For 25 years, I held a long, deep grudge against the New York Times crossword puzzles. It started when a family friend offered me a daily NYT crossword puzzle because I was a “smart kid.” I don’t know what this woman possessed to believe a 7-One year old would enjoy NYT crossword puzzles – a puzzle famous for its difficulty – but no matter how hard I tried, my little child’s brain failed to solve a single clue.
So, when I saw that the New York Times created an AR game “Shattered Crossword” on Instagram, I was shocked.
However, I will do anything for the blog, and everyone always sings about the direct confrontation of childhood traumas in order to heal. Maybe since then Engadget I noticed that the game was “too simple” for crossword puzzles, it would probably be at a level where I could finally, finally succeed. I went to the New York Times Instagram account, went through his Stories, and found the link to this special filtering effect.
So far, so good. When you open the game, you are directed to find a flat surface. Pretty easy. My apartment has a lot of flat surfaces. Except it was never so clear what cute flat surface that the New York Times wanted me to use. Like a table? My TV screen? A wall? I then went through the instructions, which explained that the crossword clue had “Shattered.” To figure it out, you need to change your perspective and rotate the broken word so that it is whole again.
G / O Media may receive a commission
Everything fell apart here.
On my first try, my clue was a five-letter word for “expert team.” The broken word was an indiscriminate yellow mess. No amount of pinching and rotating the screen did anything. Just in case I misunderstood, I started putting on my yoga skills, bending back and contorting my body like Neo avoiding bullets in Matrix. My hope was that this would change my view of crossword puzzles. He didn’t move. Instead, my dog gave me the best stinky eye, and my husband asked, “What the hell are you doing? Are you okay?”
Not it was clear not K
I reasoned that my first attempt was defeated due to the fact that I chose an insufficient flat surface. This time, I chose the TV screen instead of my desk. Huzzah! The puzzle was a little more visible, and this time, I clearly saw the word CLAP exploding into a pile of jagged yellow shards. I was a little miffed. Why was the NYT By me the answer? Regardless. At least I knew what word I should type.
Except, no matter how I rotated the word, CLAP would not appear. I raised my arms above my head. I pinched. I wiped. I turned. I could see the vague form of the word CLAP, especially L and A. But, unfortunately, I was defeated. I tried to move on to another clue, unless the broken word had changed.
On the third try, the crosswords were so small and, for unknown reasons, I couldn’t enlarge it to make it bigger. Fail. The closest I was to the fourth attempt, but even standing above the chair, with the phone raised above my head, I could not make this word left by God appear.
I know when I was beaten and this crossword, not very well conceived, had conquered me. Worse, I couldn’t escape my irrational resentment of crossword puzzles. Not. Instead, I sit here with a slight back pain, and my hatred of crossword puzzles in the New York Times has never burned stronger.