Okay, so yesterday I was tackling the NYT crossword, right? And I got totally stuck on one clue: “like some eligibility requirements.” Ugh, those clues that are just super vague.
I stared at it for a solid five minutes. I mean, what is like some eligibility requirements? It could be anything! So, naturally, I started by thinking of the obvious stuff. Like, “strict”? “Limited”? Nope, nothing fit the number of letters.
Then I started thinking about actual eligibility requirements. What are things that make you eligible for something? Age? Nah. Education? Maybe. Okay, so I started playing around with words related to education. “Trained”? Still no.
I decided to move on and see if I could get any crossing letters. I filled in a few other answers around the clue, and thankfully, I got a “Q” and an “D” in the right spots. That definitely narrowed things down.
With those letters in place, I started just trying out different words that ended in “Q” and had a “D” somewhere. I even tried some weird stuff that probably didn’t make any sense, but hey, that’s crosswords for ya.
Finally, it hit me. “QUALIFIED.” It fit! “Qualified” is definitely like some eligibility requirements. D’oh! Why didn’t I think of that before?
So, yeah, that was my crossword struggle for the day. Sometimes the most obvious answers are the hardest to see! I filled it in and felt like a total genius… for about five seconds, until I got stuck on the next clue. The crossword life, am I right?
- Stared at the clue for way too long.
- Tried obvious answers first.
- Got some crossing letters.
- Brainstormed words that fit the pattern.
- Finally, the answer hit me!
