Okay, let me tell you about my little puzzle session today.
I sat down with the New York Times crossword, just trying to get my brain working a bit this morning. Things were moving along okay, filling in some of the easier clues, you know how it is.
Then I got to this one clue: ‘wood source’. Simple enough, I thought. My mind immediately jumped to the obvious stuff, like ‘TREE’. But I checked the grid, and it needed three letters. Okay, ‘TREE’ has four, so that’s out.
So, what’s a three-letter word for a source of wood? I thought about ‘LOG’, but that feels more like the product after the tree is cut, not really the source itself. I stared at the empty squares for a bit. It was a down clue, and I already had the middle letter from a crossing word, which was an ‘S’.
So, something like _ S _. Hmm. What fits? My brain cycled through possibilities. Then it clicked. What about specific types of trees? Like the wood they provide? ASH! A-S-H. Three letters, ‘S’ in the middle, and ash trees are definitely a source of wood.
I penciled it in lightly at first. Then I checked the other crossing word that needed the ‘H’. Bingo! It fit perfectly with that clue too. Felt pretty good to slot that one in.
It’s often those short, seemingly simple clues that can make you pause for a moment. You overthink it, then the straightforward answer just pops out. Anyway, that was my little ‘wood source’ adventure for the day.
