I like doing crosswords.  There is the puzzle side to it, the challenge of breaking the code, of deciphering the riddle, of unpacking the enigma.  There is also a sort of Zen side to it as well, the need to go behind the meanings of words to really understand the clues. For me the master of crosswords is a retired clergyman called John Graham, who has been setting crosswords for over fifty years.  His pseudonym as a crossword compiler is "Araucaria", and his creations still regularly appear in the Guardian as of the time of writing (2009.) His crosswords, which for me are art, aren't the most complicated and tortuous around.  There is a fairness to them, and one doesn't need to comb through dictionaries in search of obscurities.  Many of his crosswords have a theme, he has broken new ground with his alphabetti spaghetti where you have to decide where the clues go.  Or univocalic crosswords where the clues and answers only use the vowel 'a'. When you crack one of his hard ones it can be like a satori moment, like learning what the sound of one hand clapping is.