I am still obsessed over crosswords. I realized that some of the things that get me stumped while doing these puzzles include:
1. Proper nouns – I guess most crossword puzzles e.g. USA Today are written for the US audience so I have to grin and bear it whenever I see clues with proper nouns. While I am widely read which makes my vocabulary better than average, I am at a loss in terms of proper nouns especially the least popular ones – be it names of persons, movies, restaurant, city, streets, malls etc. I’m sure I know a whole lot of Filipino proper nouns that Americans similarly haven’t read or heard about.
It is a good thing that some proper nouns appear and re-appear. Though, I’m lucky if I can remember them at all when the time comes. Usually, I forget since I can’t relate them to a particular context.
Though I’m a little hard on myself when I come up with totally nothing, I cut myself some slack with proper nouns.
2. Mindset – Sometimes I read a clue, a word pops in my head which matches the number of boxes even the available letters in some of the boxes. I get all too excited and fill out the boxes giddily. Who wouldn’t? When this happens, I find it hard to re-think if the word is indeed the correct word. After all, it is too coincidental that the word matches the box and the available letters, right? But it happens. As a consequence, this word – on which I put a lot of faith on – stops me from completing the puzzle. The wrong word makes me filter out answers to other clues incorrectly.
My point is that sometimes we may need to entertain the possibility that no matter how plausible a word is to be the correct answer, it may not. It is the correct answer only if it lets me out the surrounding boxes correctly.
3. Inflexibility – We read a clue … now what? I’ve discussed the kinds in my earlier blog but sometimes we come across just one word. Consider Almighty as a clue. It could be a noun, right? In which case words like God may come to mind. But, on the other hand, it could also be an adjective which describes being all too powerful. Consider again the word the clue “in the middle of something”. You might ask … middle of what? Singing? Dancing? Answering? But if you flex your mind a little … the middle of something is just that ….the middle of something … in this case, the letter T. J
K.R.I.E.G.S.P.I.E.L 
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