A few months ago I wrote about the fact that I do four New York Times puzzles every morning (Wordle, Connections, Strands, and The Mini.)
My performance varies from day to day, but generally speaking, I'm OK at Wordle, pretty good with Connections, very good at Strands, and not so good with The Mini.
The Mini is a small crossword puzzle that can usually be completed in about a minute. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower.
I thought I was pretty decent at The Mini until I accepted my daughter Chloe's invitation to create a leaderboard for the game whereby you can compare your performance with other people. We have since added Elissa and Jack to that daily leaderboard.
I quickly realized that either Chloe and Elissa are geniuses at this puzzle, or I'm slow to the point of potential brain dysfunction.
As an example, here was a typical five-day stretch in mid-February comparing how quickly Chloe and I completed The Mini each day:
February 11: Chloe 33 seconds, me 1:07
February 12: Chloe 27 seconds, me 54 seconds
February 13: Chloe 1:05, me 1:29
February 14: Chloe 59 seconds, me 2:29
February 15: Chloe 1:12, me 2:12
In the several weeks since we created our leaderboard, I think I have been faster than my daughters maybe twice each, and those involved lucky guesses on my part.
I know Chloe and Elissa, at 28 and 31, respectively, are in their mental prime, while I (at 55) clearly am not. But still...when you think of yourself as a "Word Guy" and your kids – along with probably nearly everyone else who regularly completes The Mini – leave you in the dust, it's time to question whether you're losing it for good this time.
My only recourse is to assume my kids are somehow cheating. They're highly intelligent, sure, but I can't accept this level of defeat at face value.
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