Okay, so, today I tried to tackle the NYT crossword puzzle. I’ve been doing these for a while now, but today’s puzzle had this one clue that really got me thinking. The clue was “like the s in aisle”. It seemed so simple, but the answer wasn’t jumping out at me.
I started by looking at all the answers I’d already filled in. You know, trying to see if any of the letters I had would give me a hint. I went through each word, reading them out loud, checking if any of them had a silent “s” like “aisle” does. Nothing.
Then I thought, okay, let’s focus on the word “aisle” itself. I said it out loud a few times, trying to isolate the sounds. “Aisle.” “Aisle.” Still, nothing was clicking. It was like my brain was refusing to cooperate.
- I even started looking around my room for inspiration.
- Maybe there was something that rhymed with “aisle.”
- I’m pretty sure my neighbors heard me pacing back and forth, muttering to myself.
Then I remembered that the clue also mentioned “island”. I tried the same thing with the word “island”. Saying it out loud a bunch of times, focusing on how it sounded, trying to figure out if the “s” was silent there, too. It was! Just like in “aisle”.
So I had two words, “aisle” and “island,” both with a silent “s.” That had to be the key, right? I spent a good chunk of time just staring at those two words on the paper. I wrote them down in my notebook, hoping that seeing them outside of the puzzle grid would help.
The Aha Moment
And then, it hit me. The “s” in both words is silent! That’s the answer! The “s” is silent. I quickly scanned the puzzle grid, and there it was, a five-letter space that would perfectly fit the word “SILENT”. I filled it in, and bam, the whole section of the puzzle started to make sense.
I felt like such a genius. It was one of those little victories that make you feel like you can conquer the world, or at least finish a crossword puzzle. I finished the rest of the puzzle, feeling pretty proud of myself. I’m not gonna lie, I bragged about it to my friends a little bit.
I mean, I spent like 343 hours on these puzzles, I should be good at this point, right?
Anyway, it was a good day, a good puzzle, and a good reminder that sometimes the answer is right in front of you, you just have to look at it from a different angle.
