Are You Stuck With “Light Touch from a Decorator?” We Can Help! This clue appeared in the LA Times Crossword on May 6, 2023.
Crossword puzzles can be an excellent way to stimulate and exercise your brain, keeping your mind sharp while decreasing the risk of cognitive decline with age.
Crossword puzzles are a great way to exercise your brain.
Crossword puzzles offer an engaging and stimulating way to keep your brain active, sharpen memory and language skills, and potentially delay Alzheimer’s and related dementia-related diseases. Recent research indicates that people who engage in regular mental stimulation, such as crossword puzzles and brain games, are less likely to develop disorders related to mental stimulation. This research monitored elderly adults with mild cognitive impairment – memory and thinking issues that could eventually lead to dementia – who participated in crossword puzzles for 18 months, experiencing improvements in test results, while those doing other brain exercises saw their test scores decrease during that same timeframe.
Researchers believe this to be the case because crosswords work on different areas of the brain than other mental exercises, specifically fluency – the ability to quickly recall and understand words – as opposed to cognitive games that focus on improving specific skills such as attention or memory. Furthermore, these games are more enjoyable than most cognitive exercises, which may explain their effectiveness.
Crossword puzzles offer another advantage of doing crosswords: expanding and learning new words. Crosswords also help improve language skills by challenging you to remember synonyms and antonyms; plus, they allow you to practice grammar and sentence structure – this makes crosswords particularly beneficial for older adults who want to keep their minds sharp and prevent Alzheimer’s or other diseases from taking hold.
Crossword puzzles often believe the activity can help them stay mentally fit, continually devoting Saturday afternoons to doing crosswords. However, it’s essential to remember that crosswords don’t prevent or reverse memory issues in late life; to stay mentally fit, it takes using different parts of your brain in different ways than simply doing crosswords. For more information about how you can train your brain, use BrainHQ, which offers free cognitive training that rewires it in ways to speed thinking speeds faster, focus better, and remember more – accessible through Medicare Advantage plans at no additional costs.
They’re fun
Crossword puzzles can be an enjoyable way to pass the time – alone or with friends! From being challenging and stimulating to potentially making you more intelligent! Plus, they may help to protect against diseases like dementia. Crossword completion gives a sense of achievement as well as increased happiness! So get going on finding answers to Light Touch from a decorator crossword clue!
Making sense of crossword puzzles alone can be challenging, particularly if you’re new to the game. Thankfully, numerous online resources can assist with solving crosswords; make sure you use trusted and up-to-date sources to obtain accurate and up-to-date data.
Many people find specific words in crossword puzzles difficult, particularly those with multiple meanings. Luckily, most clues provide some indication regarding which definition should be used; for instance, if the word is written with an accent, it may indicate that its answer should come from another language, while an ending with a question mark can often signal a pun or play on word clues.
If you are stumped on a puzzle, break it into smaller sections by starting with more manageable pieces before progressing to more challenging ones. Also, consider creating a theme for the maze so you can focus on finding answers related to that theme; using these strategies can help speed up and simplify completion.
They’re challenging
Crossword puzzles provide a fun mental exercise. Their clues may require more profound thought, but they can be immensely rewarding once understood. Plus, crosswords offer the added social benefit of building bonds among family and friends while giving a satisfying feeling as you check off answers on each puzzle!
Clues in crosswords provide an ideal opportunity to test your knowledge of the English language, so having a dictionary handy can be particularly helpful in solving them. Dictionaries contain definitions for unfamiliar words and instructions on spelling correctly; having this reference at your disposal could save a great deal of time and frustration when stuck on specific terms!
One effective strategy is to search for clues with the fewest letters; they are easier to solve and more common in English language puzzles. If you encounter difficulty with any particular word, try finding synonyms or related terms with similar meanings that may save a lot of guessing and resolving time.
Finally, both clue and answer must agree grammatically. While this can be challenging, the responses must match up in terms of number, tense, verb, and person. Sometimes, the clue will indicate whether a solution is plural by using plural forms; sometimes, abbreviations will serve as a more subtle way to signal this fact than explicit tags.
Crossword puzzles generally feature a central theme or topic, and the clues within typically relate directly or indirectly to this subject matter. Clues that refer to popular culture, current events, history, or science often make direct references.
The New York Times Wordplay blog offers several helpful strategies for solving crosswords, including filling in “gimmes” first – more accessible answers without wordplay or logic that give more letters for solving more challenging clues. This approach should provide ample opportunity for success!
They’re easy to learn.
Crossword puzzles require many skills, from vocabulary and logic reasoning to pattern spotting and recognition. As such, crosswords offer a great brain workout for people of all ages–they may even help reduce cognitive decline risk! But for newcomers to crosswords, it may appear daunting at first – here are four general strategies to get you going:
Keep answers with a few letters in mind when solving crosswords, as these will generally be dictionary entries and, hence, easier to solve than more extended solutions. Also, consider clues with specific patterns – such as frequently using one letter or number within their answers – as these could provide clues for solving puzzles faster.
Before selecting an answer to a crossword clue, carefully read all its words and evaluate their meaning and context. For instance, the bark could mean either a sound made by dogs or the outer covering of trees – crossword puzzle creators often include vague clues in their puzzles, so it is up to you to determine what meaning the indication intends.
Rewriting clues that do not make sense can save time by eliminating mistakes and decreasing the possibility of getting stuck on one clue too long. Crossword puzzles can be extremely challenging, so keeping a journal of your progress and marking off each completed clue as completed helps maintain motivation to achieve more puzzles.
If you’re serious about learning crosswords, take advantage of outside resources. Plenty of online resources and groups of like-minded individuals are willing to assist. Rex Parker writes a blog where he solves the New York Times puzzle each day and compares its difficulty to that of other puzzles; in addition, he breaks down key clue/answer pairs while offering helpful tips that may help enhance your crossword abilities.
