My Go at Today’s Crossword Puzzle
Alright, so I sat down this morning with my coffee and the NYT crossword, ready to get my brain working. It started off pretty smoothly, getting a few of the across clues right away, which always feels good, you know?
Then I hit a bit of a snag down in the lower section. The clue was lacking the wherewithal. My first instinct, like probably most people’s, was money. So, words like ‘POOR’ or ‘BROKE’ popped into my head immediately. I mentally checked the letter count for the slot… nope, neither of those fit the squares I had.
Okay, back to the drawing board. I looked at the letters I did have from the crossing words. Let’s see, I had a ‘U’ at the beginning and an ‘L’ somewhere in the middle. That definitely ruled out the money-related words I was thinking of.
So, I started thinking about what ‘wherewithal’ really means. It’s not always just cash, right? It can mean the means, the resources, or even just the capability to do something. Lacking the capability… lacking the ability…
Aha! What about ‘UNABLE’?
- It starts with ‘U’. Check.
- It has an ‘L’ in the right spot based on my crossing down clue. Check.
- It fits the meaning of lacking the means or capability to do something. Check.
- It fit the number of squares exactly. Check!
I penciled in UNABLE, and it looked right. The crossing words suddenly made more sense too. It’s one of those clues that makes you step back from the most obvious definition and think a bit more broadly. Felt pretty good to figure that one out after being stuck for a minute.
Finished the rest of the corner after that. Always satisfying when you crack a tricky clue and it unlocks a whole section. On to the next puzzle tomorrow!
