#week 94

[andhumanslovedstories]

An intro to doing crosswords for complete beginners

as told by someone who didn’t do any before this year and now has gotten so deeply into them

with examples pulled almost entirely from crosswords published in American publications this week

A crossword is not a measure of general knowledge or intelligence or skill with words anymore than a Mario game is a measure of how good you are at plumbing. It certainly helps to have the same cultural reference points as the puzzle, but you can brute force your way through a lot of it if you just know how crosswords work

Easiest on Mondays and then get harder over the week

The answer is in the same verb tense as the clue (ex. “doesn’t float” is “SINKS” while “didn’t float” is “SANK”)

If there’s an acronym or abbreviation in the clue, the answer will have one as well (ex. “Toothpaste-approving org.” is “ADA” because that the short way of referring to the American Dental Association)

If the answer is in written like a text from a teen girl with her first flip phone, the answer will be a common texting abbreviation (TMI, OMG, LOL, LMAO, BRB, TTYL, etc) (ex. three letter word with clue “i can’t believe u told me that” is “TMI”)

If the clue is in quotes, it’s dialogue and the response should also be dialogue (ex. the clue “‘That’s it for me!’” is “IQUIT”)

An answer can be multiple words, (see above) so some correct answers can make you second guess yourself because it creates letter combos that seem impossible to be in one English (mostly) word or mess you up bc it’s ambiguous where one word ends and another begins (ex. you have the letters “OWFO” and the answer ends up being “PILLOWFORT” or “UDAT” being “BERMUDATRIANGLE”)

Treat clues with a question mark like they’re going to be puns that make you groan so think about other meanings of the words in the clue (ex. “Volumes you can hear?” is “AUDIOBOOKS” or “Not fancy at all?” is “HATE” or “Remained under cover?” is “SLEPTIN”)

Clues that add hedging language line “they could be called…” or one might use this as…” are telling you to think very laterally. These are the ones that make you a little mad when you get them (ex. “They might be said to be dancing or raging” is “FLAMES” or “They admit they might be punched” is “TICKETS”)

The word “maybe” usually indicates the answer will be an example of the clue, not a synonym (ex. “Pet, maybe” is “CAT”)

If a person is in the clue and a person is the answer, the answer will be from the same part of name as the clue (ex. Trevor Noah replaced John Stewart on the Daily Show. So the clue “Stewart’s successor on the Daily Show” is “NOAH” while “John’s successor on the Daily Show” would be “TREVOR”

No word in the clue will be featured in the answer (ex. “What Beyoncé Knowles goes by” could be “ONENAME” but could never be “BEYONCÉ”)

A answer can be a phonetic spelling of a letter (ex. “Epic finale?” is “CEE”)

Not every clue is going to be tricky and clever, don’t rule out an obvious choice just because it’s obvious (ex. “Do ___ disturb” is “NOT”)

Roman numerals pop up a lot but typically only in clues where a Roman numeral makes sense, so “finale of a play?” could be “ACTII” but “Number of Stooges” is not going to be “III”

There’s a ton of really common clues. If you do enough crossword puzzles you recognize them. (ex. Literally almost anything about oil is going to be OPEC, any variations on “things on a smartphone that someone can download and use” is going to be “APPS”, and anything about a european capital city is probably “OSLO”)

If a clue can be about a cookie, the answer is almost certainly “OREO”

[nnayomaise]

any other manga would've had mithrun die with the demon, any other manga would have him fighting a concept for the rest of his life, for the rest of time in the infinite universe

the fact that dungeon meshi doesn't do that, is exactly what i love about it

[dance-the-spears]

Sunny boy ☀️

[starlightaxolotl]

this came to me in a vision (I was crying over the end poem again)

[nonokoko13]

"Short on credits" "Need a job soon" "A drama queen" "Max slacker"...

Tag yourself I'm all of them

[thisiscaitland]

[greyvvardenfell]

not only did I survive my first term of grad school, I got As in both of my classes 😌🙏 1/12th done baybee

[cacw]

[super-sons-week]

[muffingnf]

we had a very sudden and shocking death of a resident at work yesterday evening and i’ve been thinking about how so many people say they wouldn’t want their loved ones to be in a home because they worry the staff wouldn’t care or their loved ones wouldn’t be looked after properly.

this lady was so loved that the admin at work had to ring everyone up who wasn’t on the morning shift to let them know before they got to work. when i got there for the afternoon shift there were people in bits. when her family came this evening both staff and the other residents were genuinely in tears. trust me people care and they care a lot

[sarahgotbored]

Cubs pause playing biteyface for long enough to get a quick snuggle in

[piknim]

This job hiatus has been gut wrenching ive finished 2 series of things and a game so now im extra depressed

[okcoolthanks]

Ladies and gentlemen, both and neither, I present to you,,,

The captains of the riptide pirates

(And some of their crew)

I kinda just drew them so I could know that I actually COULD. I’ve never drawn something like gryphon before and honestly it’s my first time drawing and old man and a frogtopus so. :/

I also struggled with their faces so I just kinda, deleted them, they’re gonna have faces in the comic tho

[unproduciblesmackdown]

spontaneous dig for marble hornets gamers from this decade < ago event, i guess aptly everyone seemed pretty elusive in the limited documentation but they were ready for "sickos show up for their sick little mask purchases" it seems

[wrenaspun]

microdosing on being a bitchy marker by drafting my comments ("Is this true?" and "No." are evergreen), staring at them really hard, then deleting the comment box rather than posting it. I am endlessly endlessly benevolent. Please cheer

[incorrectskyrimquotes]

we're gonna get to a point where there's less time in between arena and skyrim than skyrim and esvi