Man, today was a doozy. I’ve been trying to get better at crossword puzzles, you know, to keep my brain sharp and all that. I figured the best way to learn is to just jump in and start doing them, so I picked up the New York Times crossword – the one from May 12th. It was going okay at first. I started with the fill-in-the-blanks, like they always tell you to do. Knocked out a few of those no problem.
Then I went after the 3 and 4-letter words that I recognized. Got a few of those easy peasy. Checked the clue’s tense and number, just like the pros do. Some clues even gave away hints in their format, which was a big help. The Monday ones are apparently the easiest, and then it just gets brutal as the week goes on, so I decided to stick with a Monday one. I found out that Sunday ones are apparently about as hard as the ones in the middle of the week. That’s weird, but who cares.
But then I hit a wall. “Dal ingredients.” Dal! What is that? I even saw somewhere that someone else hit this wall too. They said something about March 17th, but that didn’t help. I stared at it, wrote in a few letters, erased them, stared some more. I felt like I was going crazy.
So, I did what any normal person would do – I started Googling. I found some websites that were all about crossword clues, and typed in “Dal ingredients NYT crossword clue.” And you know what? Apparently, I wasn’t the only one stumped by this thing. It turns out that this is something that a lot of people have to look up. It’s a little comforting knowing I’m not the only dummy out here!
I found out that it was last seen on May 13th 2024, too! Someone said there was even 40 possible answers, and this one website said it would be the “most accurate answer”.
And then, boom! One site gave me what I needed. I finally got it. I won’t spoil it for anyone else trying to figure it out, but I will say that it isn’t something I would have guessed in a million years.
Key Takeaways from My Crossword Adventure
- Start easy: Those Monday puzzles are no joke, but they’re definitely a good starting point.
- Use the internet: There are tons of websites dedicated to helping you out with crossword clues. Use them!
- Don’t give up: It’s frustrating, but that feeling when you finally crack a tough clue is amazing.
So yeah, that was my day. Crossword puzzles are way harder than they look, but I’m not giving up. I’m going to keep practicing, and maybe one day I’ll be able to tackle those Saturday ones without any help. Or maybe not. We’ll see! It’s a fun little challenge, anyway. I hope this wasn’t too boring to read. This is just a regular guy trying to do some crosswords, haha!
