Say the word, and you'll be free

My friend Kevin Drum is sick. He's not well. He has come down with a rare disease, called Cruciverbalistia. And he bravely has done the unthinkable: he's admitted that he's ill.

But before you organize a charity, or a star-studded recording session for his benefit, read what he has bravely written. Sez Kevin:

I've never done crossword puzzles before, but the movie gave me the bug, and soon I was slightly obsessed. (The same thing happened after I read the book Word Freak a few years ago. Marian and I played Scrabble nightly for months after that.) I started off doing the LA Times puzzle, but within days I knew I had to have more. Before long I was working half a dozen puzzles a day.

. . . Whew. Does this mean I should declare victory and give up on crosswords? Probably. We'll see. But I decided that as a swan song I should try to create a crossword puzzle instead of merely solving one. Guess what? It's hard! But for anyone with a crossword jones, here it is in PDF format for easy printing:

Kevin's first (and probably last) crossword puzzle

Such bravery, such fearlessness in the quest to fight off this terrible disease. We all owe a debt to Kevin, to try and solve the puzzle that afflicts him, so we may ease his suffering.

Go, put an end to his suffering, by offering up your own words of support and whatever the hell I'm talking about.

Seriously, Kevin is a great guy, and his puzzle is pretty cool. Think you could create one?

Go ahead, make my day.