Cryptics always have two clues in the same phrase, one straightforward, one using wordplay
’I am shocked’ is the direct clue. ‘Young and old extremists’ gives you YGOD (ie the extremes of both words), while a resistance unit is an OHM
I remember one that was like uh
"diner classic with plant tissue"
xylem pie
when we finally figured that out (I only do crosswords with the lady) I went "oh fuck off"
Cryptics always have two clues in the same phrase, one straightforward, one using wordplay
’I am shocked’ is the direct clue. ‘Young and old extremists’ gives you YGOD (ie the extremes of both words), while a resistance unit is an OHM
I remember one that was like uh
"diner classic with plant tissue"
xylem pie
when we finally figured that out (I only do crosswords with the lady) I went "oh fuck off]"
Yeah anything relying on puns I would generally class as 'sketchy', from a well-constructed-clue PoV. That one is verging on extremely sketchy - I begrudgingly see the link but I don't like it.
Another reason I like the Guardian, tbh - the editor doesn't seem to let that shit through very often.
It's a cryptic crossword, I don't know if they have those in the US but it's a somewhat common style in Europe
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Is that standard to cryptics? They're not common around here, so I've only encountered a few. Standard for US crosswords is for every square to be checked, it feels weird and antithetical to me to not have that be the case.
Apostle's friend outside of university (4)
gives PAUL ("apostle"), by placing "pal" ("friend") outside of "U" ("university"); the "'s" could be treated as the genitive case suffix or as short for "is".
Beheaded celebrity is sailor (3)
The answer would be TAR, another word for "sailor", which is a "celebrity", or star, without the first letter.
Found ermine, deer hides damaged (10)
gives UNDERMINED, which means (cryptically at least) "damaged" and can be found as part of "Found ermine deer". The word "hides" is used to mean "contains," but in the surface sense suggests "pelts". A complication is that "damaged" often (but not in this clue) means "rearrange the letters".
3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Other
Ah yes of course "tar," the word we all know also means "sailor."
Right.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Other
Seems like those could very, very easily just turn into a game of "guess what the puzzle writer was thinking." Hard balance to strike.
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Like, those sort of clues aren't entirely unheard of in US crosswords
Generally just a few in any given crossword, as the long answer or as jokes
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I can't imagine doing an unchecked crossword though. There's always like one question about a baseball pitcher from the 1960s (or some other proper noun, but it's most regularly sports people) that I will never ever get, so I need those crosses to solve it.
The only reason I pick up the Metro (free UK paper found around public transport) is because the cryptic crossword is easy enough for me to be able to get some of the answers
Although my commute at the moment means that I am so exhausted that I just stare at it for ten minutes, shove it into my bag, then give it to Mrs Rhesus when I get home
Yeah that's the one, although the fact that they landed in a pile of garbage may have just been propaganda - their supporters were claiming that they survived the fall because of a divine hand, and their detractors responded that no, it was just them landing where they belonged.
That was the third defenestration of Prague, for the record. It was the most famous one, and the one for which the word defenestration was coined. The first two were more fatal, although I believe that's because they killed the people in question first in at least one incident.
I didn't remember that there were multiple defenestrations, but I guess it's important for folks to have a hobby.
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The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
Yeah that's the one, although the fact that they landed in a pile of garbage may have just been propaganda - their supporters were claiming that they survived the fall because of a divine hand, and their detractors responded that no, it was just them landing where they belonged.
That was the third defenestration of Prague, for the record. It was the most famous one, and the one for which the word defenestration was coined. The first two were more fatal, although I believe that's because they killed the people in question first in at least one incident.
I didn't remember that there were multiple defenestrations, but I guess it's important for folks to have a hobby.
The second and possibly the third are in fact alluding to the first one.
The Defenestration of 1419 occurred when the town council refused to release/exchange some Hussite prisoners. A demonstration led by a Hussite priest turned into a mob that stormed the town hall and threw several members of the town council out the window. While an isolated incident of violence, this was the result of a long period of hostility between the common people and the Church, and marked the turning point that began the Hussite Wars.
Essentially the next sixty years were marked by wars and civil conflicts largely related to the rights of the Hussites. I could go into more detail, but it's not super necessary to know the full back and forth to understand the defenestrations.
The Defenestration of 1483 took place when a group of people, worried about the authority of the current king and the reversal of the tolerant policies that had been enacted at the end of the Hussite Wars, staged a violent coup and threw some bodies out of the town hall. In this instance, we're not looking at people being thrown out of windows as a direct action, but rather people being killed and then later thrown out of windows - it's a reference to the previous defenestration, and a promise of what will continue to happen in the future. This directly led to treaties of unity between the faiths and a declaration that the two were to be considered as equal.
Finally, the Defenestration of 1618, which sparked one of the bloodiest conflicts in European history. For this one we're no longer dealing with tensions between Hussites and Catholics, but instead Catholics and Protestants. While a part of the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia at this time was pretty cool with Protestants, which was good, as they composed the majority of the population. But the Kingdom of Bohemia was still governed by the Catholic Habsburgs, and when a new more hardline emperor took charge, he started rolling back some of those Protestant freedoms. Some of the Protestant lords believed this to be a direct attack by their fellow Catholic lords, that they had influenced the new emperor in this. Two of these Catholic lords, along with their secretary, were thrown out of a window.
The word defenestration didn't see use until after the third one, but it was clearly a symbolic act well before that, and by performing it, they were directly invoking the previous times that it had been done.
Is that standard to cryptics? They're not common around here, so I've only encountered a few. Standard for US crosswords is for every square to be checked, it feels weird and antithetical to me to not have that be the case.
UK crosswords definitely have more variation in physical layout and don't require checks.
Seems like those could very, very easily just turn into a game of "guess what the puzzle writer was thinking." Hard balance to strike.
They do a bit but there are rules, or at least guidelines, which good setters follow that make things easier. An anagram should always be accompanied by an indicator word, for example (which is usually any word that means mixed up or disrupted). 'Talk' or 'sounds' in the clue means you're looking for a pun. 'Reversed' or 'up' or something like that means the letter sequence will be backwards. etc, etc . And each setter has their own preferences and quirks, which if you do enough will help you out. There is also a lot of standard vocabulary, abbreviations, and shorthand which have developed over the years, and sometimes there's words which while they might have died in common discourse, will live on in crosswords forever. For example:
Ah yes of course "tar," the word we all know also means "sailor."
Right.
'sailor' == 'tar' is so common in crosswords that I actually have trouble shifting gears when setters use sailor to mean anything else. It's not something that you should necessarily know right off the bat, but it doesn't take too long to absorb all that vocab. It helps, when you start, if you have a friend or relative to walk you through the conventions, I used to do them at the breakfast table before school with my mother, who clued me in to a lot of the nonsense.
Fundamentally, cryptic crosswords are extremely English, which means they are needlessly complex, have no obvious point, and have developed a huge assortment of conventions and associated baggage which far outweighs any actual decided-upon rules.
If you ever felt like torturing yourself, you could do one in German, Tynic
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I feel like getting into cryptics would just be learning a whole new language at this point. I've been doing US crosswords on and off for like ten years now, and I have so much shorthand baked into me from that (every instrument is an oboe and every bird an erne) I would not only need to break that but also learn all of the new shorthand for the other style.
Like, I'm still thinking about doing it, I love crosswords, but it's daunting.
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
Verisimilitude
The main reason I know that "Eire" is Irish for "Ireland" is because I don't think you're allowed to publish a US crossword without that as one of the clues. Too many delicious common letters all packed together, I suppose.
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#pipeCocky Stride, Musky odoursPope of Chili TownRegistered Userregular
Cryptic crosswords are like
have you ever played pictionery or charades or taboo or one of those games where one player provides clues and their partner guesses the answer, and one of the teams is a couple who've been together for 20 years and their clues are incredibly esoteric and inscrutable but their partner gets the answer immediately
It's a firmly ingrained set of references and common clues that if you're not familar with them you have no hope of understanding.
Posts
How do you feel about gobbledegook?
I remember one that was like uh
"diner classic with plant tissue"
when we finally figured that out (I only do crosswords with the lady) I went "oh fuck off"
Love it
Same with balderdash and hokum
Yeah anything relying on puns I would generally class as 'sketchy', from a well-constructed-clue PoV. That one is verging on extremely sketchy - I begrudgingly see the link but I don't like it.
Another reason I like the Guardian, tbh - the editor doesn't seem to let that shit through very often.
Spoilered because it does contain some answers to their most recent.
What is this, seventh grade foreign language homework?
Right.
Generally just a few in any given crossword, as the long answer or as jokes
It probably comes easier to mind if you're British!
The first time when I got hold of one in a national newspaper I was really confused
Although my commute at the moment means that I am so exhausted that I just stare at it for ten minutes, shove it into my bag, then give it to Mrs Rhesus when I get home
I didn't remember that there were multiple defenestrations, but I guess it's important for folks to have a hobby.
look we know Pete Alonso is good you don't need to keep rubbing it in our face
The second and possibly the third are in fact alluding to the first one.
The Defenestration of 1419 occurred when the town council refused to release/exchange some Hussite prisoners. A demonstration led by a Hussite priest turned into a mob that stormed the town hall and threw several members of the town council out the window. While an isolated incident of violence, this was the result of a long period of hostility between the common people and the Church, and marked the turning point that began the Hussite Wars.
Essentially the next sixty years were marked by wars and civil conflicts largely related to the rights of the Hussites. I could go into more detail, but it's not super necessary to know the full back and forth to understand the defenestrations.
The Defenestration of 1483 took place when a group of people, worried about the authority of the current king and the reversal of the tolerant policies that had been enacted at the end of the Hussite Wars, staged a violent coup and threw some bodies out of the town hall. In this instance, we're not looking at people being thrown out of windows as a direct action, but rather people being killed and then later thrown out of windows - it's a reference to the previous defenestration, and a promise of what will continue to happen in the future. This directly led to treaties of unity between the faiths and a declaration that the two were to be considered as equal.
Finally, the Defenestration of 1618, which sparked one of the bloodiest conflicts in European history. For this one we're no longer dealing with tensions between Hussites and Catholics, but instead Catholics and Protestants. While a part of the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia at this time was pretty cool with Protestants, which was good, as they composed the majority of the population. But the Kingdom of Bohemia was still governed by the Catholic Habsburgs, and when a new more hardline emperor took charge, he started rolling back some of those Protestant freedoms. Some of the Protestant lords believed this to be a direct attack by their fellow Catholic lords, that they had influenced the new emperor in this. Two of these Catholic lords, along with their secretary, were thrown out of a window.
The word defenestration didn't see use until after the third one, but it was clearly a symbolic act well before that, and by performing it, they were directly invoking the previous times that it had been done.
UK crosswords definitely have more variation in physical layout and don't require checks.
They do a bit but there are rules, or at least guidelines, which good setters follow that make things easier. An anagram should always be accompanied by an indicator word, for example (which is usually any word that means mixed up or disrupted). 'Talk' or 'sounds' in the clue means you're looking for a pun. 'Reversed' or 'up' or something like that means the letter sequence will be backwards. etc, etc . And each setter has their own preferences and quirks, which if you do enough will help you out. There is also a lot of standard vocabulary, abbreviations, and shorthand which have developed over the years, and sometimes there's words which while they might have died in common discourse, will live on in crosswords forever. For example:
'sailor' == 'tar' is so common in crosswords that I actually have trouble shifting gears when setters use sailor to mean anything else. It's not something that you should necessarily know right off the bat, but it doesn't take too long to absorb all that vocab. It helps, when you start, if you have a friend or relative to walk you through the conventions, I used to do them at the breakfast table before school with my mother, who clued me in to a lot of the nonsense.
Fundamentally, cryptic crosswords are extremely English, which means they are needlessly complex, have no obvious point, and have developed a huge assortment of conventions and associated baggage which far outweighs any actual decided-upon rules.
Like, I'm still thinking about doing it, I love crosswords, but it's daunting.
I thought "oh god that sounds awful" and I still clicked through and now I've started playing help help
have you ever played pictionery or charades or taboo or one of those games where one player provides clues and their partner guesses the answer, and one of the teams is a couple who've been together for 20 years and their clues are incredibly esoteric and inscrutable but their partner gets the answer immediately
It's a firmly ingrained set of references and common clues that if you're not familar with them you have no hope of understanding.
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
Earlier this week. I found the gif online again and decided to wax nostalgic.
Carpetbagger
Zinfandel
Tourmaline
Fastidiousness
Fuckin’... quotidian.
It means it is used in two different answers (such that you can use one answer to confirm the other)