It started with my dad

My dad loves crosswords. He's good at them too. But he's picky. He finds a lot of them too easy. The LA Times Sunday Edition is the one he does every week.

That gave me an idea: What if I could build a daily crossword for him that's personalized to his interests? It would still need to be challenging, but a lot of the clues could be related to things he likes: 60s rock music, hockey, history and more.

The first few attempts were OK, but not great. Too easy, he said. Not unique enough to do daily.

He found playing online annoying, so I built a printable version. Then he asked me to send him the printable version as a PDF. More work, more tweaking, more feedback.

After a few weeks of experimentation, I got it right. I'd send my dad a crossword, and he'd respond, “This one was good. It's at the right difficulty level and the personalization makes it fun.”

Crossworded was born.

Now everyone (hopefully!) can enjoy the game. It's a way to hand someone a puzzle that quietly says I know what you love. It turns out that makes a wonderful gift: for birthdays, retirements, anniversaries, Father's Day, or no reason at all.

And it gave us a new verb. You've been crossworded.