woman who set her alight was caught a few days later and has been held in jail on $1 million bond since then.  This past Tuesday she was ordered by a judge to stand trial for attempted murder, aggravated mayhem and torture.  She will be arraigned on July 21.  Her boyfriend/accomplice has been released after the D. A. decided not to prosecute him.

*  The crazed man in South Windsor, Connecticut, who held his ex-wife captive in the basement of their former home and set it on fire earlier this week (story HERE) is being held on $12.5 million bond.  He’s done this before and the authorities are finally starting to get the idea that he might be crazy.

The day before he set this fire, he canceled the insurance policy on the dwelling leaving his wife, who was to have title to it, shouldering the entire loss.

*  The meat packing plant fire in Cudahy, Wisconsin, is OUT.  It was officially declared “out” on Wednesday, three days after it started (Firgeezer reports HERE, HERE and HERE).  Cudahy’s corporate owner, Smithfield Foods said that they will do everything possible to try and get the plant back into operation.  Townsfolk are worried that it might not happen, though, because as production is shifted to other facilities while the plant is down, they are worried that the business might not come back for the 1,800 workers.  The Milwaukee Business Journal talks more about that HERE.

*  The 300-yr.-old office building in London’s SoHo district that was burning yesterday was put out after 7 hours.  The interior is pretty much of a total loss.  It had historical value as one of London’s oldest remaining buildings.  Most of the city was destroyed in the Great Fire in 1666.

Ok, I think that’s got us caught up for now.  If I’ve missed anything, or you’re wondering about some other event that we’ve covered, then mention it in the Comments and I’ll follow up on it for you.

Now let’s get the equipment checked out.  I have GOT to get some more coffee started.