Today, I tackled the New York Times crossword puzzle, and let me tell you, it was a doozy. I started my day with a cup of coffee and opened up the puzzle, ready to give my brain a workout. This time, the theme seemed to be “lament,” which I later found out can also be called bemoan, bewail, or deplore. I kinda knew that the Sunday puzzle is usually easier than the Saturday one, somewhere around a Wednesday or Thursday level, they said.
I dove right in, filling in the across clues first, then moving on to the down clues. Some were easy, some were real stumpers. I remembered that I read somewhere that people usually spend around 9 minutes on average for a NYT crossword puzzle. I probably took way longer than that, though. For this “lament” clue, I searched online for the answer which appeared recently. It showed me it had 4 letters.
- First, I tried to figure out the theme. “Lament” suggested something about sadness or regret.
- Then, I started filling in the blanks, using the letters I already had to help me guess the others.
- I used the hints.
- I even googled a few clues that really had me stumped. It said the clue was last seen on April 21, 2024, but I also saw it on April 20, July 3, and April 6 of 2024. Maybe they reused the clue?
- Eventually, after much thought and effort, I managed to solve the whole thing!
Here’s how I broke it down:
I saw there are actually two answers for the “lament” clue, both with four letters. But some other answers only have 3 letters, like “RUE.” In the end, I figured out the answer for today’s “lament” clue. It felt pretty good to finally crack the code. I guess practice makes perfect. Maybe one day I’ll be able to finish these puzzles as quickly as those experts, in just over nine minutes!
