Katie Holland: The real puzzle of working with words

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I was pretty chuffed with myself this week when someone yelled out "what's a baby swan called?" (working in a newsroom no one bats an eyelid at random outbursts and questions) and without hesitation I shot back "cygnet".

The youngsters were well impressed and demanded to know how I knew that. I couldn't answer. You know when you know something and you have no idea how you know it?
But I then lost all credibility by suggesting it was spelt signet. Which is a completely different thing, as anyone who grew up in the '80s and '90s and got a signet ring for their 13th birthday knows.

I then got sidetracked by actual work - hate it when work gets in the way of an impromptu quiz - and missed the follow up question of "what's a baby goose?". Someone else stole my thunder on that one. Too easy anyway.

It was probably one of the best word-puzzle weeks of my life.

The previous day I had piped up from my position lying in the sun to yell "notes!" to the clue "do ray me ... " which had been puzzling my three crossword-doing companions for so long it was becoming painful to listen to. They had tried all possible spellings of "fa so la" before I stopped singing Sound of Music songs long enough to click to the obvious.
Yet that was my sole contribution. Despite my job revolving around words I am, in fact, pretty useless at crosswords.

And don't even get me started on cryptic crosswords. Well you can't, because I wouldn't know how or where to start.

It's funny how fierce puzzle lovers can be about their puzzles, be it crosswords or sudoko or those ones with all the letters in a circle.

They can get possessive and a bit scary - come on, you know who you are. Have you ever idly picked up a half-done one, carelessly chucked a guess in, only to be yelled at by the person who was midway through for messing it up? I now keep away from half-finished ones, unless it's clear the doer has permanently abandoned it.

Now, Scrabble, that's more my kind of word game. Geeky confession time: I used to have about 20 (or whatever the maximum allowable was) games of phone app Words with Friends on the go at any one time. I knew all those Scrabble words like 'qi' and 'qat'. No idea what they mean, but that doesn't matter.

That was until I overdosed. How rock and roll is that? Overdosing on Words with Friends.
So I went cold turkey, leaving about 20 poor people around the world hanging on for my next move. I bet they sent me abusive messages too, some of them take their Scrabble very seriously, often demanding you provide a definition of a random word. I used to try explaining that wasn't part of the game, while assuring them I wasn't cheating. But I soon learned there's no arguing with diehard Scrabblers.

Maybe crosswords are one of those skills you acquire with age, like knowing how to get stains out of things and baking great scones. If so, I have no doubt I'll, one day be, one of those fierce crossworders, shooting evil glances at anyone who dares mess up my puzzle by recklessly spelling cygnet as signet.

As for why he wanted to know about cygnets and goslings? I haven't a clue.