I do puzzles every day, just to keep the old gray cells pumping, and I highly recommend that everybody else does too. It's easy, and it's fun! Let's give one a try right now.


Scrabble Grams is one of my favorites. This puzzle was printed in Saturday's paper. Scrabble Grams is distributed by Tribune Media, which means it gets into thousands and thousands of newspapers. You can probably find it in your local paper!

Let's start with the first puzzle. Basically you rearrange the letters to find a 7-letter word. First, I quickly scan and see if any words pop out at me. Nope, nothing. Next I pick a likely starting letter, just by hunch. Let's try L. Of course that's probably followed by a vowel, like E. L-E. L-E-G? L-E-G-A-K-E? No. And not L-E-K. They gave us lots of vowels, so maybe it's L-E-A. Wait! L-E-A-K . . . A-G-E! That's it! LEAKAGE.

That was fun, right?

Now let's try the second puzzle. Quickly scan and see if any words pop out at you. What's that? Yes, there's SEX. This might be a little naughty! SEX is definitely in there. What else do you --

Okay. Yes, I see it. I see it. BUTT is definitely there. Yes, it appears the answer is BUTT SEX.

Wow. Yes, I'm a little flustered. I'm, er, surprised you got that so quickly. Tell you what: why don't you finish the puzzle? Frankly, I wasn't expecting to find a sex act in a family-oriented puzzle, just like I wouldn't expect Dolly and Jeffy to discuss fist-fucking in the latest Family Circus. But no, it doesn't bother me. Times are changing, and I'm no puritan. It's just that -- with BUTTSEX and then LEAKAGE -- the subtext is crystal clear, and I don't need to read about somebody's HSITYT DCIK.