General Discussion

I was nearing the end, so only the hardest clues were left. And elderly woman seated across from me had been following my progress from across the aisle. I noticed it, but she wasn’t being intrusive, so I let her watch.

When I appeared to be stumped, though, she couldn’t hold back any longer, and said she was good with crossword puzzles, and I should let her help me out. This was all in German, and she was German, a local from her accent. My crossword was from the New York Times, so I doubted she would understand anything, but instead of saying so, I said, in German, sure, see if you can make some progress, and handed her the paper. She started to study it, quickly realizing that she didn’t understand anything.

“But this isn’t German!” she protested. I said, “of course it’s not German. I never said it was in German. It’s from America, so it’s in English. You said you could help me out. Can you or can’t you?” She handed the paper back to me, mumbling something about not knowing enough English. Maybe she asked a few more questions before offering to finish the next stranger’s crossword puzzle.