Free crossword puzzles offer a fine diversion

Finding free crossword puzzles online has been great in this new world of stay-at-home. The puzzles keep your mind going and get your thoughts off disaster for a while.

Go to https://www.arkadium.com/free-online-games/crosswords/ and you’ll see pictures of the different free games available.

Some don’t say “free” in the title of the game, but all that I’ve opened have been no cost.

Click on one of the games, click on the arrow to hear a few seconds of an ad, click on “skip ad” when it pops up, then start a game immediately. Click on a line and type in your answer using your keyboard.

You can click a numbered space twice to go from “across” to “down” so you can fill in the spaces exactly like you do with a pencil. Except you don’t have to worry about your eraser running out.

You also may be interested in Scrabble-type games.

I’ve been playing Words With Friends (WWF) on Facebook and it’s similar to Scrabble. You can play against FB friends, but you don’t have to play a full game at one time since you can enter a word and don’t need to look at it again for hours or even days.

WWF also has a “play with bots” option that’s fun. You’re playing against a computer, but they have some funny names so you feel like you know them. I won against Planter Pot Pia but lost to Communal Gardener Jim. It’s fun to complete a game quickly, because the bot thinks at lightning speed and posts a word immediately.

The WWF games with bots start off easy and get harder as you go through. When you win a game, you can go to the next one immediately, but make sure you don’t “pay to play.” Just say no. Come back in a few hours and the next game will be available to play for free.

You can also go to https://www.scrabblegames.info/play/scrabble-online and play against bots. I like playing Scrabble online, but it’s a pain to drag and drop the letters, then press play to see if what you just made up is a real word. Not that I would ever try to enter a fake word.

Good luck and positive thoughts to all. I hope you get some fun out of the games and continue to take it day-by-day until we make it through to the end of COVID-19.