Crossword Puzzles

I love doing crossword puzzles while I'm on the train. My coworker makes fun of me and says that's what old people do, but that's another story. One time I was doing my crossword on the train, and the older gentleman next to me started helping me. It was helpful... really! I was at the point where I'm on the verge of giving up. He gave me some real helpful hints. Enough so that I basically finished the puzzle. I'm never able to do that.

So. This leads me to my two recent experiences and corresponding questions:

1) The other night, on the train ride home, I was standing up and the older man that was sitting down next to me was working on the crossword puzzle that I had been working on earlier. I noticed that some of his answers were wrong, and he appeared to be stuck on some clues that I had already been able to answer. I kept quiet, but what would you do? Do you help the guy out like the nice gentleman did next to me?? Or is it a different situation, because I'm standing up and in my situation, the gentleman was sitting next me... Which leads me to the next experience...

2) Last night, again on the train ride home, I sat next to a guy that was working on the crossword puzzle of the day. Is it wrong to offer to work together? I mean, I'm sure that if we were working together, I wouldn't have given up as early as I did... Two heads are better than one, right?

Part of me feels as though these situations would be different if I lived in a different area. This metro area is so anonymous (just like my apartment building)... People just buy into this norm of ignoring the people that are near them. I think I probably make eye contact with maybe two people on my train rides to and from work... and often it's when I have to get up for someone as they leave the train...

That last paragraph was kind of a rant.. What do you guys think? Would you have tried a "group work" environment with the crossword puzzle? Or just work on it by yourself?