
Having someone call out "You don't have 17 Across yet? But it's so EASY!" would be akin to someone in a yoga class calling out "What do you MEAN you can't do full lotus position? It's SO EASY!”
It would be judging someone else’s practice by the standards of one’s own experience.
And what’s the point of that?
Now, I love to solve alone, relishing each and every “Eureka!” moment that accompanies a cracked clue. But I love teaching puzzles even more. And although I’m sure my relatives were motivated more by a desire to make me feel included than by a genuine interest in puzzles, we jumped into solving it together.
It turns out that my cousin has a natural instinct for identifying clue types. My aunt is a whiz at double-meanings, cracking them before the rest of us have gotten our thinking caps on. And my uncle offers up little-known trivia as if it were common knowledge.

It reminded me of one of my favourite parts of yoga classes—partner yoga—when you pair up with someone else whose participation helps you sink into a posture more deeply than you could have done alone.