Persnickity - 7 letters, begins with R

I am a crossword puzzle fiend. Sift through the debris covering my coffee table and you'll find at least three weeks' worth of New York Times Sunday Magazines turned to the second to last page, smudged ink filling in the blanks in various amounts of completion. A dog-eared tome of a NY Times Sunday Crossword Omnibus sits in the stack of "coffee table books", U2's "Show", The Photo Book.

When picking up, I stack them together with the other parts of the newspaper and miscellaneous junk mail and catalogues and reluctantly put them aside for recycling. This last week as I was heaving a heavy sigh over those unfilled boxes, I realized that I have a surprisingly strong opinion about the right way to complete crosswords. It's a firm conviction. You might be able to sway me on some things, but not with this. I think I've channeled all my OCD tendencies into "puzzlin'" (that's what all the cool kids call it.)

Whatcha doin'?

Puzzlin'.

Word.

So, here's my philosophy on crossword puzzles:

Crossword puzzles are not the time to "learn", meaning you are not allowed to google, wiki, or pull out a reference book in order to get the answer. If you don't know it, you don't get to fill it in. Tough shit. Deal with it. Crossword puzzles are a guage of your knowledge. The fun is in seeing how much you can get filled in through recall and deduction. You can maybe ask a person in the room for help on one, but that's more out of politeness in that someone else is in the room and your nose is in a crossword. Plus, if it's your boyfriend and he knows one that you don't, that's kinda hot and deserves a kiss. Besides that, you're on your own, baby.

So looking stuff up is cheating. Yeah, it's on the tip of your tongue. Yeah, if only you could google the complete works of Anais Nin, then you'd remember the answer. Wah wah wah. It's not going to happen. Put the pen down. Go back to it in a day. You'll remember it then. Or figure it out the hard way but getting the answers from the down hints. That's the only true way to play.

Oh and p.s. - word searches are for losers. They're the Soap Opera Digest of puzzledom. You might as well be on Wheel of Fortune post 199- when they started giving you RSTLN E as a gimme and Vanna began tapping the letters instead of turning them.

Nobody works for things anymore.