Okay, so the other day, I was messing around with the NYT crossword puzzle, you know, the one that came out on March 24th. There was this clue that said, “Beat handily,” and I was like, “What could that be?”
I started by looking around online. There were a bunch of websites that had answers for crossword clues, and I found a few that mentioned this one. They were all saying there could be two possible answers.
Then I dug a little deeper. I mean, I’m not exactly a crossword expert, but I figured, why not try to figure this out? I found this one website that had a bunch of tutorials for cryptic crosswords. They said this “Beat handily” thing was probably a definition clue. Apparently, there are different types of clues, and this is one of them.
- I tried to put in all words about “beat handily” I can think of.
- I went through some of the possible answers I found online.
- I also looked at other words that could mean the same thing as “beat handily.”
After thinking about it, I started with words such as “rout” and put it into the puzzle. It fits! And the word matched all the rest of the clues in that area. I was like, “Yes! I think I got it!”
I kept going with the puzzle, using this word as a starting point. I filled in more and more words, checking each one to make sure it made sense with the other clues. It was like a little investigation, and I was the detective, ha-ha!
Finally, I filled in the whole thing! And guess what? The word “rout” worked perfectly. I was so stoked! I mean, it’s just a crossword puzzle, but it felt like I’d just solved some big mystery. I read somewhere that anyone can learn to do these puzzles. You just gotta know a few tricks and not give up. I guess they were right!
And now that I have done it once. I think I will keep trying in the future. Because I do feel like I have learned something. It is fun, and I feel accomplished.
