Okay, so I was messing around with the New York Times crossword the other day, as one does, and I got totally stumped by a clue. It was something like “Ranking used in boxing,” and I was drawing a complete blank. My brain was going through all sorts of complicated stuff, like, “Is it about weight classes? Some obscure scoring system?” Nope, way simpler than that.
First, I tried to think of all the boxing terms I knew. “Heavyweight,” “lightweight,” “welterweight”… nothing fit the number of letters I had. Then I thought, “Maybe it’s about the judges? Like, ‘score’ or something?” Still no dice.
I even started going down a rabbit hole of, like, historical boxing organizations. I was googling “International Boxing Federation,” “World Boxing Council,” all that jazz. My search history probably looks wild now, full of boxing stuff.
Then, after what felt like forever, it hit me. It’s just “rank”! Like, the literal ranking, number one, number two, and so on. I felt so dumb, but also kind of relieved. It’s always the simple answers that get you, right?
So, yeah, that’s my little story about how a seemingly complex crossword clue turned out to be super straightforward. I learned my lesson: don’t overthink it! Sometimes the most obvious answer is staring you right in the face.
