Hangman with Myself

Tonight on the subway home, I noticed the man next to me doodling on his newspaper. Upon closer inspection he was playing Hangman with himself. But not just single words, but series of words. The first a sentence, the only part I could read clearly: The newscaster Walter Cronkite has died.... The second game; Kirk, Spock, Bones, Uhura, Sulu... and more. There was a third but I couldn't make it out. At least he was able to figure out the puzzles, I think it'd be worse he couldn't figure out what the other half was thinking, to lose would be to hang himself. A dark game of scary context.