So, I was rummaging through an old box the other day, you know, the kind that just collects stuff over the years. Found this half-finished crossword book tucked under some old magazines. I remember starting this one particular puzzle, must have been ages ago. Couldn’t for the life of me remember why I’d stopped halfway through.
Picked up a pencil and decided to give it another go. Right away, I hit the same wall. That bottom-right corner was just impossible. Stared at it for a good ten minutes. Looked at the answers I’d already filled in back then. Most seemed okay, but one… one just felt off. You know that feeling?
Digging In
The clue was something simple, but the answer I’d put in just didn’t sit right with the crossing words. I mean, the letters kinda fit, but the words they made? Nonsense. Total gibberish.
So, I figured, okay, let’s assume my past self was having a bad day. Got out the eraser. It was one of those old puzzles, cheap paper, so I had to be really careful not to tear it. Rubbed out my old answer, very gently. Then I erased the crossing answers that depended on it.
- Found the old puzzle book.
- Started working on the stuck corner.
- Realized an old answer was likely wrong.
- Carefully erased the bad answer and related ones.
Felt like I was undoing history, my own little history anyway. It left a nasty smudge, but hey, progress.
The Fix
With those wrong letters gone, I looked at the clues again. Fresh eyes, sort of. Focused on the crossing clues first, the ones I was more sure about. Got one. Then another. Suddenly, that tricky clue for the word I erased? The answer popped into my head. Bam. It fit perfectly with the new letters I’d just put in.
It was like a logjam breaking. Once that corner was sorted, the rest of the puzzle just flowed. Filled in the last few squares pretty quickly after that. Felt really good, you know? Like closing a really old, slightly annoying chapter.
It’s funny. Spent maybe an hour fixing that one stupid mistake I made years ago. All that time the puzzle sat there, stuck, just because of one wrong turn I took. Makes you think, doesn’t it? Sometimes you just gotta go back and undo the first error before you can move forward. Anyway, job done. Onto the next one.
