(While attending a Crosswords Puzzle Convention) Realizing what was the nature of the person who was really great. I don’t mean good like me, at an amateur level, but someone whose really really great and overwhelming the two professional groups that seemed to dominate are musicians and people in the math professions. And by that I mean computer programmers, actuaries, auditors, and I’ve asked people, “What would you think Who would you think would be the best?” And they say oh, copy editors or history teachers or English teachers. But, no, it’s these two groups. And what I think it is, is their ability to assimilate a lot of-of-of coded information, instantly. In other words, a piano player, like Jon Delfin… the greatest crossword puzzler of our time. He sits down, and he sees three staffs of music, and he can instantly play it. He’s takng all those notes, and he’s absorbed what they mean. instantaneously. And if you have that kind of a cast of mind… and then add to it a lot of, you know, a wide range of sort of ordinary and extraordinary information and if you can spell you’d be a really great crossword puzzler. – Former Public Editor (Ombudsman), Daniel Okrent in WordPlay
Many fabulous astrologers are musicians and work or have worked in math professions (computer programmers, etc.)!
