Okay, so today I decided to tackle the “complain” theme in the NYT crossword. Honestly, I was feeling a little… complain-y myself, so it felt appropriate. I grabbed my iPad, poured a big cup of coffee, and got started.
First thing I did was a quick scan of the whole puzzle. I always do this to get a feel for the overall difficulty and to see if any answers jump out at me right away. With a theme like “complain”, I was expecting some witty, maybe even grumpy, answers.
I started filling in the shorter words, the ones I was pretty sure about. You know, the easy wins to get the ball rolling. Stuff like three-letter words and common fill-in-the-blanks. This helps me build some momentum and get a few letters in place for the trickier clues.
Getting into the “Grumble” of Things
Next, I focused on the themed clues. I had to really think about different ways people complain – whining, griping, moaning… you get the idea. The clues themselves were pretty clever, using puns and wordplay to hint at the answers.
- One clue was something like “Sound of a disgruntled diner?” and the answer was “BEEF”. Get it? Like, a complaint and also a type of meat!
- Another one was “Formal protest” which is equal to “DEMUR”.
- There was also “Whine cellar?” and I entered “CRAB”.
- And the last one that I can remember now is “Utter objection” and the answer was “NAYSAY”.
It took some serious brainpower, and a few trips to my trusty thesaurus (okay, I just Googled some synonyms), but I slowly started chipping away at the themed answers. There were a couple that really stumped me, and I had to use the crossing letters to figure them out. That’s always a satisfying moment, when you finally crack a tough one.
After I had most of the themed answers in place, I went back to filling in the rest of the puzzle. The crossing letters from the themed answers definitely helped with this part. It’s like a domino effect – one answer leads to another, and another, and another.
The Final Stretch (and a Few More Complaints)
There were a few moments where I got totally stuck. I’d stare at a clue for what felt like hours, my brain completely blank. That’s when I usually take a break, walk around a bit, maybe refill my coffee. Sometimes a fresh perspective is all you need.
Finally, after much groaning and head-scratching (and maybe a little bit of actual complaining), I managed to fill in the last square. Victory! It always feels good to finish a crossword, especially a challenging one like this. And hey, even though the theme was “complain”, I actually had a pretty good time solving it.
