There’s more than one way to solve Hemant Mehta’s Friday puzzle. If at first you don’t succeed with a crossword, develop a good 21-Down.
Jump to: Tricky Clues
FRIDAY PUZZLE — Where did you begin solving a crossword like Hemant Mehta’s? Did you just dive in anywhere, or did you start at 1A and proceed in clue order? Perhaps you scan the clue list first and fill in the answers you are confident that you know. Maybe your method changes depending on the puzzle in front of you.
There is no right or wrong way to solve a crossword, in my opinion. That includes looking up things that elude you, although I know that not everyone agrees. The goal is to have fun and challenge yourself, but if the endeavor becomes an unpleasant struggle, why suffer?
Use every tool at your disposal. If one method doesn’t work, be flexible and change things up. Be gentle with yourself, as my colleague Sam Corbin suggested on Wednesday. When you solve a puzzle with as much lively fill and clever cluing as Mr. Mehta’s, it will be worth it.
And don’t forget to pat yourself on the back. Maybe you don’t know the name of the third guard from the left in the final scene of “Hamlet” — that’s OK, no one does — but you sure are resourceful. That’s a gift in itself.
Tricky Clues
14A. The “Place for student mixers?” is not a school gym where a party is being held. It’s a SCIENCE LAB, where the students are actually mixing solutions.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
