Okay, so today I tried to solve a crossword puzzle, and man, it was a journey! I’ve always loved these things, but sometimes they really make my brain hurt.
I started like I always do, with a cup of coffee and the newspaper. Today’s puzzle was from The New York Times. They say the ones on Monday are the easiest and they get harder throughout the week. I figured I’d start with the fill-in-the-blank clues first. Those are usually pretty straightforward, you know, common knowledge stuff.
I scanned through all the clues quickly and tried to fill in the ones I knew right away. Got a few of those done, which felt good. It’s like a little win to get you going. Then I started looking at the other clues, trying to figure out which ones I could get without too much trouble.
There were a few I couldn’t get at all, so I tried a trick I learned online. You can search for the clue and the number of letters you need, or even just part of the word if you have some letters already. I searched for things using clues and letter count and it worked for some of them.
Here is the answer for one I found online that had something to do with guessing, it was “It involves guesswork to crack hard case (8)” and the answer had 8 letters, the solution was “DECODE”. Then I looked for it in the puzzle, found it, and filled in the letters.
- Fill in the easy answers first.
- Search online for help if you’re stuck, using clues and letter count.
- If you see an exclamation point or question mark, it might mean the clue is tricky, so pay extra attention!
It took a while, and I definitely had to use some hints from the internet, but I managed to finish the puzzle! It’s such a good feeling when you finally crack that last clue. This time I learned that even the “easy” puzzles can be a challenge, but it’s all part of the fun. I think I’ll try another one tomorrow, maybe I’ll even try a harder one!
