Okay, so I settled down with the newspaper crossword earlier today, coffee in hand, ready to tackle it. You know how it is, a nice little routine.
Tackling the Clues
Everything was going pretty smoothly, filling in the blanks, getting that satisfying feeling when you know an answer right away. Then I hit this one clue: where to see stars after a blow. Stopped me for a sec.
My first thought went straight to the literal meaning. Like, after a strong wind – a ‘blow’ – clears the sky, maybe? So, ‘SKY’? ‘NIGHT SKY’? But that felt a bit clunky for a crossword, didn’t quite fit the usual wordplay vibe.
Then I thought about ‘blow’ as in a setback or disappointment. Where do you ‘see stars’ then? Metaphorically, maybe? Like, you’re stunned? But what’s the place?
The Lightbulb Moment
I chewed on the end of my pen, staring at the squares. ‘After a blow’… ‘see stars’… It suddenly clicked. It wasn’t about wind or bad news. It was about getting hit! You know, like in the old cartoons – BAM! And little stars circle around the character’s noggin.
So, where do you see those stars?
- Not really in the sky.
- Not just vaguely ‘out there’.
- They’re right there, around the point of impact.
The place you see those figurative stars after getting whacked is, well, around your HEAD. It seemed simple, maybe too simple? But it fit the phrasing perfectly. It’s that classic image.
Checked the letter count I needed (which was four letters, luckily!), and ‘HEAD’ slotted in perfectly. Felt pretty good figuring that one out, that little bit of wordplay connecting the idiom to the physical place. Another square filled!
