Thank God It's Puzzle Day

It used to be, as a working stiff, TGIF. Now, as a semi-retired stiff, it's TGIPD ... Thank God It's Puzzle Day.

The character of Friday has changed. It is no longer representative of the end of a long slog, through a long week of meetings, deadlines, high hopes, failed expectations and, on occasion, wonderful accomplishment. It is no longer the entrance into a weekend of trying to get to the things I need to get to that I didn't get to during the week.

That changed the day I stepped out of the workweek routine and into a semi-retired routine where Monday isn't too different from Friday, where Tuesday could be Saturday and I'd barely notice.

Friday is now elevated to the day the Wall Street Journal arrives, with the Weekend Journal, which contains The Journal Crossword.

It is, by far, my favorite crossword puzzle, the one I take most seriously, the one that I'm willing to forgo hours at a time to solve.

I would describe myself as a moderate puzzler. It is something I picked up from my mother, who always has a puzzle or two going, including the Journal puzzle I copy and send to her each week.

There are, according to one estimate I've seen, as many as 50 million Americans who do crossword puzzles, with varying degrees of passion. There are those who must, must do the New York Times crossword puzzle each day as quickly as they can. The daily puzzle, as is common, becomes more difficult as the week progresses, Monday being the easiest, Saturday the most difficult, and Sunday another beast altogether.

When I was working at a newspaper and had access to a New York Times each day, I'd get get as far as Wednesday.

But I'm not a New York Times puzzle fanatic, like "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart, former President Bill Clinton and others featured in "Wordplay," a 2006 documentary about the love for crossword puzzles.

I'm a Journal Crossword fanatic.

I'll do other puzzles intermittently through the course of a week, I even have daily puzzles automatically loaded into my Blackberry. But I look forward to the Thank God It's Friday Journal puzzle.

It is clever like other well-done puzzles, but seems more clever to me. My respect for the puzzle maker is a little higher than it is with other puzzles. It is true art, at least in the eye of this beholder.

The "a ha" of unlocking the puzzle's theme, which can unlock the entire puzzle, is a greater "a ha" than with other puzzles.

And every week as my database of knowledge is tested I come away having learned something new, i.e., a constellation near Scorpius is Ara.

I come away each Friday just a little smarter, which is an absolute necessity once you get to the point in your life of not being able to distinguish Monday from Friday anymore.