BACK OF THE BOOK is collecting stamps of the Netherlands and former colonies ( Suriname , Curacao , and the Dutch East Indies ), so I apparently also just like to fill in empty rectangles .
Feeling Cross ? Try your hand at a “ vintage ” ASH News Daily puzzle from the 2012 annual meeting .
Do you still do puzzles every day – and do you do them in pencil or pen ? In pencil , definitely . I am highly fallible . The exception is on airplanes : Airline magazines publish on glossy paper , so ink is essential .
A grinding commute into Boston , a busy family life , and an active hematology practice mean that I don ’ t get to do a crossword each day anymore , but I often play a few Sporcle quizzes in the late evening , once my brain begins to develop decision fatigue and shut down for the night .
My Mom and I still battle for the puzzle page ; whenever I visit my parents , I have to wake up early to get at The New York Times daily crossword puzzle , as my mother inevitably finishes it within 15 minutes of the paper arriving on the stoop .
With The New York Times puzzles , which increase in difficulty throughout the week , I can get through Thursday . Friday is tough , but often doable . Saturday puzzles are usually monsters . Mom can do that one , but it might take her a few extra minutes . Given the frequency with which obscure pop groups from the 1950s or opera singers from the 1920s appear , I usually need an assist from Google or the clever “ Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle ” blog .
A couple of years ago , Timothy Ley , MD , from Washington University School of Medicine in St . Louis , Missouri , published a top-notch leukemia genomics study in the New England Journal of Medicine , and a reporter from The New York Times called me for some context on it . One of my quotes ended up on the front page of the paper the next day . When my mother opened the paper that morning and glanced at the top stories , she was so startled to see my name that she spilled some of her coffee on the paper . She was torn between pride at seeing her kid quoted on the front page of The New York Times and irritation at having spoiled that day ’ s crossword .
What skills do you use in your “ pASHion ” that you also use in your hematology career ? Is there any overlap ? Word puzzles are an enjoyable diversion from professional life , and while there is probably not much direct applicability , I think the wordplay and metaphorical clues might help prepare one mentally for the banter that is so much a part of academic life . Also , I ’ m told that doing crossword puzzles and word games helps slow the descent into dementia . So , on the days when I don ’ t get to the gym , I can convince myself that puzzle solving counts as a form of exercise . ●
Across
1 . ( Pop ) ular beverage made with Secret Formula 7X
8 . Russian leader before 1917
12 . Syn . for Osler- Weber-Rendu syndrome and omacetaxine
15 . Coronavirusinduced resp . disease that caused mass panic in 2002-2003
16 . Pennsylvania state uni . that confusingly shares the name of another US state
17 . Units of electrical resistance
18 . Humans can live about three months without food , three days without water , but only three minutes without this
19 . Deficiency of this " Fletcher factor " prolongs the Partial Thromboplastin Time , but is clinically inconsequential
21 . Stat . for lymphoma survivor Jon Lester ( Boston Red Sox fans found this number disturbingly high in 2012 )
22 . Cleopatra ' s undoing
23 . Musher ' s transport ( and - spoiler alert ! - identity of Kane ' s " Rosebud ")
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18
19 20 21
22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36
37 38 39 40 41
42 43 44 45
46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57
58 59 60 61 62 63
64 65 66
67 68 69 70 71
72 73 74 75 76 77 78
79 80 81 82 83
84 85 86 87
88 89 90
24 . Unflattering booking shot
25 . Latin equiv . of " Yadda , yadda , yadda "
28 . Life-threatening emergency caused by malignant cells in the pericardial sac
31 . Red dye important to hematologists , named after the Ancient Greek goddess of the dawn
35 . Neighbor of a Vietnamese
36 . Rx instruction : take with each meal
37 . Breakthrough immunosuppressant isolated from Norwegian soil fungus by a Sandoz biologist in 1969
41 . Fugitive head of the Ugandan Lord ' s Resistance Army ( and improbable 2012 YouTube notable )
42 . Corp . boardroom bigwig
43 . Bullwinkle , for one 44 . Hard work --
months of this might result in an NIH R01 grant submission , which then , sadly , has a ~ 90 % chance of rejection
46 . He spied the Land of Canaan
48 . Unit equal to 14 pounds avoirdupois in Great Britain
51 . Constellation bear
53 . Most trifling ; rhymes with a type of fungus
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