Single Letters Can Be Tricky, If You’re Not Paying Attention

Have you done this week's crosswords?

Subscribe The Daily Beast Crossword is where power, pop culture, and politics intersect—quite literally.   Designed to be more challenging throughout the week, you can test your knowledge with five puzzles each week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. Play This Week's Puzzles Get in the Game With Matt Gaffney Old business: Congrats to Twitter fans @FLBlueBird1 and  @Guywriter for correctly identifying the only three-letter element in last week's article. It was TIN. Now you know.   On to this week's recap: did you get thrown by 14-Across in Monday's puzzle? The clue was [With 1-Down, actor who played Martin Luther King in the 2000 miniseries "Parting the Waters"] and the answer, split among two words, was COURTNEYB/VANCE. That middle initial might've thrown you off, even if you knew the actor's full name.   Indeed, ends-in-a-single letter entries like COURTNEY B are some of the trickiest to appear in puzzles. They fool our brains with their one-letter-ness; we're on the lookout as solvers for two- or three-word entries, but a one-letter finale like that -- whodathunkit? Celebs with full stage names who fit this bill include JAY-Z, KENNY G, CARDI B, and LIL NAS X.    It's not just last-letter proper names that are tricky, either -- it happens with standard words and phrases as well. Take a five-letter entry clued as [Backup operation]. Even with PLAN?, it can take a minute to realize it's PLAN B. That NB finish is a surprise for the brain!   Other entries like this have multiple options: you could be a TYPE A or TYPE B personality, for instance, so you might need to get that last letter from the crossing answer.    Fooled by a one-letter word at the end? Tweet it to #beastxword and we'll run the alphabet together.  Play This Week's Puzzles © Copyright 2021 The Daily Beast Company LLC  555 W. 18th Street, New York NY 10011  Privacy Policy If you are on a mobile device or cannot view the images in this message, click here to view this email in your browser. To ensure delivery of these emails, please add emails@thedailybeast.com to your address book. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, or think you have received this message in error, you can safely unsubscribe.