Okay, so today I decided to tackle the New York Times crossword. Been doing them for years, it’s sort of a daily ritual, you know? Helps keep the old brain working.
Anyway, I was moving along at a decent pace, filling in some of the easier clues, getting a few letters here and there. Then I hit this one: lands resoundingly. I stopped and stared at that for a bit.
My first thought went straight to sounds. Like, something heavy falling. What kind of word means it lands, and it makes a big noise? “Resoundingly” is the key part, right? Not just a soft landing.
I started thinking about the number of letters. I checked the grid, saw how many squares I had to fill. That always helps narrow it down. Let’s see, I had a few crossing letters already in place from other words I’d figured out. That’s usually how I crack these tougher ones. You get a letter or two, and suddenly the possibilities shrink.
So, what words came to mind?
- Maybe something like SLAMS? Nah, that’s more like hitting something vertically, usually.
- CRASHES? Could be, but felt a bit too dramatic, maybe? Depends on the crossings.
- Bangs? Similar issue to slams.
I looked at the crossing letters again. I had a ‘T’ here, maybe an ‘S’ at the end. Hmm. “Lands resoundingly”. Something heavy hitting the ground. That ‘T’ got me thinking. What about TH…? THUMP? Yeah, that fits the sound idea. But does it fit the letters I had? Let me check again.
Ah, okay. The crossing letters pointed more towards THUDS. T-H-U-D-S. Yeah, that fits. When something heavy lands, it often “thuds”. And “resoundingly” kinda matches that solid, deep sound. It felt right. It wasn’t super elegant, just a solid, descriptive word.
So, I penciled in THUDS. Checked it against the other words crossing it, and yeah, it seemed to work perfectly. Always a good feeling when the pieces click together like that. Another clue down, onto the next challenge in the grid. Simple word, but sometimes they make you think a bit to connect the clue to the answer.
