Day Zero Project #73: Finish a crossword on my own without cheating.

Finish a crossword?! How difficult can that be, right?

Wrong.

Crosswords are hard. At least the ones in the newspaper are. I could have cheated and bought one of those World's Easiest Crosswords books, but where's the sense of accomplishment in that?

So, like any problem, I attacked it with a plan. I knew that I probably wouldn't finish the first puzzle I started so I figured I'd just try every single puzzle in the Sunday paper every week until I finally finished one. That first Sunday I got to the puzzle and made a little progress but eventually failed.

Next Sunday. Failed again.

Next Sunday. Failed again.

Then I repeated that process for many more Sundays.

But then I learned a secret from a friend at the Cheers of coffee shops, Brew D Licious. Sunday is the toughest day of all the crosswords. I was doing the crossword puzzle equivalent of picking up a guitar for the first time and booking my first gig one day later at Madison Square Garden. I was destined to  fail.

"Try a Monday one," she said. "I think you'll find that much more to your liking."

Turns out crossword puzzles get more difficult as the week goes on, culminating with the ultra-difficult Sunday version I'd been failing at for weeks. And so I tried a Monday one.

And aced it!

A few lessons here. One, if you can't figure something out, go hang out at a coffee shop until someone shows you the answer. Two, you gotta crawl before you can walk...or finish a crossword.

And now I'm off to try my hand at the Tuesday puzzle.