Pure Pedantry

I am not kidding when I tell you that this is perhaps the funniest movie that I have seen in several years.

Partially, it is the variety of characters. For example, we learn that Daniel Okrent, former New York Times Ombudsman, has been methodically writing down the time it takes him to finish the NYTimes crossword for several years to mark his own cognitive decline -- like he is performing his own personal Alzheimer's study.

We also see a former champion of the Stamford crossword tournament who practices baton twirling for the yearly crossword tournament talent show -- a show that also includes songs about crossword puzzles.

And then there is Jon Stewart -- who shows what I long suspected -- that while he might very well be certifiable, he is so in a much more endearingly certifiable than all the other crazy people I usually have to deal with.

More than the characters, I think that I love this movie because it says something about our society. I feel like somewhat recently and with the aid of the Internet our society has become wonderfully fragmented into voluntary subcultures with their own standards and, yes, their own heroes. Look at competitive eating. That Kobayahsi guy who wins the hot dog eating contest every year is not known by everyone in the world, but he is known and loved by a core group. I think that is fantastic. How wonderful -- democratic even -- that we can have all these crazy individuals in one society without trying to kill each other.

Our society has changed from aggrandizing the individual who everyone likes to aggrandizing the individual who several people like. We have gone from the super star to the ghetto super star. The hero of a people to the hero of a chat room. And I love every minute of it...

Fundamentally, the movie Word Play reveals a subculture not all that different from blogging. The professional crossword tournament is no different than the blog in that it rejoices in the peculiar and particular rather than the common and the general. In the same way that the crossword is a niche with devouted fans, so fundamentally is the popular blogger.

When I see some twenty year old kid rejoicing at his crossword win -- even though this win will likely harm his reproductive fitness for the rest of his life -- I have no choice but to laud him. Go, Nerd God...and maybe someday I will be as you...loved by 5 or 10 older women...with utterly no prospects...

Please see this movie. Trust me; it is worth it.