I love doing crossword puzzles. My late grandmother used to do them when I was a small child, always in pen. I’ve never done one NOT in pen. When I was pregnant, I gauged how much my brain had shrunk and when it was back to normal by whether I needed help with the Sunday crossword. (It really does shrink during pregnancy and takes about six months post partum to regain its previous mass. The study was done by the Royal Postgraduate School of Medicine in 1997.) At full capacity, this brain doesn’t share crosswords.

But there’s something that doesn’t sit well with me. I’m tired of the same old typical crossword clues in every crossword. You know the ones I mean: Mine entrance — adit; Common chemical ending — ene or ide. Then there are the era specific ones, usually related to some song or movie from the 1950s or 1960s. I know that my grandmother could have answered those. Same with the Latin clues. But if you want to bring a new and younger group of crossword puzzlers into the fold, you’re going to have to update your clues, even if the answers are the same.

Here’s a dare: do a crossword that does not include a single clue that a crossword puzzler would recognize as a clue they’ve seen a zillion times before. Blue dye — anil; War theater — ETO, or USO if it’s a cryptic clue. Please stop giving clues that are references to archaic crazes and the ephemera of bygone days.

I love solving crosswords, especially hard ones. When I lived in Ireland, I struggled to do the Irish Times cryptic crosswords. I never finished one, but if I got 10 clues right, I was thrilled. I know that writing a crossword is hard. But I know you’re the best editor out there, so if anyone can do it, you can.

Have a great week. Make the next one really hard. And punny. I like when you do punny.

Lisa