Okay, here’s my brain dump on tackling that “suffering crossword” thing.
Alright, so, “suffering crossword”… yeah, that’s about right. I saw this thing floating around online, looked kinda interesting, so I thought, “Why not? I’m relatively smart, right?” Boy, was I wrong.
First thing I did was print the darn thing out. I’m old school like that. Needed to feel the paper, you know? Grabbed my favorite pen – a black fine-point, gotta be precise. Then I stared. Just…stared. Like it was gonna magically solve itself. Spoiler alert: it didn’t.
Across clues, here we go. I started with the ones I thought would be easy. You know, the low-hanging fruit. Got a few of those right away. Made me feel like a genius… for about five minutes. Then the real suffering began.
- There was this one about some obscure historical figure. I’m decent with history, but this was next-level obscure. Googled it. Yep, I cheated. I’m not ashamed.
- Then there was this one about a type of bird. Seriously? I know like, five birds. And none of them fit. More googling. Sigh.
- And the cryptic clues? Forget about it. My brain just short-circuited. I tried to get clever, thinking about double meanings and anagrams, but mostly I just got a headache.
Down clues weren’t any better. In fact, some were worse because they depended on the across clues I hadn’t figured out yet. It was this vicious cycle of frustration.
I tried different strategies. I bounced around, filling in letters here and there, hoping to get some momentum. I even tried looking for patterns, like if there were repeating letter combinations. Nothing. It was like the crossword was actively mocking me.
At one point, I got up and made myself a cup of coffee. Needed the caffeine. And maybe a little bit of emotional support from my mug. Came back, stared at the crossword again. Still a mess.
I spent a solid three hours on this thing. Three hours! And I didn’t even finish it. I got maybe… half of it done? Maybe a little more? It’s hard to say, because some of the answers I put in might be completely wrong.
So, what did I learn? Crosswords are hard. Really hard. Especially “suffering” crosswords. I also learned that I’m not as smart as I thought I was. Which is always a humbling experience.
Would I do it again? Probably not. Unless I’m really, really bored. Or trying to prove something to myself that I already know: that I’m a sucker for a challenge, even when it’s clearly designed to make me suffer.
In conclusion, “suffering crossword” is aptly named. I suffered. A lot.
