Okay, so I spent a good chunk of my afternoon wrestling with this crossword puzzle, the one themed “like legends”. Found it in the usual spot, folded up in the weekend paper supplement. I always like the themed ones, gives you a bit of a hook, you know?
Getting Started
First off, I grabbed my trusty pencil – gotta be pencil, always – and a fresh cup of coffee. Skimmed the clues first, just to see what I was up against. “Like legends,” okay, could be anything from myths to maybe even rock stars these days, who knows. Some of the across clues looked easy enough. Stuff like “King Arthur’s magical sword” – that’s EXCALIBUR, popped right in. Then there was “Greek god of the sea,” pretty standard, POSEIDON. Getting those early ones feels good, like you’re actually making progress.
But then, you hit the down clues, and sometimes they just don’t seem to line up with the easy across ones you just filled in. That’s the game, isn’t it? There was one, “Mythical beast, part lion, eagle,” that had me scratching my head for a bit. Needed a G somewhere in the middle. Ah, GRIFFIN! Okay, okay, settling in now.
Hitting a Snag
Things were moving along, bit by bit. Filling in corners, working my way towards the middle which always seems to be the trickiest bit. Then I landed on 17-Down. “Heroic rescuer of Andromeda”. Five letters. I knew this one, felt it right on the tip of my tongue. Perseus, right? But the letters I already had in place just didn’t fit. P-E-R… nope, the third letter had to be an ‘S’ from an across clue I was pretty sure about. That threw me off. Was the across clue wrong? Or was my legendary hero wrong? Left it blank for a while. Annoying.
There were a few others like that. Vague clues like “Legendary creature of the Himalayas”. Could be YETI, could be something else depending on the crosses. And some wordplay ones that tied into the theme in a way I wasn’t getting yet.
The Breakthrough
I decided to step away for a bit. Sometimes just looking away helps clear the brain fog. Refilled the coffee, stared out the window. Came back, and looked at that 17-Down section again. Wait a minute… the across clue I was sure about could actually be something else. If I changed that ‘S’ to an ‘R’… PERSEUS fits! Ha! The across clue was the dodgy one all along. Felt like a real detective figuring that out.
After that, things started clicking again. Getting PERSEUS opened up a whole chunk of that section. The crossing letters helped confirm the “Himalayan creature” was indeed YETI. Another clue, “Fabled lost city,” revealed itself as ATLANTIS once I had the A and T.
Finishing Touches
The last few squares are always the most satisfying. It’s like fitting the final pieces into a jigsaw. There was one stubborn corner left. A mix of slightly obscure folklore references and a tricky four-letter word for “legendary singer”. Took some educated guesses based on the letters I had. Is BANSHEE spelled like that? Yes. Does ELVIS fit for the singer? Looks like it! And boom, just like that, it was done.
Packed grid, no empty squares. Felt pretty good, I gotta say. It wasn’t the hardest puzzle I’ve ever done, but the “like legends” theme was fun, made me dredge up some old stories from the back of my mind. Always a nice way to spend an hour or two, keeps the old grey matter working.
