My mother is a cruciverbalist, which is a fancy term for a person who loves word games.   She’s known online in the puzzle chatrooms by her handle, “Wordy”.   So avid is she, that each year she competes in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament along with her college friends, Suzy and Camilla.  They claim it can be pretty rowdy hanging out with  New York Times editor, Will Shortz and some of the other philologists.  P A R T Y .

It is mandatory in her sport to stay current in just about every subject.    She’s therefore equally conversant about Justin Bieber as she is Jonas Salk.   Wordy’s personal ElDorado was her cameo role in the documentary Wordplay.  Filmed at the tournament, a panning shot captured the back of her head for over 3 seconds.   She’s been almost impossible to live with ever since.

Artist Carl Ferrero paints words to champion his ideas.