Steve

@Sarah f As a general rule, I don't do lookups, and I too feel the weight of failure on the rare occasions that I do;) My personal hack for completing tougher crosswords is that frequently the answer is far less complicated than the clue, you just have to understand the clue. Or sometimes you have to walk away for five minutes, let your brain marinate, and look at the puzzle anew. I find the experience of working out the grid that way much more satisfying than going on an internet scavenger hunt for answers to popular entertainers I no longer have the band-width to keep track of. I don't view the crossword as a competition. I view it as an exercise, from which I happen to generally derive pleasure, so I don't really think there's a wrong way to do a crossword puzzle, and I don't think doing lookups is cheating.