Morning Brew - 🕹️The game maker

Time-saving tools and products we’re really into rn.

Hey, Sidekickers! Sabrina here with a true story. I moved last week and learned a valuable lesson about organization: Invest in a label maker. It will make everything easier. Trust me.

Never be stuck in a car in the middle of nowhere with your legs crossed again. The Flush app shows you where all the public restrooms are nearby, so go ahead: Get that Big Gulp and hit the road worry-free.

Strong teams are built on intentional relationships. Meaning, you know, friendships. So if you need a valid reason to go back to the office, try fostering work relationships IRL (and gossiping about your coworkers).

“I’m convinced that everyone would love puzzles if they just found the right one. There [are] crosswords or jigsaws or word searches.There’s a puzzle out there for you that will enrich and inspire your life—I just need to connect you with the right one.”

Mary Tobler designs puzzles, crosswords, word searches, and other games for the Morning Brew suite of newsletters. (That means over 4 million subscribers try to outwit her daily!) She also works as a freelance story producer and as a consultant with major media outlets like MSNBC and NPR.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Kickoff: “I’m not a morning person…So I typically start my day with a lot of coffee. Then I work on the [more basic] parts of creating these puzzles for Morning Brew. I log the games, I update my word list, I go through my ideas folder, [and I] clean that up. And then I know that I can start getting into a more creative flow around 10 to 11am.”

Getting started: “I come from a film and television production and story background. And someone that I worked with was producing the NPR show Ask Me Another. He invited me to pitch some ideas, thinking that a writer who loved puzzles might also become a writer who wrote puzzles. And that’s how I got into it.”

Creating crosswords: “Part of what I love about creating crosswords is that there are three distinct parts of the process that all exercise a different creative muscle. [There’s] thinking of the theme, creating the fill, and then writing the clues…You need to do one before you can do the next, but they’re very different creatively. That’s great for me because if one piece is getting stuck, I can go and work on another part of that exercise.”

Turning a passion into a career: “I started doing crossword puzzles when I was eight years old, and subscribed to Games magazine. I never would have believed that I could have a career creating crossword puzzles. But that passion became something I started taking seriously, and then I realized I could do something with it. I could be paid for it—which is miraculous to me. It’s so meaningful, and it’s that passion of not just I love doing it, but I love solving it, [and] I love talking about it. I could talk about puzzles all day.”

Finding balance: “I work better when I’m not putting so many constraints on when the work gets done or where it gets done. If I know I’m hitting a good flow, and I can get in a few hours at night to work on a grid—and I’m alert and not uninspired—I’m going to do that work. And in terms of work-life balance, my kids know what I do. They like looking over my shoulder as I’m solving a grid. [And] I’m hoping that they hear me talking about [puzzle making], and I’m modeling for them that you can be passionate about something and turn it into a job.”—MW

Your punch list for when you punch out.

Read: The Watcher, streaming on Netflix this October 13, chronicles the true story of a New Jersey family who moved into a new house and began receiving menacing (OK—super freaking scary) letters. Read the in-depth explainer from The Cut to get the backstory.

Watch: Did you suddenly find yourself knee-deep in Try Guys drama last week? Yeah, us too. Instead of going down a rabbit hole trying to figure out who did what, watch this video from the foursome trio for the full breakdown.

Drink: Thanksgiving is less than 50 days away. Gather up some ginger beer, mint, pomegranate, and grapefruit juice and make your crew these super festive pomegranate ginger palomas. They’re fun for the whole family! (Even that cousin.)

In our budgeting bag: Money Scoop is our thrice-weekly personal finance newsletter sharing smart spending habits. Learn how to better invest, budget, manage your taxes, and much more. Subscribe for free.

Burning questions of our time.

The loan dilemma:

For decades, Americans believed that a successful career began with a four-year degree, so for most of us, that meant taking out an average of $28,950 in student loans. While a degree didn’t guarantee a high-paying job, borrowers knew it did guarantee debt. Then the government introduced the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program in 2007 to offer student loan forgiveness to some borrowers—people working at qualifying nonprofits and certain government positions—but only after they make 120 loan payments, which takes about 10 years. But very few borrowers have managed to get their debt forgiven, partially due to confusion about who was or wasn’t eligible.

Everyone else—people working at for-profit companies or in union jobs, for example—was on the hook until the Biden administration announced a new process to cancel student loan debt. While forgiveness under the PSLF program faces uncertainty once again, this administration can still rewrite the narrative. So, how do you think they should handle the student loan issue? Should the PSLF program be expanded to include other industries? What would be the fairest way to forgive loans, if at all? Hit Reply and let us know your thoughts in the inbox!—SS

And now, your thoughts on the edible résumé:

“In the cutthroat and sometimes soul-crushing world that is job hunting, I think it’s necessary to make yourself stand out for your dream job—however you choose to do so. It allows you to showcase your creativity, express your (extreme) interest, and leave a memorable taste (pun intended) in the hiring manager’s mouth. With that said, I feel this particular gesture was a great and inventive idea but a bit over the top since it depended on one person to go well above and beyond. I’m glad it worked out and turned into a great story, but I hope that the Instacart driver was tipped handsomely for helping a stranger in such a big way.”—Carl

“Would I eat the cake? No. Would I work with our HR team to ensure the candidate at least received a screener interview? Definitely. I appreciate the dedication and level of research.”—Connor

IT’S HERE! The newest addition to the Morning Brew family is Incrypto. Our latest newsletter is all about helping you understand the wide world of crypto with, y’know, context. Wondering about Web3? We got you. Dwelling on DAOs or DeFi? Done. NFTs? No problem! We’ll teach you what it all means and why it matters to you.

Like all our newsletters, it’s completely free and takes only 5 minutes to read.

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