So, the other day, I stumbled upon this crossword puzzle in The New York Times, the one from April 5, 2024. You know how it is, gotta keep the brain buzzing, right? Regular mental workouts and all that jazz to keep the ol’ noggin in tip-top shape.
Anyways, I’m cruising along, feeling pretty good about myself, and then BAM! I hit a roadblock. The clue was “Certain soccer kick.” Seven letters. I stared at it for a good minute, my mind drawing a complete blank. I mean, I know soccer, but this one had me stumped.
I decided to do what any reasonable person would do – I turned to the internet. I typed in “Certain soccer kick NYT crossword clue” into the search bar, and hit enter.
- First, I found this site that listed a bunch of crossword answers, and it said the answer was “TOE POKE.” Bingo! That sounded right.
- Then, I dug a little deeper, found some crossword solver sites, and yeah, they all agreed – TOEPOKE was the answer.
- I even saw a mention that this clue had popped up in The New York Times before, back in 2017, but it was in a different context. I found that it mentioned something about an “Unconventional Soccer Kick” and it seemed to be related to the same thing.
So, there you have it. I cracked the code! It felt pretty darn good to nail that answer. Turns out, solving these puzzles isn’t just about knowing the words, it’s about knowing how to hunt down the answers too. After I solved it, I went on to finish the whole puzzle, and it took me around 20 minutes, which I guess is pretty average. I read somewhere that someone finished 2,192 puzzles and the average time was just over nine minutes, which sounds wild! But it just goes to show, practice makes perfect.
It’s a nice little reminder that sometimes you gotta work for the answer, and the internet is always there to lend a hand when your brain decides to take a little break. And hey, every puzzle solved is a little victory, right? I learned the answer, learned how to find it, learned some trivia about crossword puzzle times, and shared it all with you. What a productive day!
