The Columnist Manifesto

I always wondered whether you could finish a crossword puzzles with answers that seem to fit, but are "wrong," or at least not what the puzzle author intended.

B and I just did last Sunday's (August 26) crossword puzzle. Here are the correct answers for the section in question:



The clue for 38 Across (answer: "AGES") was "It's been ____." We had "AGAS."

The clue for 49 Across (answer: "RAGGED") was "Rough." We had "JAGGED."

This meant that we had "RAAJ" for 33 down, whose clue was "Trunk location." Which I took to be an alternate spelling of RAJ, which means "the British rule in India," where they have elephants, which have trunks.

Okay, it's a stretch. And wrong, too, since RAAJ doesn't seem to be an alternate spelling of RAJ. But as a stretch, it's not that much stretchier than many of their correct answers. Like "Hugmetight" for "Short, close-fitting jacket" this past Friday.

Still, a lesson learned. Like the Multistate Bar Exam, sometimes you have to look for the "best" answer rather than a single "right" answer.