Every morning I do the New York Times mini-crossword puzzle in the paper’s app after scanning the daily headlines. Crosswords have rules that cannot be broken. The more puzzles you do the more you learn how they work. Certain words and certain kinds of clues always show up. Keep in mind that this is a 5×5 puzzle that only takes a minute or two, so my skills are limited. The clue for 1 across was Easy as _____. I put in A-B-C. Once I started filling in the rest of the squares I realized that this was wrong. As much as I struggled, I couldn’t make anything fit. I finally clicked to show me the word. It might have been the first time I’ve ever done that. And it made me angry. It was 1-2-3. It’s not right to use numbers in a word puzzle. I’ve never seen precedence of that.
Easy As 1-2-3
