Okay, so I was messing around with the New York Times Crossword the other day, as one does, and I stumbled upon this clue, “that makes sense.” Sounds simple, right? But, man, was I scratching my head for a while.
I started by trying to recall if I had seen this clue before. I thought, “Maybe it was recently?” So, I started digging through some recent dates. I looked at December 19th, and the 20th of last year, because I vaguely remember tackling a puzzle around that time. Nothing.
Then, I switched gears. I thought maybe this was one of those clues that shows up from time to time, like an old friend you bump into every few years. So, I started checking further back. I checked out dates in November and even a few dates in April, as well.
Still nothing! At this point, I was getting a bit frustrated. I mean, “that makes sense” is such a common phrase! How hard could it be to find the answer? I even went to those crossword solver sites, you know, the ones where you type in the clue and it spits out a bunch of potential answers? I saw that they found, like, 30 answers to the phrase. 30!
My Brainstorming Process
I started to write down the dates when the clue was last seen and noted it was a 4-letter word.
- December 2, 2024: “That makes sense” – 4 letters.
- December 19, 2024: “That makes sense now” – 4 letters.
- November 14, 2024: “That makes sense” – ? letters.
I decided to focus on the most recent date I could find, which was around mid-November. I figured, “If I start there, maybe I can work my way back.” I started hunting for the November 14th puzzle specifically, trying to see if I could find the clue and, more importantly, the answer. I was really hoping it’d be a four-letter word, since that seemed to be the most common pattern.
Finally, after what felt like hours, I found it! On November 14, 2024, the clue “that makes sense” was there, staring back at me. And the answers? A whole bunch of them, like “ISEE,” “AHH,” “OLDER,” “IFIGURED.”
So, there you have it. That’s how I cracked the “that makes sense” code in the New York Times Crossword. It took some digging, some guessing, and a whole lot of patience. But in the end, I got there. And, well, that makes sense!