Okay, let me tell you about this crossword puzzle I was wrestling with the other day. Just trying to relax, you know? Get the brain working a little bit on a Saturday morning.
Hitting a Wall
So, I’m cruising along, filling in answers, feeling pretty smart. Then I land on this clue: “like doordash meals”. Five letters. Seemed straightforward at first glance. DoorDash, yeah, food delivery. Simple.
But hold on. What five-letter word fits that? My first thought was maybe something related to the type of food. Like maybe ‘ASIAN’ or ‘PIZZA’? No, that didn’t feel right, too specific for a general clue like that. It wasn’t asking what they deliver, but how or the nature of it.
Thinking It Through
I started thinking about the action. ‘FETCH’? No, that’s weird. ‘ORDER’? Maybe, but that’s what I do, not what the meal is like. I stared at the intersecting letters I already had. It looked like maybe _ A _ E _.
Okay, DoorDash brings meals to you. But ‘HOME MEAL’? Doesn’t fit. ‘DELIV’? No, that’s not a real word people use like that. I put the pen down for a minute. Sometimes you just gotta step away.
What’s the alternative to eating in a restaurant? You get it… to go. You get… TAKEOUT. Or sometimes people say TAKEAWAY. Let me check the squares again. T-A-K-E-O-U-T. That’s seven letters. The clue was for five. Drat.
Wait a minute, checking the intersecting letters again… was it _ A K E _? Okay, maybe T A K E N? Like, the meal is ‘taken’ out? Seems a bit clunky for a crossword clue answer.
The Breakthrough (Maybe?)
Let me re-read: “like doordash meals”. Okay, what kind of meal is it conceptually? It’s not cooked at home. It’s prepared elsewhere. It’s… hmm. I looked at the letters again: _ A _ E _. Maybe the ‘A’ wasn’t right?
Let’s reconsider TAKEOUT/TAKEAWAY. Sometimes crosswords use variations or related concepts. What’s another way to think about it? Often, it’s fast food, right? Quick meals. But ‘QUICK’ didn’t fit either.
Okay, maybe I was overthinking the DoorDash part specifically. Maybe it’s just about meals not eaten at the restaurant. Could it be something like… ‘TOGO’? T-O-G-O. Four letters. Still not five.
This is where it gets tricky. Different crosswords have different styles. Could it be a brand name? ‘UBEREATS’? Too long. ‘GRUBHUB’? Too long.
I went back to the five-letter structure. _ A K E _. What if the clue was simpler? Like… just the result of using DoorDash? You get… a MEALS? No, that’s in the clue itself. Hmm.
Okay, final attempt, thinking about the experience. Sometimes these things are ordered online. ‘ONLINE’? O-N-L-I-N-E. Six letters. Argh.
You know what? I’m still stumped on that specific five-letter one from that day. I think I eventually looked it up or got it from other crossing words. Maybe it was something regional I wasn’t familiar with? Sometimes they throw curveballs like that. But my process usually involves thinking about the core concept (delivery, restaurant food not eaten in), synonyms (takeout, takeaway, to-go), and related actions (order, fetch). Usually gets me there, but not always!
