Alright, so I settled in to do the New York Times crossword the other day. It’s become a bit of a ritual, you know? Helps me unwind, get the brain working a little differently.
Everything was moving along okay, filling in the easier clues, getting some momentum. Then I hit this one clue, I think it was somewhere in the middle section. The clue itself was “non negotiable thing”. Simple enough, right? But my mind just kind of blanked for a second.
My first thought was something short, maybe like “MUST”. Yeah, it’s a thing you must have, non-negotiable. I checked the number of squares. Nope, way too short. The space needed something longer. Okay, scratch that.
What else could it be? Something you won’t compromise on. I started thinking about phrases. Maybe “BOTTOM LINE”? Checked the squares again. Still didn’t feel right with the letters I already had peeking through from the crossing words. I had a couple of letters here and there… looked like _ E A _ _ _ _ _ _ R. Hmmm.
Getting Stuck On It
This one was starting to annoy me a little. It felt like it should be obvious, but the answer just wasn’t coming. You know how sometimes a clue just stares back at you? This was one of those times. I kept looking at the letters I did have: that E, the A, the R near the end. What fits that pattern and means “non negotiable”?
I tried thinking about negotiations. What happens when something is non-negotiable? It can stop the whole process. It can… break the deal. Wait a second.
- Deal…
- Breaker?
DEALBREAKER. I counted the letters. D-E-A-L-B-R-E-A-K-E-R. Yep, that matched the space. I quickly penciled it in, checking against the crossing clues I’d already solved. The ‘E’ fit, the ‘A’ fit, the ‘R’ fit. All the other letters seemed to make sense with the empty crossings too.
Felt pretty good to finally get that one sorted. It wasn’t super tricky in hindsight, but it definitely held me up for a bit. Just needed to look at it from the right angle, I guess. Once I got “DEALBREAKER”, the rest of that corner started falling into place much easier. On to the next clue.
