Alright, so today I finally got around to the New York Times crossword. Had my coffee ready, sat down, you know the drill.
Was cruising along okay for a bit, then hit this one: trace of music. Four letters needed. Okay, “trace”… what could that be?
My first thoughts went to stuff like a tiny bit of sound. I jotted down a few ideas:
- ECHO
- NOTE
- HINT
- BEAT
But none of them seemed to fit the crossing letters I already had, or they just didn’t feel quite right for ‘trace’. Got a bit stuck here, I admit. Just stared at it. ‘Trace of music’… four letters. It felt like it should be obvious, but my brain wasn’t cooperating.
Checking the Grid
I decided to leave it and work on the words crossing it. Managed to fill in a couple more answers around it. Suddenly, I had an ‘L’ at the beginning and another ‘L’ as the third letter. So, L _ L _.
L _ L _ … trace of music. Then it clicked. Like a faint, gentle rhythm or melody. LILT! Yeah, that felt right. A lilt is definitely a kind of ‘trace of music’, like a subtle swing or cadence.
Penciled it in. Checked the final crossing letter, and yeah, it fit perfectly with the down clue. Felt good to finally crack that one.
It’s funny how sometimes the simplest words can be the trickiest clues. ‘Trace’ wasn’t about a physical mark or a tiny amount in the way I first thought, but more about the quality of the music. Clever.
Anyway, got past that hurdle and managed to finish the rest of the puzzle. Always satisfying.
