Okay, so I saw this phrase “walk like a duck” in the NYT crossword today and it totally stumped me. I stared at it for a good five minutes, convinced it had to be some weird idiom I’d never heard of.
First, I tried filling in the surrounding words, hoping the context would magically illuminate the answer. Nope. Still nothing. My brain was drawing a complete blank.
Then, I started thinking literally. “Walk like a duck”… what does that even mean? I pictured a duck waddling, you know, that side-to-side motion. I even stood up from my chair and tried to imitate it – much to the amusement of my cat.
My ‘Duck Walk’ Experiment
- Step 1: Stand with feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
- Step 2: Turn toes outward, like a duck’s.
- Step 3: Bend knees slightly.
- Step 4: Attempt to waddle forward, shifting weight from side to side.
It felt… ridiculous. And definitely didn’t give me any crossword answers. I felt a bit silly, to be honest. My cat was definitely judging me.
Finally, out of sheer desperation (and because the timer was ticking!), I Googled it. Turns out, I was overthinking it (as usual). Many websites described something similar to my waddle, but I soon discover it’s the *’s a simple method, I just can fill in the “WADDLE”.
So, lesson learned: sometimes the simplest answer is the right one. And sometimes, doing a silly walk in your living room is not the key to solving a crossword puzzle. But hey, at least I got a good laugh (and my cat got some entertainment) out of it!
