Life of Wry

Have I posted about this before? Not sure.

For the last … maybe year (?), Jim, Peter and I have been competing nightly on the New York Times’ Mini-Crossword. We each subscribe, open the app daily, and zip as fast as our fat fingers will take us through 10 clues — 5 Acrosses and 5 Downs (except on one day — can never remember which — when the puzzle is 7×7).

Typical time to finish one is about a minute or two. Two nights ago, the puzzle took me nearly 15 minutes to solve. That was record. Tonight’s was super easy and only took me 34 seconds. I SHOULD HAVE WON WITH THAT!! But, as I do most nights, I came in third.

I am Amy Brookheimer. Peter is Dan Egan and Jim is himself. Amy and Dan, if you don’t know, were characters in the TV show VEEP.. which all three of us howled over (in reruns, since we never seem to catch TV shows in the same decade in which they’re made).

Thirty-four seconds was probably my best time ever. Super proud (and excited to lord my score over the others), I went right to the leaderboard to see how much I’d beaten Peter and Jim by. And you see the results.

Damn!

Here’s how easy it was:

I think I’d have shaved about 5 seconds off my time if I’d not mistyped “tree” out the gate. As is so often the case, I had to delete a couple of bum characters and retype new ones (the fat fingers thing).

For months and months, Peter consistently beat both Jim and me. In recent months, Jim’s found his rhythm and now gives Peter a bit of a run for his money. But more often than not, Mr. Dan Egan comes out on top (and poor, hapless Amy brings up the rear).