Three's company

People watching is dead

Those of us not buried in our cell phones may have noticed that people are no longer watching people. It's the demise of civilized society as we once knew it, those of us fortunate enough to have experienced life before cells. Look at any group or gathering and someone is bound to be looking down at some gadget. Can't we just be together without holding a phone or having it on the table? I have a standard reply now when my children ask when I'm getting a cell phone: When pigs fly.

The Crossword Puzzle Lady

There's a woman who buys the paper just to do the crossword. She puts it in recycle. Lots of times I've found it. I finally met her and now she looks for me and gives me the paper. We connect every once in a while. Today I stood by her on the train and waited for her to finish and we talked. Turns out she loves Scrabble too. That's the key word: love. That's the word I looked for when asking friends if they played Scrabble. She was very impressed when I told her after four years I finally have five of us committed to hosting pot luck and Scrabble once a month in Concord. I've always enjoyed finding her paper with the puzzle filled out in blue fountain pen. Now I discover she loves Scrabble too!

Happy 2014 my sweet grandson