“Each empty box has one solution—a single word that will form a compound term (a circuit) with all boxes connected to it with an arrow (e.g., “lip” + “stick” = “lipstick” or “fat” + “lip” = “fat lip”).”
                -Instructions for puzzmo.com’s game, Circuits

                During COVID social distancing, I tried my hand at making question sets for video call trivia nights. I don’t especially like trivia, but I like people and I missed being with them. And it turns out trivia is one way to make a video hangout less awful. Designing questions was a wonderful challenge. I ended up sinking days into wondering what makes a question really satisfying, what makes a set hang together. In trying to figure it out, I reached out to a friend who’s trivia immersed, and they said something like: “the trick of a good question is figuring out what separate bits of information connect or almost connect, right at the edge of what someone’s thinking.” And so I set out to trace what I knew and didn’t know and didn’t know quite yet.
                Today I’m remembering that advice as I play Circuits with my family. The premise, as described above, is to find a single word that completes multiple common phrases/compound words, so that (warning! Spoilers ahead for today’s puzzle!) “raise a ____”, “____ eye,” and “____ bomb” are all together pointing toward “stink.” Raise a stink, stink eye, stink bomb. I love how games ask me to look again at what I know, or push me to trace how what I know comes together and falls apart in unexpected ways, right there at the edge of what I’m thinking.