I know this is totally minor, but at the same time, it just seems so egregiously jerkish I’m agog.
You’re a guest in someone’s house. You sit down and notice a book of crossword puzzles and a pencil. You see that your host has started working on a puzzle. So you grab that pencil and fill in some answers, including *changing *some of your host’s?! WTF? This is obnoxious and rude, right? I’d have no problem with someone starting a fresh puzzle, but but but - this?!
Am I crazy?
Yes.
As a mostly reformed puzzle freak (not enough free time these days), I call rude. I wouldn’t even want to fill in a new blank puzzle in someone else’s book without asking permission first. They’re a buck and a half at the grocery store – get your own!!
I’d break an ewer over the guy’s head and then stab him with my epee.
Across
5.) A short declaration used to indicate a negative response.
Maybe he thought he was helping?
Did he change them to make them correct, or incorrect? Not that it matters, just wondering.
My aunt.
In fairness, she probably didn’t realize that there were only 4 or 5 of that type of puzzle (not quite a crossword) in my variety book of puzzles, and how much I was anticipating filling it in later. (I was about grade 3 or 4. ) I resented that for a lot longer than I should have.
Very rude.
Ooh! Let me fix your sudoku.
Now for some admissions - I know I’m crazy generally. I even have a doctor’s certificate!
Yes, one change did correct my answer (though I would have easily caught it given the time). Other answers he gave were wrong though.
I don’t think he was helping. I think he was trying to prove he’s smarter than I am. There is historical evidence to back up this view, such as him (my FIL) responding to all my husband’s grade-school successes by pointing out how much better FIL did in school.
Borborygmi, I think you win the thread.
There should be an erne in there somewhere, but I can’t figure out how to make it fit.
I’ll do this with crossword puzzles my mom has started, but I wouldn’t do it with anyone else. I usually ask first, but then I get carried away and do a little too much. I do change her answers, but only if I’m sure I’m right. Sometimes she can’t finish the big puzzles, and I don’t like letting a good crossword go to waste.
Ah, I am glad other people admit that they do this…now I am not afra
Oh, nobody here does this? Er.
You know it’s only fun when its someone else’s. Like how french fries only taste good off another person’s plate.
ETA: please don’t hit me.
You’re right KEtH, and I bet nobody in here picks their nose, either. 
On serious note, given a little bit more background, my call is on rude.
That’s why I’d do it.
Not that I would but that would be my motive if I did.
By the way, my erne would happily latch onto his ears with its ungues and peck his eyes out.
Not that it would. Without permission, at least.
/golf clap
I only do that at work, when my boss concedes defeat and resignedly hands it over for his junior associate to fill in the hard ones!
I leave a crossword puzzel book in my washroom, with a pencil. When some one has been in ther for a while I ask "Everything going OK in there or is 32 accross on page 19 getting you?
One guest answered… No, but what is the answer to “Out of paper?”
regards
FML
Knowing Borborygmi this is good but I’m afraid I don’t yet get it. Can someone please splain? I tried adding letters, shuffling… what am I missing? (No matter what, “epee” sounds funny all by itself)
“Ewer” and “epee” are fairly common crossword solutions, especially notable for not being found very often in everyday usage. “Erne”, from MagicEyes’s post, is another.
Where’s twickster? We need her expert opinion.
I do this to my parents all the time (and in fairness, they do it to me as well), but then again, they’re my parents. Neither they nor I would ever do this to anyone other than each other - we mostly do it to each other as part of a long-standing family tradition.
In general, though, it’s rude.