I’M BACK at the computer room of the Stamford Marriott, a midrise tower hotel in a midrise tower district just off I-95. Stamford, or what little I’ve seen of it on the Metro-North commuter train and in the hotel’s vicinity, appears to have formerly been a real community with a real downtown, which was almost completely razed (except for a few too-ornately “restored” blocks) and replaced with the ugliest of late-modern buildings. Office parks and towers, condos and “townhome” developments, hirise apartments and a Bellevue Square-like mall (multilevel parking garages instead of an outdoor parking moat). Somewhere out among those hideous office buildings are the headquarters of General Electric, Samsung USA, the World Wrestling Federation, and other famous outfits.

Got here after an 11-hour odeal that included two flights on the airline soon to be formerly known as TWA (what Howard Hughes hath joined together, Carl Ichan tore asunder), which is still in the process of being integrated into American Airlines’ systems. At the St. Louis layover, I saw the big hangars of what had been McDonnell-Douglas, now sporting the Boeing logo. The common adage these days is that Boeing thought it was taking over McDonnell-Douglas, but was infiltrated by it instead. Certainly the move of Boeing’s HQ to Chicago clearly bears the scent of Midwesterners’ plottings. From there, ground transportation took me through rustic-earthy Queens, still-striving-against-all-odds Harlem, and the progressively tonier suburbs going further away from the city.

The Crossword Puzzle Tournament itself has eight rounds. Six were completed today. I knocked off all six puzzles with time to spare, but was nowhere near the fastest at any of them. Confabbing with fellow entrants later, I’ve learned I’ve made at least two mistakes today. On Saturday, puzzle 7 will be issued, followed by the championship round 8 for the finalists in five skill levels. (As a first-timer, I’m in category C.)

Everyone sits at tables in the big hotel meeting room. Volunteers pass out photocopies of each puzzle, one puzzle at a time. Everyone works on each puzzle at the same time. Each has a predetermined time limit, from 15 to 40 minutes. Solvers’ filled-in grids are scored on accuracy and speed. I think I’ve done fairly well, but won’t know until tomorrow just how well comparitively.

There are about 400 entrants, almost all Caucasian. Eighty percent are from the Northeast corridor, with most from the NYC metro area. I’m one of only two Washingtonians here.

Will offer up more details later.