Crossword Unclued

Clueing really long solutions in a crossword

2013-04-09T07:50:00.001+05:30

In his guest post on 2 November 2012, Gordon Holt discussed the technique of using anagrams to clue long words or phrases in a cryptic crossword. Here, he looks at how other clueing devices may come into play with long solutions that span 15 letters or more.

Gordon Holt aka Otterden is a crossword setter for the British weekly New Statesman.

The construction of a clue for a lengthy solution is often problematic for a compiler because clueing for several letters together can tend to be awkward and tortuous. In the absence of an overall anagram that works, an amalgam of various other devices may be necessary, and it is not often possible to string these together fluently in a strict item-by-item charade format. However, if a charade is possible, it gives the clue some sort of structure giving a solver a reasonable chance to unravel it.

A simple example:

Excitable reviewer friend acted over censoriously (15)
The answer is HYPERCRITICALLY: HYPER (excitable) CRITIC (reviewer) ALLY (friend)

A more complex example containing five different elements:

Bad temper display after a party member on phone goes on and on (9,6)
This leads to PERPETUUM MOBILE: PER (a) PET (bad temper display) UU (party: Ulster Unionists) M (member) MOBILE (phone)

Multi-word long answers also give the compiler a chance to devise wordplay in which the building blocks of the charade cross the word-breaks in the solution.

Clues for long entries which use a mixture of other clueing devices are quite possible of course, but require considerable ingenuity to set, especially if a smooth face reading is striven for. A splendid recent example, using three insertions and a deletion, by the great Araucaria of The Guardian:

School friends' payment kept by head female in a church garment shortened, one with a tin with nothing in it (6-7,11)
The answer is PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATION: RENT (payment) in i.e. kept by PATE (head) + HER (female) in A CASSOC[k] (church garment shortened) I (one) A TIN round O (nothing).

Dealing with of a long quotation is another problem area for setters, but sometimes the task of breaking one down into separately clued bits and pieces can be avoided. For instance, the famous Shakespearean 30-letter line from Hamlet TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THAT IS THE QUESTION could be dealt with in a fun way by saying:

Familiar quote might have been heard when casting for Spiderman
Here the homophonic reference is to Tobey (Maguire), the actor selected for the role in the Spiderman films.

Another example is the 51-letter solution string from Shakespeare's As You Like It: ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE AND ALL THE MEN AND WOMEN MERELY PLAYERS. This could be clued as:

'Global' declaration heard in London this summer providing planetary overview
This clue may need some explanation for non-UK solvers: in 2009 when the puzzle was published in UK's New Statesman, the seasonal presentation at the famous Globe theatre was As You Like It.

As I mentioned in my previous post, one problem with solutions which run into multiple words, particularly where some are of one, two or three letter length, is that with a bit of thought and only a few checking letters it may be possible for a solver to get to the answer without needing help from the actual clue wordplay...and all of a compiler's hard work is sidestepped!

It may be possible to clue a long solution word by double definition and a fun example which readers might like to solve is:

Sensible quality of Frankenstein's monster (5-10)

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Talking pointlessly

2013-03-19T08:00:00.000+05:30

A cryptic clue can use 'pointless' or 'pointlessly' to indicate the removal of compass points N E W or S from the fodder.

Independent 7316 (Morph): Pointless to get up, at the end of the day, if so (5) TIRED
STIR (get up) with point S removed + [th]E + D (day), semi-&lit.

The above is a straightforward case of fodder [STIR] with only one point S, which gets deleted unambiguously.

What happens when the fodder has more than one compass point?

In this case I take 'pointless' to mean 'without any point' – that is, all occurrences of N E W S should get removed from the fodder. As in these clues:

THC 9863 (Sankalak): Courage in pain is a strong point, accepting reversal of duties pointlessly (9) FORTITUDE
FORTE (a strong point) around DUTIES reversed, with points E S removed.

Times 25331: Crazy man's wed pointlessly (3) MAD
MANS WED with points N S W E removed.

FT 13862 (Crux): Many pointless clues need editing – that's insulting! (7) CALUMNY
Anagram of (MANY + (CLUES with points E S removed))

All setters don't seem to agree on this. Some use 'pointless' or 'pointlessly' to indicate the removal of any compass point.

THC 10626 (Lightning): Pointlessly long for a tale (4) YARN
YEARN (long) with point E removed, point N not removed.

Telegraph (Kolkata): Way with pointlessly shrewd law (7) STATUTE
ST (way) + ASTUTE (shrewd) with point S removed, point E not removed.

Guardian 25775 (Gordius): Rule where to abdicate is pointless (5) REIGN
RESIGN (abdicate) with point S removed, points E N not removed.

Which point gets removed and which remains in the answer seems to be at the setter's discretion in such clues, and no indication is given to the solver about it.

Solve These

More clues that use 'pointless' or 'pointlessly', either to remove one point or to remove all points.

Guardian 24174 (Araucaria): Rejected or retained, Adelaide is displaying pointlessly (4,5) L___ ____E
Sunday Telegraph 4509: Curved structure was nice but pointless and obsolete (7) A_____C
FT 13249 (Satori): Pointlessly safe attack's timid (6) __R__D
Daily Telegraph 26034: They're useless, pointless (7) N______

[Edited: I realised soon after hitting Publish that in the fourth clue, 'pointless' can indicate the removal of an end-point rather than a compass point. In which case, I have no issue with it and think it's brilliant! Clues used as examples updated accordingly.]

What do you think?

When a clue uses 'pointless' or 'pointlessly' on fodder with more than one compass point, should it remove a single compass point from the fodder, any number of compass points, or all compass points?

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Interview: Brian Greer (Brendan)

2013-03-07T21:48:00.001+05:30

Brian Greer, best-known as the themed crossword wizard Brendan of the Guardian, has an extraordinary range of crossword experience. In the last half-century, he has set puzzles for top publications in the UK as well as the US, worked as crossword editor for The Times (1995-2000) and The Independent (2004), created crosswords varying from the regular blocked grid kind to complex/mathematically-oriented barred grid ones.

Read on to know more about Brian as he talks with us about some of his most special puzzles, reflects candidly on his stint as crossword editor, and tells us about his link with India.

Q1. When and how did you get interested in crosswords?

Brian: I can’t remember exactly, but when I was growing up in Ireland, we played many games in my family, and from my early teens I solved crosswords quite often.

Q2. How did you get into setting crosswords?

Brian: I was walking past the offices of Varsity, the student newspaper at Cambridge, in 1964, and noticed they were asking for someone to contribute crosswords. I thought “I could do that” and I did. They weren’t very good, but they did use some interesting themes. A few years later, now working at Queen’s University in Belfast, I contributed crosswords to a political magazine called Fortnight. I remember one for St. Patrick’s Day in the shape of a shamrock.

In 1975, after a probationary period contributing to Games and Puzzles, I was taken on to the Times team.

Q3. Which publications do you currently set for?

Brian: I set the cryptic every Sunday in The Telegraph, and about two a month for The Guardian (as Brendan) and The Times. Because of time pressure (see below) I reluctantly stopped contributed themed puzzles (as Virgilius) to The Independent a few years ago. I have set three puzzles so far for The New York Times.

My first book with Puzzazz (www.puzzazz.com), which makes puzzle books electronically available, was a collection entitled Across and Down the Guardian Path with Brendan.

Q4. You’ve not only been a crossword setter but also the crossword editor for The Times and The Independent. How was your experience in these roles?

Brian: In retrospect, I was a very bad editor for The Times in some respects. In particular, I changed contributors’ clues way too much (earning from one the nickname “The Mutilator”), and did not give sufficient feedback. I think I did a reasonably good job in maintaining standards, and I was very careful to avoid clues that might inadvertently prove offensive in any way. One of the first decisions I took was to eliminate clues in which the answer was the word missing from a given quotation, which are not cryptic clues in my book. I particularly stressed making the surface structures as natural as possible. One of the most time-consuming aspects was answering letters from solvers, though these were often very interesting. I also had to turn down a lot of approaches from would-be setters. Since I had been in that position myself, I was polite, but most of their efforts were very bad.

I didn’t operate very differently at The Independent. However, their modus operandi made it possible for setters to create their own grids instead of working within a fixed set as is the case with The Guardian, Times, and Telegraph. I don’t see why this limitation should be necessary given current technology – it makes construction of themed puzzles much more difficult.

I enjoy excellent working relationships with my current editors, Phil McNeill at the Telegraph, Richard Browne at the Times, and Hugh Stephenson at the Guardian.

Q5. I'm curious about the letters you received as crossword editor. What were they like?

Brian: I’m not an organised person, so I don’t have a file of crossword memorabilia, just a box filled with miscellaneous stuff. Many of the letters expressed appreciation, welcome of course; others pointed out errors, whether simply blunders or matters of expert technical terminology. Naturally most came from the United Kingdom, but others from all parts of the world, often relating to crosswords in other languages – Czech, Japanese, and so on. Particularly amusing were the letters that speculated about the nature of the setters (by tradition, in The Times, they are anonymous), invariably way off the mark. Others commented on changing times, usually with a heavy dose of nostalgia. Often I responded to letters in the weekly 300-word article I contributed for about two years.

Q6. How do American cryptics compare to British ones?

Brian: As far as my experience goes, American cryptics operate under much stricter rules than British ones. Clues fall into the most common types, whereas in British crosswords, there is latitude to invent new clue types. The style seems to be pretty well defined by the Random House Guide to Cryptic Crosswords by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon. Oddly, the cryptic definition kind of clue (for example: Great shot by American player (7)) is not allowed.

British cryptics allow much more latitude and, consequently, variation in styles. Often this results in a trade-off between creativity and precision. Araucaria of The Guardian, still going strong in his 90s, is particularly known for his wit. (He recently announced a diagnosis of his cancer in one of his crosswords).

Q7. How challenging is it to adapt your crosswords to suit different publications/audiences?

Brian: I have never found this to be a problem. Generally, different publications/audiences have been happy with what I offer. I have taken on some interesting commissions. For example, I provided the crossword requested by the family of Ian Fleming to mark the centenary of his birth on May 28, 1908, which appeared in The Times. Another personalised puzzle was published on the 60^th wedding anniversary of a couple who always began the day doing the Times crossword together.

The puzzles most radically different from the general run are the seven or so I contributed to The Listener some time ago. Of all genres of crossword, those in the Listener have been the most difficult, complex, and very varied. In the old days, some were in Greek, or had numerical solutions. One of mine led to a bridge problem which then had to be solved. Another (“Coexistence”) had a barred diagram and a blocked square diagram occupying the same grid.

I’ve also just published a book of non-standard puzzles with Puzzazz under the title Off the Beaten Path with Virgilius.

Q8. If you had to pick two clues or puzzles of your own that you are proud of, which would they be?

Brian: I contributed a puzzle to The Listener in which every clue had two alternative, cryptically indicated, answers. For example, the clue:

Transport flier from here – it gives harassed flier help going round (8)

The answers are CAROUSEL (CAR = transport, OUSEL = flier) and AIRFIELD (anagram of FLIER in AID).

Another favourite was the 45x45 puzzle I completed in three days to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of The Times crossword (in which the first regular daily puzzle appeared on February 1, 1930). I was particularly tickled to find a quotation with 45 letters, clued as:

Pooh’s reason for difficulty with this puzzle (1,2,1,4,2,4,6,5,3,4,5,6,2)

One clue I am proud of, because it elicited a congratulatory postcard from Colin Dexter, creator of Inspector Morse, was:

For whom right and wrong can go in ledger (9,5)
[Answers at the end of the interview]

The first time I won the prestigious Azed clue-writing competition was for a clue for CHARADES, which was the theme of a Christmas Azed puzzle:

They may be made up by dear Azed each Xmas (deduction of first and second parts required) (8)

Q9. Which crossword setters do you most admire?

Brian: I actually have little time to solve puzzles these days. I do the New York Times puzzles over coffee each morning Monday-Thursday and Sunday, and there have been some delightful themed puzzles, one on the subject of the Fibonacci sequence particularly sticking in my memory. Will Shortz, Crossword Editor for the New York Times and much else, is an amazing all-round puzzle expert, and a really nice guy. I also used to really enjoy the puzzles in Harper’s by Ed Galli and Richard Maltby Jr. – somewhat similar in style to The Listener, but a lot easier.

Earlier, I admired Jonathan Crowther (Azed) and Mike Laws, who succeeded me as editor at The Times. I still interact frequently with Don Manley, who has written arguably the best book on cryptic crosswords, the Chambers Crossword Manual, and has been a long-time friend and inspiration.

Q10. How do you come up with your wonderful themed puzzles?

Brian: It’s getting harder, as all the low-hanging fruit has long gone. I look for literary or artistic subjects (e.g. Romeo and Juliet, Gilbert and Sullivan – nothing I would consider obscure), for groups of words with interesting properties (e.g. those which can have opposite meanings, such as “screen” which can mean either “show” or “hide”), messages hidden in the unchecked letters around the periphery of some grids, topical events (Ireland winning the Grand Slam for rugby in 2009, for example). Sometimes I adapt an idea I have seen in a New York Times puzzle.

Working within the restraints of a finite set of Guardian grids is quite difficult. I do a lot of work on the grids to avoid having to include obscure words – when this is unavoidable, I make sure the clue is easy.

Q11. Which crossword software/tools/references do you use?

Brian: Like most setters, I think, I use Crossword Compiler, which handles a lot of the routine clerical work, and is particularly useful for find what words are available to fit with a given pattern of letters already entered. It also makes finding anagrams very easy, which saves much time, but removes the pleasure of independent discoveries, such as STARTING PRICE for RACING TIPSTER. The software is an extremely useful tool, but the really creative work still goes on in the wetware between my ears. (Some years ago, an ill-conceived attempt was made at the Telegraph to have computers create the puzzles from banks of clues; it was short-lived and gave rise to much hilarity).

I use Chambers, the Concise Oxford, and Collins as my main dictionaries, plus a couple of thesaurei, backed up by more specialist reference books such as the Oxford Companion to English Literature. The online dictionary and thesaurus on my Mac is a handy first resort. The Chambers Crossword Lists is useful, particularly for themed puzzles.

Q12. You have sometimes set crosswords themed on politically sensitive/controversial issues, and these have produced extreme reactions from solvers. Did you anticipate this sort of response?

Brian: I have occasionally revealed my left-wing views in crosswords. (For some of my views on crosswords, mathematics education, and politics, you can watch this video). Like many people, I allowed myself to hope that Barack Obama was significantly different and I composed a puzzle in 2008 that had the words BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT concealed in it. It was initially accepted for the New York Times, then Will Shortz remembered that the crosswords cannot endorse a candidate, so it appeared in The Independent. I have since been very disillusioned by President Obama, most notably over the use of drones and his acceleration of the corporatisation of education, and had a puzzle in The Guardian that was critical of him receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. Later I poked fun at the Republican primary candidates in the last presidential campaign, comparing them to circus clowns. In retrospect, this was inappropriate – circus clowns are people who provide entertainment without doing anyone any harm. The complaints I had were silly, I thought, since the Guardian’s political position is no secret.

Q13. Please tell us about your India connection.

Brian: In 1995, I met my wife, Swapna, who grew up in Calcutta, and has been in the US for some time, completing her PhD at Syracuse University and then becoming a university teacher. Crosswords figured prominently in the courtship – on our wedding day in Seattle, I was interviewed on the subject on the local radio station. Swapna now is a Full Professor in Education at Portland State University, and we work together a lot in our common field, namely mathematics education. Since 1997, we have been in Calcutta every year. I particularly enjoy going to the bookshops in College Street and dropping in to the Indian Coffee House. My mother-in-law was a keen solver of Bengali crosswords.

Picture 1: Swapna and Brian

Picture 2: Brian's mother-in-law engrossed in a Bengali crossword.

Q14. When you’re not solving/setting crosswords, what do you do?

Brian: When Swapna moved to Portland State, I was still working at San Diego State University, but after a couple of years also moved to Portland. Despite not securing a position here, I continue my work on mathematics education, which mainly consists of polemical writings. I very much enjoy the freedom that this situation affords, and Portland is a great city in which to live. Our main interests are travel, movies, music, art, and books, and we have a cat, Gulabi Phutki (Pink Dot), with a remarkable personality.

Picture 3: Brian with their cat Gulabi Phukti. His tie matches her colour!

Q15. Any memorable crossword-related experiences you’d like to share?

Brian: Through crosswords, I have gotten to know some very interesting people. Colin Dexter, already mentioned, is a crossword fan, whose characters (starting with Morse and Lewis) bear the names of cruciverbalists. There’s even an episode of Morse with a character called Greer.

I was very happy that one of my favourite authors, Julian Barnes, was pleased when I featured him and his books in a Guardian puzzle. I enjoyed the crossword competitions run by The Times, first as a competitor, later as editor. Three times I’ve participated in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which is a weekend of unashamed ludic indulgence, and recently I went to my first convention of the National Puzzlers’ League, which is even more so.

Q16. Parting words:

Brian: In a world that has gone crazy, crosswords offer a small piece of life that can be rendered perfect and complete and offers innocent enjoyment with significant intellectual stimulation. I hope to continue setting them for many years while my brain holds out.

------------------------------------
Answers to clues from Q6, Q8:

Great shot by American player (7) LINCOLN cd
"Great" has to be read as a noun, "shot" as a verb. Plus, "player" can be a sportsman or an actor - Lincoln's assassin was an actor.

Pooh’s reason for difficulty with this puzzle (1,2,1,4,2,4,6,5,3,4,5,6,2) I AM A BEAR OF VERY LITTLE BRAIN AND LONG WORDS BOTHER ME cd

For whom right and wrong can go in ledger (9,5) RECORDING ANGEL; R + (CAN GO IN LEDGER)*, &Lit

Related Posts:

Meet Crossword Personalities: A compendium of interviews with crossword setters and solvers.
Wordplay (DVD): Review of a documentary centered on the 2005 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
Fascinating facts about setters' pseudonyms

Interview: Sarah Hayes (Arachne)

2013-02-26T01:21:00.001+05:30

Fondly called The Amazing Spider-Woman by fans in Crosswordland, Sarah Hayes (Arachne/Anarche) is known for her teasing, tricksy clues that sparkle with good humour. She answers my questions in this interview with her characteristic wit, talking about - among other things - her penchant for smut and spiders, her socio-political views, and the Guinness World Record she holds for something worlds apart from crosswords.

Q1. When and how did you get interested in crosswords?

Sarah: At an early age, at my father's knee. He only solved the barred puzzles in the Sunday broadsheets so I had a fairly rigorous training. While other girls were reading Bunty or Diana, I was enraptured by my dad's battered copy of Chambers; dog-eared and sans spine, it was probably my favourite object in the whole world.

Q2. How did you get into setting crosswords?

Sarah: When I learned in the mid 1990s that the Independent's Saturday Magazine barred puzzle (now the Inquisitor) was open to freelancers, I sent a piece of work to the late and lovely Harold Massingham, its editor at the time. He was extremely encouraging and accepted several puzzles from me. It was such fun that I also started setting for the Listener and the Sunday Telegraph's Enigmatic Variations. Some years later I was approached by the Guardian to help with the launch of the Quiptic and found my spiritual home. A slot in the paper eventually followed. In 2011 Anarche began setting for the Independent, whilst a meeting with Times crossword editor Richard Browne at Rufus' 80th birthday party early in 2012 led to my setting for that paper, too.

Q3. Why the names Arachne and Anarche?

Sarah: In Greek mythology Arachne was a headstrong young weaver, and when I started setting I loved to make rugs on my treasured Swedish four shaft loom. It also seemed to me that there was something of the spider's web about a crossword – an intricately woven piece of work intended to entrap the unwary – so the name was doubly apposite. The loom is long gone, but the admiration for spiders has endured (witness the acres of cobwebs in my house). Anarche – which I pronounce with three syllables – is an anagram of Arachne. Which leads us on to the next question…

Q4. You describe yourself as "anarcho-horizontalist". What does that mean?

Sarah: It basically means that I'd love to be an anarchist but am too busy lying down. Some years ago I got as far as founding the UK Horizontalist Party, with the aim of standing for Parliament. Unfortunately it was, naturally, pointed out that no true Horizontalist would 'stand' for anything (and there were already more than enough people 'lying' for Parliament).

One day, if a 90 degree manoeuvre can be successfully maintained, I would still like to have a pop at being Britain's first Horizontalist MP, in which role I would of course do absolutely nothing, thereby improving the body politic no end.

Q5. How challenging is it to adapt your crosswords to the styles of the different publications you set for?

Sarah: The Guardian and the Independent are very accommodating, although, as I'm drawn to smut like a banker to a bonus, Guardian crossword editor Hugh Stephenson has had to banish me to the naughty step a few times. A lot of Guardian readers apparently have yet to discover the joy of smut. Of course individual editors have their preferences, but both papers give the setter a lot of leeway; so much so that Mike Hutchinson at the Independent courageously published my Levenson-themed puzzle of May 2012 (of which more later) even though it caused "apoplexy" in the paper’s legal department.

Working for the Times, as I've been doing since last year, is quite a different kettle of fish. There, consistency is all and the editor's aim is that solvers should not be able to tell who has set any particular puzzle. There is a Times 'style handbook' which has to be followed to the letter and includes rules, for example, about the number of anagrams allowed per puzzle (no more than five), which single letter abbreviations may be used (very few), and the type of language permitted (must be suitable "for the drawing room"). Whilst this is of course constricting, it is also very good discipline.

Q6. Does being a woman in Crosswordland - where men far outnumber women - have an impact on how you work as a crossword setter, and how others see your work as a crossword setter?

Sarah: Isn't it strange how few female setters there are. I have no idea why. As a feminist I try to set traps for sexists such as using "she" for "he" where either will do (the traps usually work, I'm afraid), but I like to think I'd do the same if I were a man. It's hard to say how others see my work in this context, but perhaps they might notice more of a "human interest" angle to some clues, with an emphasis on story-telling. Or is that a sexist thing to say?

Q7. Your crosswords clearly mirror your strong opinions – I remember a clue that defined YODELLING as 'horrible noises' and another that said of GEORGE BUSH '...bugger invaded Iraq'. How do crossword editors/solvers react to your forthrightness?

Sarah: Fortunately my political and social positions gel well with those of the Guardian and the Independent, so I've been allowed a lot of freedom to express them. As I remember, I did get a bit of stick from some presumably Swiss solvers over my less than kind definition of YODELLING, but if Chambers can define 'track suit' as something worn 'in an error of judgement' then I think a setter can be forgiven for slipping the very occasional prejudice into a clue.

Q8. You have studied an interesting variety of subjects – Russian, intelligence and international relations. Tell us more.

Sarah: I've got two degrees in Russian, which I taught for almost twenty years at Manchester University. My MPhil on English shipbuilding terms in 18^th century Russian was later turned into a book - in what can only have been part of a publishers' tax dodge – and is rumoured to have won the Order of Stalin (4^th Class) as Most Boring Book of the Year at the Omsk Salt Miners' Gala.

Having developed an urge to infiltrate proto-al Qaeda cells in Bosnia and single-handedly end the Balkan war, I gave up teaching to do a Diploma in Intelligence and International Relations. Unfortunately I neither sorted out Bosnia nor improved my intelligence very much. It was suggested, not for the first time, that I join M15 but luckily for national security I decided to work on a burger van instead.

Q9. If you had to pick two clues of your own that you are proud of, which would they be?

Sarah: Can't remember any. Oh dear. Once my work's been published I forget all about it. Is that a terrible confession? Having said that, I was very proud of the above-mentioned Levenson-themed puzzle, which allowed me to chuck some muck back at gutter journalists, meretricious media types and venal policemen after the phone-hacking scandal. The Independent is, I fear, not too keen to give this puzzle another outing.

My other favourite of my own puzzles was Guardian 25,721 of 22 August 2012. It was a normal puzzle, but the squares along the the top and bottom read JUSTICE NOT DONE, whilst those at the sides spelt out the name of DANIEL MORGAN, a murder victim whose case was never solved because of appalling police corruption. His brother Alastair has been campaigning for a judicial inquiry into the case, and I was thrilled to have done my bit towards getting "Justice for Daniel". Once reassured that I wasn't going to make a habit of shoving "ishoos" down their throats along with their cornflakes most solvers received the puzzle generously and some went on to join the campaign.

Q10: Which crossword setters do you most admire?

This will sound evasive, but I honestly and truly admire all of them. There is particular pleasure in seeing brilliant young setters coming onto the scene, such as Tramp/Jambazi, Rorschach and Donk.

Q11. What is your method of setting? How long does it take you to set a typical 15x15?

Sarah: Have a few satisfactorily clued words in advance. Choose grid to suit. Pull hair out trying to fill rest of grid. Have a drink. After that anything can happen. Sometimes it all comes together quickly, sometimes it takes ages. Once I've 'finished', though, I always return with a soft cloth and polish all the surfaces until I feel they are simply as good as they can be. No routine, no set hours, and never the remotest idea what I'm going to do next.

For many years I used paper, pencils and ink pens and sent puzzles off in the post, but modern editors generally require one to use Crossword Compiler software and therefore a dratted computer. I have pretty much every dictionary going, plus three thesauruses and various reference works such as Brewer.

Q12. How important is it for a crossword setter to be a good solver?

Sarah: Not very important at all, I hope, otherwise I might as well chuck out my Chambers now.

Q13. Would you describe yourself as Ximenean or Libertarian?

Sarah: Hmm. Well, as I've been told off by both Ximeneans and Libertarians I suppose I must be somewhere in the middle. It seems a shame to spoil a witty clue just for the sake of sticking rigidly to a rule, but of course fairness must prevail.

Q14. When you're not solving/setting crosswords, what do you do?

Sarah: Lie down a lot (see above). Though sometimes I also like to run, and have completed 37 marathons and ultramarathons (races longer than 26.2 miles) over the last two and a half years. I once ran five marathons in five days, and my longest ultramarathon was 75 miles. I hold the Guinness World Record for Running a Marathon as a Bottle (Female) (4 hours 36 minutes, since you ask). I have a deep affinity with bottles. When not running I reread Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire, listen to JS Bach and undergo regular pummellings by my grandchildren Aaron, Isla and Isobel. Work-wise I write word puzzle apps for a US software company but am pretty much a full-time crossword setter these days. And at the moment I'm arranging a wedding. Mine. To my wonderful and very long-suffering Nick. [Since the time the interview was conducted, Sarah and Nick got married, on the 23rd of Feb 2013. Congrats and best wishes! – Shuchi]

Picture 1: Nick and Sarah at the Adidas 24 Hour Run, where she ran for 24 hours non-stop.

Picture 2: Sarah at the Chester Marathon just after she'd broken the World Record in October 2011. She says she tried persuading Nick to let her wear the bottle costume at their wedding but "for some reason" he wasn't very keen on the idea.

Q15. Any memorable crossword-related experiences you'd like to share?

Sarah: The memorable ones mostly involve violence to computers, but I think my best crossword-related experience was being lucky enough to attend the legendary Araucaria's 90^th birthday party at the Guardian. It was my first meeting with the Great Man and I was beyond star-struck. Not only is he a genius of enormous charm and wit, he's also still extremely handsome! Yes, I fell madly and irretrievably in love at first sight and barely noticed the luminaries such as Simon Russell Beale, Timothy West and Prunella Scales – all Araucaria fans – who had come to pay tribute to him.

Picture 3: At Araucaria's 90th birthday party. Left to Right: Tom Johnson, Neil Walker, Sarah, Paul, Hectence, Cyclops, Hugh Stephenson (Guardian crossword editor); Araucaria, Pasquale, Orlando, Jane Teather, Shed. Front: Enigmatist, Jane Howell (one of Araucaria's vetters). Photo courtesy: Dave Tilley.

A year later I was once again transformed into a stuttering schoolgirl when I had the honour of presenting an 80^th birthday crossword, which I'd helped to compile, to our funny, brilliant and inimitable Rufus at his Guardian party. I've been in the presence of greatness.

Q16. Parting words:

Sarah: Crosswords are, or in my humble opinion should be, ludic. Let's have fun, let's laugh, and let's never get too po-faced about our shared pastime. Setters are entertainers, not interrogators for the Stasi, and I'd hope that in a very small way we add to the gaiety of life.

Thank you Sarah, it was a delight to interact with you over the interview. - Shuchi

Related Posts:

Irishmen

2013-02-19T02:56:00.001+05:30

When British cryptic crosswords use "Irishman" in a clue, it is usually a reference to a male name/nickname popular in Ireland. The device is rare in Indian crosswords but by no means unheard of.

To work out wordplay that expects familiarity with Irish names, remember the ones you will meet most frequently in crosswords.

PAT
Guardian 25696 (Paul): Irishman I caught climbing over hospital memorial (8) CENOTAPH
PAT (Irishman) ONE (I) C (caught) climbing over i.e. reversed H (hospital)

LIAM
FT 13347 (Dante): Irishman back in the post (4) MAIL
LIAM (Irishman) reversed

SEAN
Guardian 25363 (Rufus): Irishman at church for spiritual guidance (6) SEANCE
SEAN (Irishman) CE (church)

RORY
Independent 7699 (Klingsor): Female takes Irishman with nothing out for a drink (6) SHERRY
SHE (female) RORY (Irishman) – O (nothing)

The next couple of words that could stand for "Irishman" in a clue are considered offensive. We do see them in crosswords but many comments on UK solving blogs object to such usage; the Independent crossword editor once said that he would not let Irishman = Mick appear in the Indy.

MICK
FT 13185 (Orense): Renegade state embraced by Irishman (5) MAVERICK
AVER (state) in MICK (Irishman)

PADDY
THC 9292: Paddy and Company among Nilgiris horticulturists (5) IRISH
hidden in 'nilgIRIS Horticulturists'

Solve These

Take a crack at these clues with Irishmen in them.

Everyman 3348: More than one loyalist Irishman disturbs the peace (8) ___R____
Telegraph Toughie 115 (Campbell): Irishman entertaining daughter in saloon (5) ___A_
Times 24141: Irishman takes a journey in returning to a far-off land (9) ___A___I_

Coming up next: interviews of two very popular Guardian crossword setters, one of whom was born in Ireland. Keep a watch!

Related Posts:

And the Contest Winner is…

2013-02-05T18:43:00.001+05:30

Thank you for your excellent response to the Solve Three Clues and Win a Gift Voucher contest. Some of you have been asking about the answers, sorry I couldn't give any hints this time! I hope you enjoyed mulling over the clues even if you didn't solve all of them.

It is now time to end the suspense and announce the result – the answers, and the winner's name.

The Answers

Candid love note (4) OPEN
O (love) PEN (note, verb); definition: candid

Small bag or small neat bags (5) PURSE
PURE (neat) bags i.e. contains S (small); definition: small bag

Connects phone call interrupting routes (7)STRINGS
RING (phone call) interrupting STs (short for streets i.e. routes); definition: connects

Those Who Got Them All

The contest received 16 all-correct entries. Applause for all of you who cracked it:

Bhavan
Bhalchandra Pasupathy
raghunath
Big Dave
Tony Sebastian
Arjun
Lakshmi Mohan
Albatross
rajesh

David Stickley
Lakshmi Vaidyanathan
Carrie Niziolek
Nadathur Rajan
Gary Jones
Shyam
Venkatesh
Sanjeev Vaidyanathan

One opted out of the draw, many tweeted and got a double entry. Since this was not a very easy contest, I've been lenient with the rules. If you posted your answers in one comment and followed it up with a correction in another, I have accepted the correction. If you missed mentioning your tweet in the comment but I happened to see it and remember it, I have considered it for the draw.

In all, 22 entries went into the draw to pick the winner. The draw was done with random.org.

And The Lucky Winner Is…

Albatross (Abhay Prasanna)

Congratulations!

The winning entry:

Watch the action live in this video (if your reader/email client does not display the video, visit the blog):

Abhay, please write to me with your choice of gift voucher and I'll send it right away.

Thanks to www.CupoNation.in for sponsoring the prize. You might want to check out their book discounts on Indian e-stores. And to @diogeneb for test-solving the contest clues. [He got them all within minutes.]

Related Posts:

Contest: Solve Three Clues and Win a Gift Voucher

2013-01-29T07:07:00.001+05:30

Here's a treat for cryptic crossword fans – a contest with a prize! To win, all you have to do is solve three cryptic crossword clues.

The Clues

Candid love note (4)

Small bag or small neat bags (5)

Connects phone call interrupting routes (7)

The Prize

The winner can choose any one of these prizes:

Flipkart gift voucher worth INR 1500
Amazon US gift card worth USD 25
Amazon UK gift card worth GBP 15

I will post the contest result next week announcing the winner's name. The winner can then contact me with the choice of prize. The gift card will be sent by email.

In case of multiple correct entries, the winner will be picked by a computerised lucky draw.

The prize has been kindly sponsored by www.CupONation.in, an Indian website that offers free discount coupons and deals for online shopping.

How To Participate

Post all three answers in a single comment on this post. The answers should be annotated. Any format is all right – in words or in annotation symbols – as long as how you derived the answer is clear.
Mention your name in the comment. Anonymous entries will not be considered.
Only one comment per person. Each comment will be counted as one entry.
Tweet about this contest to get a double entry into the lucky draw. To qualify for double entry, mention the direct link to your tweet in the comment on this post. This page tells you how to link directly to a tweet. [Tweet now]

Entries close on 2nd February 2013 (Saturday) midnight IST. Comments will remain unpublished till the contest is over and the result announced next week.

All right then, get cracking. Post your answers in the comments section and do spread the word about the contest.

Best of luck!

Related Posts:

Demystifying Clue Annotation Shortcodes

2013-01-23T17:53:00.001+05:30

On crossword solving blogs/communities, solutions are sometimes explained in shorthand notation such as {A}{C}{CLIMAx*} for ACCLAIM, CAL(1)L<= for LILAC, or ~(tale)+SPIN for TAILSPIN. If these annotations seem confusing to you, this post will help you make sense of them.

Note that there is no universal standard/prescribed method of annotating crossword solutions; these shortcodes have evolved and come to be recognised as such through usage. So you may find variations in the way different crossword blogs – or even different bloggers on the same blog – annotate the wordplay. Some solvers might indicate reversal with <, others with rev, <- or <=: all are fine as long as readers understand what the symbol means. Crossword sites generally carry a key to the annotation format – for example, THCC displays an "Annotations" widget on the sidebar.

On Crossword Unclued, I started off with using the same annotation format as Orkut's Hindu Crossword community. With time I began to favour the simpler ( over { to demarcate parts of wordplay, and then based on feedback from a number of readers, shifted to writing more descriptive explanations for answers. This might seem like overkill to experienced solvers but then I think they can skip the details if they wish, at least the newcomers wouldn't be intimidated. These days I reserve shorthand annotations only for very simple answers or for space-constrained places like twitter. Many other crossword solvers give detailed answers as well and Big Dave's blog of tagline "crossword clues explained in plain English" fame actively avoids the use of symbols to denote clue types.

Here's a list of clue annotation formats commonly used across crossword blogs/communities.

Clue Type	Annotation Shortcode(s)	Examples
Anagrams	(fodder), (fodder) (FODDER), (FODDER) SOLUTION* – the most compact annotation format but can be ambiguous if the anagram fodder is complex	NIE: It can't be made whole (6) INTACT (it cant)* (IT CANT) INTACT
Homophones	SOLUTION~homophone word/phrase	NIE: Big jar say (5) GREAT GREAT~grate
Hidden Words	[T] – from the term 'telescopic clue type' popular on Hindu Crossword forums in <fodder in lowercase with hidden answer in uppercase>	NIE: Does nothing and some did less! (5) IDLES IDLES [T] in 'dID LESs'
Deletions	{-letters to be deleted}LETTERS RETAINED [letters to be deleted]LETTERS RETAINED ~~letters to be deleted~~ crossed out	NIE: The endless hurry that gets the bird (6) THRUSH TH{-e} RUSH TH[e] RUSH THe RUSH
Charades	blank spaces + , or – between charade components {} brackets around charade components	NIE: A note to finish a list of things to be done (6) AGENDA A G END A A+G+END+A A,G,END,A A-G-END-A {A}{G}{END}{A}
Substitutions	FODDER - [letters to be removed]+[letters to be included]	Times 25081: Fellows drop English for hard science subject (5) MATHS MATES – E + H
Containers	( ) or { }	NIE: Attest to a very absorbing Kipling poem (6) VERIFY VER(IF)Y VER{IF}Y
Acrostics	Letters written out with spaces: X Y Z Initial letters in uppercase, the rest in lowercase	Times 25015: Recess starting as parliamentary session ends (4) APSE A P S E A[s] P[arliamentary] S[ession] E[nds]
Reversals	< <- <— <= rev	NIE: Send money or return the watch (5) REMIT TIMER< TIMER<- TIMER<— TIMER<= (TIMER)<— {TIMER}<= TIMER rev
Letter Sequences	Selected letters in uppercase, the rest in lowercase	Times 25341: Artiste was regularly disorientated (2,3) AT SEA ArT iStEwAs
Letter Shifting	Fodder with letters to be shifted highlighted –> solution with letter shifted highlighted	Times 24375: Ruler in a mess having succeeded much earlier? (4) SHAH HA{S}H –> {S}HAH
Letter Exchange	Fodder with letters to be exchanged highlighted –> solution with letters exchanged highlighted	Times 24399: Doomed king switching sides? True (4) REAL {L}EA{R} –> {R}EA{L}
Double Definitions	[2] dd [DD] For multi-definition clues, the shortcodes would be [n] for n definitions, md or [MD].	NIE: Experience discrimination (8) TASTE TASTE [2] TASTE dd TASTE [DD]
Cryptic Definitions	[CD] cd	NIE: The dotty type (7) BRAILLE BRAILLE [CD] BRAILLE cd
Cryptic Double-Definitions	d&cd or cd&d, depending on whether the cryptic half is to the right or to the left in the solution	NIE: Break one's nose perhaps (8) BREATHER BREATHER d&cd
Palindromes	->SOLUTION<-	NIE: It moves the helicopter backwards or forwards (5) ROTOR -> ROTOR<-
&lit	Clue type annotation followed by "&lit" or "all-in-one"	NIE: A drink in the late afternoon (3) TEA TEA [T] &lit

Combining Annotation Shortcodes

These symbols work as building blocks to annotate complex clue types. Brackets may be included as separators between wordplay components and these have the same function as in BODMAS – they ask you to process whatever is inside first.

NIE: Young insects raised up on pea soup (5) PUPAE; UP< (PEA)*
FT14121 (Alberich): Teacher nets about a million? That’s very unlikely! (5,2) DREAM ON; D(RE+A+M)ON
Everyman 3450: A bad-tempered moment reportedly caused by puzzle (8) ACROSTIC; A+(CROS TIC [~(cross tick)])

Related Posts:

My Top Ten Clues 2012

2012-12-24T00:29:00.001+05:30

It is that time when I post my personal favourite cryptic crossword clues of the year. I found it hard to whittle down the list to ten, what with the variety of gems from debuting setters with fresh styles - notably Picaroon of the Guardian, Rorschach of the Independent and Lightning of The Hindu. Eventually I gravitated towards my usual soft spots - the crackling &lit, innovative wordplay and sly surfaces.

Here are my top ten clues of 2012. Take a stab at solving them. Enjoy!

Sunday Times 4474 (Tim Moorey): Reconstructing roughly? (7,7) C______ ______S

Guardian 25823 (Arachne): It might drop me, if uninitiated in its use (9) T_______E

Times 25169: Taking betrothal with zeal, I failed to get a grip on matrimony, ultimately? (9,6) E________ _____R

Guardian 25638 (Picaroon): He has left the property (7) T_____E

Sunday Times 4467 (Dean Mayer): Heavy weight is breaking wooden floor (8) A______H

THC 10505 (Textrous): So this may be a 'dots' animal? (9) D_______N

Independent 8130 (Klingsor): As one's awfully mean, small tips for waiters ensue (2,5) __ M____

Sunday Times 4506 (Dean Mayer): Danger - albeit rum - at sea (7,8) B______ _______E

FT13968 (Dante): When models that have lost their shape are employed? (6) S_____

Guardian 25697 (Orlando): Mafia-style base? (6,4) F_____ ___T

Which cryptic clues will you pick for your Best Of 2012 list?

Wish you a happy Christmas and lots of joy for the New Year.

[Update: See comments for answers.]

Related Posts:

Clue challenge: Annotate these answers VII

2012-12-18T18:07:00.001+05:30

A useful addition to our glossary of cruciverbal jargon: the acronym IGIBIDGI (pronounced "idgy-bidgy") coined by the National Puzzlers' League. IGIBIDGI expands to "I Got It But I Don't Get It", used for clues where you arrive at the answer from the definition/crossings but cannot work out the wordplay. More about this on the Word Salad blog.

With that let me present our last clue annotation challenge for 2012. Eight idgy-bidgy cryptic clues are given below along with their answers. Can you see how these clues lead to their answers? Post your parsing in the comments section.

Update (21th December 2012): Annotations added.

1. FT 14161 (Io): The legend of the nursery? (7) TOOTSIE
Annotation:Cryptic definition. TOOTSIE is baby-talk for 'toe' i.e. leg-end.

2. Guardian 25790 (Enigmatist): It's applied in hilarious fashion, so singly formed? (9,5) VANISHING CREAM
Annotation:SCREAMINGLY (in hilarious fashion), with vanishing i.e. deleted CREAM, becomes SINGLY; definition: it's applied.

3. Telegraph Toughie 886 (Elkamere): R 60 (10) THREESCORE
Annotation:The letter R = thRee'S CORE; definition: 60.

4. FT14180 (Redshank): Top item in sale: popular craft boxes (10) GUILLOTINE
Annotation:GUILE (craft) boxes i.e. contains LOT (item in sale) IN (popular); definition: top (verb).

5. Guardian 25806 (Picaroon): What’s on TV? Nothing showing is to prove very compelling (7) DRAGOON<
Annotation:DRAG (what's on TV - short for transvestite) O (nothing) ON (showing); definition: prove very compelling.

6. Times 25329: Something snappy, like the start of Caesar’s campaign report, abridged? (7) DIGICAM
Annotation:DIG (like) I CAM[e] (start of Caesar’s campaign report, abridged - from 'I came, I saw, I conquered'); definition: something snappy.

7. Times 25340: Out of it arrive guards busy with ciphers (8) COMATOSE
Annotation:COME (arrive) guards i.e. contains AT (busy with, as in 'at work') + Os (ciphers i.e. zeros); definition: out of it.

8. Independent 8155 (Rorschach): Subway rent a new restaurant without hesitation? (5-2) STAND-IN
Annotation:ST (way) A N (new) DINER (restaurant) – ER (hesitation); definition: sub. Subway rent => split 'subway' into 'sub' and 'way'. For more about omitting spaces between cryptic components of a clue, read: elision.

Visit our past clue annotation challenges: I, II, III, IV, V, VI.

For those who have not seen it yet: Q&A with me on the Guardian crossword blog about cryptics in India.

Related Posts:

Konkani crossword

2012-12-04T17:50:00.001+05:30

It is time for the concluding part of the trilogy on crosswords in Indian languages by our multilingual friend Kishore. In this post, Kishore gives us an introduction to the fascinating nature and history of Konkani, a language spoken by a comparatively small subset of the Indian population, and sets for us what might be the first-ever cryptic crossword in Konkani. - Shuchi

After subjecting Kannada crosswords and Telugu crosswords to my dissection table, I thought - why not take up another language, a South Indian one at that. Malayalam and Tulu were ruled out as my knowledge of these was below absolute zero; so was Tamil, in line with the policy that one has to just open one’s mouth to confirm one’s ignorance of the subject. That made me redraw the map of South India, extend it a little more and bring in a language that I knew enough about to pretend to be an expert in. When North Indians and South Indians have a difference of opinion, I take the middle course and proclaim myself to be a West Indian, speaking a language that is used from Southern Maharashtra to Kochi, albeit along a thin strip of land.

A little background for those who would like to know more. The maim-bhas (mother tongue) is officially called Konkani (variant spellings: KonkNi , KokNi or Conanim) and also referred to as Amchigele (our language/people), further shortened to just Amchi by some. Other names include Gomantaki, Goenchi, and Goani, though the once-used name Goanese is now frowned upon. Spoken along a swathe of land about 750km long alongside the Arabian Sea, Konkani has various dialects that change every 100km or so. Starting from Malvani in the southern coastal districts of Maharashtra, it metamorphoses into the close-to-Marathi variety of Konkani spoken by the Hindus in Goa (where it is the state language). Goan Christians speak a dialect that has travelled to far off places like East Africa, the Middle East and Canada – this dialect shows some influence of Portuguese, with usage of words like Adeus, Juramento, and Kazar. Just south of Goa, in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district, you find the Karwari dialect giving way to the Navayati dialect in Bhatkal, which has been carried to Karachi by the diaspora. Further, south in the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka, the Mangalore Catholic and Goud Saraswath Konkani can be heard, with words borrowed from Kannada. Deep South, in Kerala, another dialect is spoken with some loan words from Malayalam.

Konkani belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, thought to have evolved from Prakrit and brought down to the west coast by migrants from Gaur area in present day Bihar and West Bengal. The nearest Indian language is Marathi, though Konkani speakers would argue vehemently against Konkani being called a dialect of Marathi. Konkani is a spoken language -that is it has no script of its own but thrives on borrowed scripts rangingfrom Devanagari to Roman to Kannada to Malayalam. This also means that whatever little is written in one script may not be accessible to all speakers as all speakers may not know all scripts. This, certainly, is a sorry state of affairs for a language which probably had one of the first printed dictionaries in India, courtesy the Jesuit clergy. Efforts are on to revive the language¹, but these are few and far between and fall prey to the schism of different scripts.

As a humble effort to generate some interest, I thought of making a cryptic crossword in Konkani. I had a dilemma: whether to use an abugida like Devanagari or the alphabet-based Roman script. I eventually chose the Roman script, hoping that a larger number of persons would be able to participate². The clues use a mix of dialects and, wherever possible, the Goan method of spelling. Hence, ‘x’ stands for “sh” and not “ksh”. Well, while the result was not hundred percent cryptic, quite a large number and variety of clues turned out to be cryptic.

While I am aware that the intersect of the cryptic crossword community and the Konkani-knowing people is pretty small, I hope this leads to one set taking interest in the other. I have provided the translation for those who don’t understand Konkani, though that, by itself, would not necessarily help them to solve the puzzle. Compared to a standard English crossword, there is a little too much black space, but I have tried to give it a distinctive Konkani flavour. So here goes, warts and all:

Across

2 60 varxem zattana khavche goD khaaNa (5) The sweet-meat to eat when becoming 60 years old
5 Pada maNtana yevcho kopu (4) The anger one gets while singing
7 Nhavchaka upyogu korche hoD aidan (6) Large vessel used while bathing
9 Sakalhin kaLok vochun hye ieta (7) This comes in the morning, after the darkness goes away
11 Nantar-vaila poLoyati – see next clue
12/11 Dr Ramesh Kamthile Konkani cholche-chitra (4,4) Konkani movie made by Dr Ramesh Kamath
14 Bailyaan makxi dhanvtalo (7) One who runs after ladies
18 KunkaD hantulyan ieta, ki hye kunkaDachan ieta? (6) The hen comes from this, or does this come from the hen?
19 Kaam korcheak makxeatolo (4) One who shies from work
20 Hyo Isrealcho prodhani Goyanthu voggi zata (5) This Israeli prime minister is early in Goa

Down

1 Kaaxantu axchem protham dhravyo (5) The main metal in bronze
2 Goemcho reeti: aaj korcho kaam, phallyan kor (8) Goan way: What’s to be done today, do it tomorrow
3 Khavcheak javcho vimaan? (4) Eatable airplane?
4 Igorjeanto hyea povitra zata (5) This gets pure in the Church
6 SoggLeam meLLyari hyea sorna (4) This does not end, even when you get everything
8 Goenchen cantaar, hyea MangaLuraantu khatachi (5) Goan song, eaten in Mangalore
9 Bautismaak upyogkorche tirth (5) Sacred stuff used for baptism
10 Shevain piLchaak yantr (8) Machine to make string hoppers
13 VaaDi na hantu, badachi (4) Really, no interest in this
15 Maska ghalunk hye zavka (5) This is required to butter people
16 Khavche bamboo zhaad (5) Eatable bamboo plant
17 Mando, Dekhni and Dulpoda-pashin lokapriya yeh Batatya ---- (4) This potato composition is more popular than the Mando, the Dekhni and the Dulpod.

Note: Since the spellings are not standardised in Konkani, some solvers might have different spellings in their minds. I have tried to stick, as far as possible, to the Konkani dictionary compiled by Mohan Prabhu³and the grammar as enunciated by AFX Maffei ⁴. Please excuse me if my spelling is different from yours.

For people with different points of view, I quote the Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar
[source: Vauraddeancho Ixtt]:

Konknni bhaxecho nhoi punn proxnn asa to lipicho. Bhaxa mog korpa khatir asta, zhogddim korpa khatir nhoi ....
[It is not the question of the Konkani language, but of its script. Language is for loving, not for fighting…]

Links to other Konkani sites: Goan Konkani songs, Gulab magazine, Guencho Ulo, Goa World.

Merry Christmas and happy solving to all.
Dev Borem Korum.

Notes:

Admirable efforts have been made by World Konkani Centre at Mangalore and Save My Language.
In his introduction to Konkani grammar, Maffei puts it like this: “Now the Kanarese Alphabet is generally used, and although it does not express all Konkani sounds, yet it is better adapted for this than the Latin Alphabet. But as the Kanarese script is not known to a greater part of my brethren, for whom I write, I shall use the Latin Alphabet, with the required modifications...”
Available at Konkani Foundation.
Available at A Konkani Grammar on Open Library (this includes some books from the Holy Bible in English and Konkani, written both in the Kannada and Roman scripts)

The answer grid is printed below. For people unfamiliar with Konkani, two things might stand out. First, the comparatively frequent usage of the sound ‘z’ and ‘zh ’ in both the clues and answers. Look at this famous line from Genesis1:3: “Ani devan mollen: uzuad zaundi. Ani uzuad zallo”=”And God said: Let there be light. And there was light”. Second, some answers look like English words, but have nothing to do with the English word they look like.

Related Posts:

The Cockney TH

2012-11-28T08:20:00.001+05:30

If the word "Cockney" appears in a cryptic clue, its most common purpose is to indicate H-dropping. On occasion it refers to other Cockney accent features like th-fronting.

Th-fronting according to Wikipedia technically means:

The use of the labiodental fricatives [f] and [v] for the dental fricatives [θ] and [ð]

Simply put, th-fronting is the pronunciation of "th" as "f" or "v". So "think" in Cockney speech becomes "fink", "brother" becomes "bruver".

This facet of speech is put to use in cryptic clues such as:

Times 24508: Release a trio of Cockneys? (4) FREE
THREE (trio) would sound like FREE (release) in Cockney accent.

As with H-dropping, other indicators of Cockney pronunciation are names of geographical areas where Cockney English could be spoken - East End, Bow, Albert Square, etc.

FT 13854 (Bradman): Nonconformist wise men from east of London may introduce themselves thus, we hear (3,4) WEE FREE
A member of the Free Church of Scotland is colloquially called Wee Free, which is how those from east of London may pronounce "we three" (wise men).

One for you to solve:

Independent 7869 (Dac): Plain and unsensational, as a Cockney might say? (2-6)

PS: Why actor Hrithik Roshan, who has no Cockney connections AFAIK, pronounces "th" as "f" is as yet an unsolved mystery.

Related Posts:

3-Segment Container Clues: {A in (B+C)}

2012-11-19T10:22:00.001+05:30

In a simple container clue, you are given two components: the container and the content, and the indicator tells you to put the container around the content. For example, the word EARTHEN can be clued as EARN around THE.

Things get more complex when the wordplay splits the answer into more than two components. If EARTHEN is treated as "EAR and TEN around H", then it can be clued in any of these ways:

Case 1: EAR + (TEN around H)
Case 2: (EAR+TEN) around H

A majority of 3-segment container clues are written in the more intuitive style of Case 1. Case 2 is harder to reconcile with for most solvers, and that's the one this post is about.

In generic terms, a word can be clued in the form {A in (B+C)} where A goes anywhere inside (B+C): within B, within C, or within the gap between B and C.

Indicator Grammar: Singular or Plural?

If a verbal indicator, say "surround", is used in the clue for {(B+C) around A}, then should it be written as {(B+C) surrounds A} or {(B+C) surround A}?

The answer depends on whether (B+C) is treated as one item or two. Both styles are seen in published clues, as in these two examples from the Times:

Singular Indicator
Times 25321: A high street store, defaulting on rent, holds firm no matter what (2,3,5) AT ALL COSTS
(A + TALL + ST + S[tore]) holds CO

Plural Indicator
Times 24448: Man books house round the corner - probably not for this! (3,5) HEN NIGHT
(HE + NT) house NIGH

Another interesting example of the use of a plural indicator:

THC 10294 (Arden): They could be cast because people have one (10) ASPERSIONS

At first glance you might read the wordplay as "AS + (PERSONS around I)" and think that the cryptic grammar is off. The indicator needs to be in the singular form – "has" instead of "have" - to justify this parsing. But the setter intends you to read the wordplay as "(AS+PERSONS) around I": AS and PERSONS together have I inside them.

When the wordplay extends beyond two components, the setter has the flexibility to place invisible "brackets" in the cryptic logic. The solver needs to work out where those brackets are and apply the first rule of BODMAS: process whatever is inside the brackets first. In the ASPERSIONS clue, the position of the brackets makes all the difference to the cryptic grammar.

As With Containers, So With Deletions

3-segment wordplay works with deletion clues as well: {(B+C) – A} could mean that A is deleted from within B or within C.

Times 23516: Watered animal died – that’s not right (5) HOSED
(HORSE + D) minus R

FT 14152 (Dogberry): Basic source of mould removed from the Spanish cheese (9) ELEMENTAL
M deleted from (EL + EMMENTAL)

Is {A in (B+C)} wordplay Ximenean?

As far as I know, Ximenes had no explicit rule about this type for wordplay. Ximenean setters/publications like Azed and the Times use it in their crosswords. It looks fine to me but some solvers don't like it – if you have the patience, you might want to go through a lengthy debate from 2010 about Anax's clue in this CWC thread. The clue was:

A juke box versus a more modern version? (7) ADVANCE
A + DANCE (juke) box i.e. contain V (versus)

What do you say to {A in (B+C)}? Fair or not?

Solve These

Pit your wits against these clues with {A in (B+C)} wordplay.

Times 25078: Boorish Conservative impulse solely to conceal bad name (12) _U_________Y
Times 25311: I have got in a state, giving up being very active (5,3,7) _____ ___ K______
Times 25305: Toiling hard in Brazilian location, American breathes in powdery stuff (11) __D______O__

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Puzzazz: Puzzle e-bookstore for iPhone, iPad

2012-11-08T02:47:00.001+05:30

If you use an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, try out this app called Puzzazz, a collection of puzzle e-books that allow you to solve puzzles directly on the pages of the e-books.

The Puzzazz app has been developed by a Seattle-based puzzle technology startup, founded by crossword setter and software architect Roy Leban.

For cryptic crossword solvers, Puzzazz has four e-books in the bookstore at present including one by Brian Greer, popularly known as Brendan in The Guardian. His e-book Across and Down the Guardian Path with Brendan contains 20 handpicked puzzles originally published in The Guardian, including one that was discussed in 2009 on Crossword Unclued: Sample a Themed Guardian Crossword. The other three cryptic crossword books are by Mike Selinker, Todd Rew and Wayne Robert Williams, setters of repute on the American cryptic circuit - visit the author profiles page for details.

"TouchWrite" for handwriting recognition

The app lets you enter crossword answers in an interactive grid using either the keyboard, or a unique feature developed by the Puzzazz team called "TouchWrite" - a way to hand-write answers on the screen with your finger. TouchWrite recognizes a variety of different writing styles: for example, you can draw an E in one stroke like a backwards 3, or in four strokes. The technology seems pretty intuitive and it doesn't require much practice to get it to work accurately. If you do need help, the app provides a TouchWrite guidelines section.

The ability to write directly on the puzzle is very useful on smaller devices like an iPhone because the keyboard takes up a lot of screen space. Check out the video at the end of the post to see TouchWrite in action.

How much does it cost?

The price per e-book ranges from $0.99 to $4.99. The app itself is free, and every e-book in the store is "try before you buy" - at least the first puzzle in every e-book is fully solvable without cost. To view the free puzzle, tap on its number/title. If you view the other non-free puzzles, they will be greyed out and the option to buy will be shown above the puzzle.

Screenshots from Brian Greer's e-book:

At this time, the Puzzazz store contains 29 puzzle e-books by 17 constructors. Puzzles available so far include crosswords (cryptic and quick) and other word/logic puzzles such as rebuses.

Demo: Watch Puzzazz in action

Here's a 1:38 min video of Puzzazz (version 2.0) in action. The video shows an overview of the e-bookstore, the cryptic crossword page with a sample crossword by Mike Selinker, and the use of keyboard + TouchWrite to enter answers. I guess it is obvious from the demo that I am not accustomed to a touchscreen! Thanks to my friend Paul Schloss for lending his iPhone to try out Puzzazz. [RSS/email subscribers: In case you can't see the video embedded below, please visit the blog.]

Have a look at this Geekwire video as well, which includes a voiceover by Puzzazz founder Roy Leban.

You can get the Puzzazz app here. If you're a crossword setter interested in publishing on Puzzazz, you might want to visit Puzzazz - Call for Constructors.

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Clueing long solutions with anagrams

2012-11-02T15:32:00.001+05:30

A guest post by Otterden aka Gordon Holt, who has been a crossword setter for the British weekly New Statesman magazine since 2004. The name 'Otterden' came from the fact that otters live in 'holts'! Before he turned to setting puzzles, Gordon Holt had a career in town planning and was the founder/editor of the profession's weekly newspaper.

The inclusion of long solutions in cryptic crosswords, often titles, sayings, phrases, quotes etc. (let us say of 15 or more characters in length) can be quite compelling for puzzle setters. The main reason is that the use of lengthy composites can help to add interest and diversity to a puzzle, making solving more fun. Indeed, in compiling a themed crossword the use of longer entries may sometimes prove to be essential. Another positive is that long composites facilitate connectivity within the whole of a grid making it less likely that a solver will get stuck in one particular sector of a puzzle. There are downsides to be cautious of, though. If the clue is too easy much may be given away too early in terms of copious checking letters for other solutions in far-flung parts of a puzzle. Another danger is that if the solution is composed of a number of shortish words the pattern of enumeration alone can provide the key to solving, and a setter's elaborately worked out wordplay completely by-passed.

In deciding to include a long solution in a given puzzle a compiler is making a rod for his own back as clueing problems are far more likely to occur. It is possible that at the end of the day he or she will be forced to indulge in a complex series of wordplay devices in order to construct a satisfactory wordplay. In many cases succinct definitions of long solutions prove elusive. All of this may make the achievement of a clue with a fluent face reading difficult and may result in a clue that is awkward, tortuous and difficult to solve.

So, if there is an anagram available for the totality of the words in the solution all well and good. Unlikely maybe, but like most setters I always have a look for one at a very early stage in the clueing process. From my own experience by far the best result came when clueing one of my New Statesman puzzles. Here I had set myself the task of theming fictional characters who wore masks. Clearly, apart from Zorro, Batman etc., one of the solutions just had to be the 19 letter composite THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK. The chance of there being a total anagram for nineteen letters was slim but after I had a quick look at the multitudinous jumbles of words provided by electronic anagram finders, it dawned on me that buried here were the words I am the throne man’s kin which, joy oh joy, was also exactly the situation of the title character. So all I had to do was to add the ubiquitous 'perhaps' and I had an &Lit.

A particularly amazing cognate anagram of 23 letters is to be found in Michael Curl's Anagram Dictionary (this publication is unfortunately now out of print): A NOVEL BY A SCOTTISH WRITER leading to Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott.

No account is complete without mention of the celebrated 26-letter clue by Araucaria of The Guardian:

Poetical scene has surprisingly chaste Lord Archer vegetating (3, 3, 8, 12) THE OLD VICARAGE GRANTCHESTER

This may need some explaining to non-British solvers. The Old Vicarage, Grantchester is a poem by Rupert Brooke but later the home of Jeffery Archer, the British politician and author who at the time was keeping a low profile there after a sex scandal.

Of course, lengthy cognate anagrams of this sort are only going to be achievable once in a blue moon, but occasionally more conventional total anagrams are possible.

Some examples for readers to solve from past puzzles of mine:

Bones (knees and hips) are dislocated quite often on racehorses (9,8)
Was relieved to be off seeking image to change (5,2,8)
Brothers were aggrandising hero, perhaps (6,3,3,8)

---
In a further posting Otterden will discuss how, and how not to, clue long words with clueing devices other than anagrams.

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Clue challenge: Annotate these answers VI

2012-10-30T12:25:00.001+05:30

New edition of clue challenge: a set of eight cryptic clues with tricky parsing is given below. The answers are provided. Can you work out how the clue leads to the answer? Post the annotated answers in the comments section.

Update (1st November 2012): Annotations added.

1. FT 14029 (Loroso): Self-interest soon overcome by effect of growing up (8) EGOMANIA
Annotation:IN A MO (soon) in AGE (effect of growing), all reversed i.e. up; definition: self-interest.

2. Times 25243: I felt that leaving guy was deflating (4) FELL
Annotation:OW (I felt that – exclamation of pain!) deleted from i.e. leaving FELLOW (guy); definition: was deflating. See Invisible Interjections for more examples of wordplay with disguised exclamation.'Fell' = 'was deflating' in the sense of subsiding/dropping in height e.g. a soufflé falls/deflates after being taken out of the oven.

3. Sunday Times 4506 (Dean Mayer): Small amount of liquid I spit (5) CLONE
Annotation:CL (small amount of liquid – centilitre) ONE (I); definition: spit. 'Spit' = 'spitting image' or 'clone', as in the phrase 'the very spit of'.

4. Independent 8113 (Quixote): It’s a popular one with cruciverbalists! (5) DRINK
Annotation:Cryptic definition – 'it' is Italian Vermouth, a cryptic abbreviation popularly used in crosswords.

5. FT 14142 (Alberich): Without coat, appear to be cold in store (4) HIVE
Annotation:SHIVER (appear to be cold) without coat i.e. without the letters on its edges; definition: store.

6. Guardian 25770 (Paul): Animal ending in both two corners? (8) HEDGEHOG
Annotation:[bot]H + EDGE (corner 1: the meeting of two lines) HOG (corner 2: to gain control of) ; definition: animal.

7. Times 25263: Upset, much the worse for wear, one’s out for the count (4) GRAF
Annotation:Reversal of FAR GONE (much the worse for wear) - ONE; definition: count (in Germany).

8. Times 25299: A note put out describing perhaps his scheme as crazy (2,7,6) ON ANOTHER PLANET
Annotation:(A NOTE)* around NOT HER PLAN (perhaps his scheme); definition: crazy.

Visit our past clue annotation challenges: I, II, III, IV and V.

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The Hindu Crossword 1001 [October 19, 1974]

2012-10-19T09:54:00.001+05:30

I hope you enjoyed battling with The Hindu Crossword 1000 set by Admiral Katari, the first crossword compiler of The Hindu. Admiral Katari's family has kindly shared two of his crosswords with us, here is the second of the lot – The Hindu Crossword 1001. This crossword was originally published in The Hindu on the same date as today, exactly 38 years ago.

Interactive Across Lite version created by Chaturvasi, available here: THC 1001 Interactive.

Have fun solving. I found this slightly easier than the previous crossword. Perhaps solving one built some familiarity with the setter's style? What do you think?

[click to enlarge]

The same rules apply: enter your answers with annotations in the comments section. Max 3 answers per person.

I'll update this post with the solutions on October 22, 2012 (Monday).

Update [October 22, 2012]:

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The Hindu Crossword 1000 [October 17, 1974]

2012-10-14T19:41:00.000+05:30

As promised in my post on Admiral Katari, here is The Hindu Crossword no. 1000 set by him. This puzzle was originally published in The Hindu on October 17, 1974. Enjoy solving.

Interactive Across Lite version created by Chaturvasi, available here: THC 1000 Interactive.

Instructions: Post answers with annotations in the comments section. Max 3 answers per person.

I'll update this post with the solution grid, handwritten by Admiral Katari, on October 15, 2012 (Monday).

[click to enlarge]

Update [October 15, 2012]:

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Remembering Admiral Katari, the first crossword setter of The Hindu

2012-10-08T02:17:00.001+05:30

Plenty is written and said in the media about Admiral Ram Dass Katari's legacy as the first Indian Navy Chief. Very little is said about his legacy as the first Indian cryptic crossword setter.

On Admiral Katari's 101st birth anniversary, I dedicate this post to him for his invaluable contribution to the world of cryptic crosswords in India.

Here are some rare photographs and facts about Admiral Ram Dass Katari (1911–1983) the cruciverbalist.

[Many thanks to Admiral Katari's family Ravi Katari, Ramu & Lalita Ramdas, Tehzeeb, and friend Cmde (Rtd) Ranjit Rai for their inputs.]

1 In 1971, the then Hindu editor Gopalan Kasturi who knew Admiral Katari and his skill with crosswords suggested that he set the crossword for the paper. Admiral Katari agreed, and then discovered that setting a crossword was not as easy as it seemed. He bought some books of blanks and spent a long time practising grid creation and filling. He made his own grids by hand and was very particular that the same words and similar clues did not repeat themselves.

Handmade grids by Admiral Katari on the left, print versions of crosswords on the right.

Print and handwritten versions of The Hindu Crossword no. 1000. The family recalls that Admiral Katari was inordinately tickled with this - he told them that he had managed to get hold of this crossword from the then Chief of Bureau for the Hindu, Shri GK Reddy, while on one of his visits to Delhi from Hyderabad.

2 Admiral Katari set The Hindu Crossword single-handedly and anonymously for several years after its inception. [The Hindu began to carry setters' by-lines only in 2008.] In a time when informal channels of communication were next to non-existent, very few solvers were aware of the real identity of the paper's crossword setter.

3 Since he was the only crossword setter at the time, when going away on leave for longish spells he would work fervently in the weeks before to leave a stock of puzzles with the paper and some reserve.

4 As the family rummaged through trunks and cupboards containing Admiral Katari's possessions, they discovered a battered cardboard box containing fourteen bundles of paper tied with string - each bundle containing 100 crosswords similar to the one in the picture above. This adds up to 1400 crosswords compiled and written by hand.

Discovered in a battered cardboard box: crossword bundle tied with string.

5 As a solver, his crossword of choice was the Times of India crossword, a UK-syndicated cryptic in those days. Records of his solving time are not available but his family recollects seeing the completed crossword on his desk at home in Delhi frequently.

6 An expert Scrabble player, he was clever with fitting words into connecting spots and had a huge vocabulary to draw from. When his children played against him as a twosome, a score less than 700 was hopeless.

7 Admiral Katari only used lead pencils for solving crosswords, and got very angry if anyone used a pen. He hated to see a newspaper folded over down to the crossword size!

8 When he realised in the late 1970s that he was not going to be able to continue setting crosswords, he trained a successor in Commodore Warner, also from Hyderabad, who picked up his setting style as well as his standards. Commodore Warner set the crosswords for Hindu for about three years, and in turn trained his successor in Hyderabad.

9 Crossword memorabilia, including The Hindu Crosswords 1000 and 1001, are on display at Katari Memorial Hall, A/21, Sainikpuri near Secunderabad. Some pictures from the site:

Name board at the entrance to the Katari Heritage Hall, which was inaugurated a year ago on 8th Oct 2011.

Admiral Katari's daughter Mrs. Lalita Ramdas with her son-in-law Carl Jenkins Jr. at the Katari Heritage Hall.

Admiral in Burma: closer look at the framed photo in the image above.

Crossword memorabilia on display at the Katari Heritage Hall. The label reads:
The Second Retirement: 1969-83 Gold And Bridge; Crosswords For The Hindu; Mazagon Dock And Sundry Boards; Lions Club, Rotary, Sports Bodies, And Social Work

10 This anecdote isn't exactly about crosswords but I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Cmde (Rtd) Ranjit Rai, who was a cadet when Admiral Katari was the Navy Chief, recounts this incident:

Admiral Katari came to INS TIR and on inspection in his anglicised accent asked Cadet Gill, a thait Sardar, "Do you sail?"

Gill replied, "Sir, sometimes"

Gill did not sail so we said, "Why did you lie to the Chief?"

Gill said, "I thought he asked me if I shave. He is smart; he saw I trim my beard."

In closing, a closer shot of The Hindu Crossword 1000 and 1001.

Coming up next: crossword set by Admiral Katari, for you to solve.

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Peter is safe

2012-10-04T09:35:00.001+05:30

In crosswordland, the most famous Peter is probably Biddlecombe. The second most famous must be 'safe'.

Peter is slang for 'safe', as in money box. The origin of the word is unclear. Some sources say it comes from the same root as the Biblical St Peter – the Greek word for rock Petra, since safes are supposed to rock solid. Others say it comes from the Cockney rhyming slang Peter Pan = can, where 'can' could mean 'safe' or 'prison cell' - both safes and prison cells are enclosed spaces and need to be hard to break into/out of.

Here is an extended discussion on the derivation of the word.

Whatever the etymology, cryptic crossword setters have taken to the 'safe' meaning of Peter extremely well.

Independent 8025 (Dac): Plate wife kept in safe (6) PEWTER
W (wife) in PETER (safe)

Using the false capitalization trick, 'Peter' can pass off as a proper noun on the clue's surface and transform to SAFE in the wordplay.

Times 24553: Peter gets into position for a bit, being cautious (2,3,4,4) ON THE SAFE SIDE
SAFE (peter) in ON THE SIDE (position for a bit)

Solve These

Guardian 25657 (Araucaria): Safe merchants with theatrical personality (5,7)

Times 24767: Play safe with hammer (5,3)

FT 13327 (Mudd): A force kept within safe limit (9)

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How Kishore solved a Tenglish crossword

2012-09-29T09:36:00.001+05:30

When Mark Twain said there is no such thing as a new idea, he knew what he was talking about. I wrote about the possibility of bilingual crosswords convinced that this was something radical. Apparently not. Kishore Rao points us towards a Tenglish (Telugu + English) bilingual crossword being published in a Telugu newspaper. This article is Kishore's narration of his serendipitous discovery of the crossword and his attempt to solve it.

Blogging has been sparse this month - my non-virtual life is taking up a big share of my time these days. Please bear with me. I have some interesting posts in the pipeline that I hope to publish over the next few weeks. Meanwhile, enjoy our inimitable Kishore's article which I must tell you is far easier to follow than his original flurry of emails with mysterious subjects like "Open this only after you have read my previous mail", "Read this after you read the previous two mails" and so on. Thank you for being comprehensible for a change Kishore :-)

- Shuchi

One day, having returned home from work and demolished some street food that wifey-dear had brought home for me, I was about to discard its newspaper wrapper, when I spied a crossword on its reverse. Further research with my limited reading abilities in Telugu brought forth the following discoveries:

The newspaper in question సాక్షి (Sakshi = (Eye)witness) was a daily and the crossword was un-numbered. Initially, I thought this was an one-off feature but discovered later that it was published regularly. I had not heard of this paper though my dalliance with Telugu is nearly four decades old. Wikipedia informs me that Sakshi was started in 2008 and has the second largest circulation in Andhra Pradesh at present. My search of other major Telugu newspapers did not yield any crosswords.

Strangely, the crossword was titled టిoglish (Tenglish). Apart from the oddity that this was clearly a portmanteau word created out of the combination of Telugu and English (as is common with many other similar words like Hinglish, to describe that cross-breed creature that results from the matrimony of an Indian language with English), and that the characters used were partly Telugu
and partly English characters, the choice of the first character was peculiar. Telugu, like most Indian languages has two separate characters for the soft and the hard un-aspirated త and ట (like त and ट in Hindi), which approximates to the 't' as pronounced in the French word 'entrée' [t] and the English word 'tomato' [ ʈ ], respectively. Hence, though the word Telugu is pronounced with a soft t త, the title of the crossword corresponds to the hard T.

As foreshadowed by the name, it turned out to be a bilingual puzzle. The headings to clues were crisply worded with aDDam (Across) and niluvu (Vertical); unlike the Hindi and Kannada ones which use phrases like 'up to down' or 'left to right'. The freeform grids were 10 x 10, had lots of black space with even 6 unches in some cases. What got my curiosity was that some clues not only had a number at the beginning and the enumeration number at the end, there seemed to be numbers within the clue itself! Well, some clues had numbers, and some didn't. Why the difference, I wondered...

The crossword addict in me pounced upon the puzzle as a test case of whether my Telugu was up to solving a crossword in that language. My Telugu comes from merely reading bus boards in Hyderabad and some similarity of the script with Kannada (of which I am no master), and I was not able to fully decipher it for the nonce. But even with the answers given alongside, I wondered how this Tenglish crossword worked.

Alas, my Telugu was not up to scratch and I had to resort to the tools of the modern day researcher: the suite from Google (Transliteration, Translate and regular Search Engine versions) to get it, besides referring to online dictionaries.

However, I thought this format of crossword deserved more attention and shot off an e-mail to Shuchi, laying my newly discovered crossword at her doorstep and confessing that I was baffled with the numbers in the clues. Just as I was pondering on whether to get into the newspaper laundering business (as the scrap I had was liberally stained with foodstuff), so that I could take a photo, I was able to get an online snapshot, thus sparing me the sponging and ironing.

One really feels an ass after clicking the Send button and realising that the dawn of epiphany had arrived a nanosecond too late. I had managed to decipher the numbers in the clues and patted myself on my back: the ghosts at Bletchley Park would have been proud of me.

The numbered clues worked like this:

The clues had a Telugu word, for which one had to think of an English word (the answer), from which the specified letters were to be extracted to give a subsidiary word as defined at the end of the clue.

Clue 1A reads ఊహించు (oohinchu = think) and leads to the English word 'speculate', where the 4th, 5th and 2nd letters spelt out the word 'cup' which, as mentioned in the clue, is called గిన్నె (ginne).

Clue 8A reads ప్రామాణికత (pramaNikata = validation/certification) and leads to the English word 'standard' where the 1st , 3rd and 5th letters spelt out the word 'sad', which as mentioned in the clue, is called దుఃఖo (duhkham).

Having solved all these clues, with a little help from Google Translate, I shot off another mail to Shuchi, and once again, history repeated itself. I had now broken through the veil of clues without numbers. Time to order the Kryptos from Langley, I mused, hoping the guys at the Company would not mind.

Just like the previously explained clues, these clues too had a main word and a subsidiary word, both in English, but in contrast to the ones above, instead of giving the letters to be picked from the main word, a different method was prescribed.

Clue 3D ఆకర్షించుట (aakarshinchuTa) has the answer 'attract'. Taking the last three letters as instructed, the word 'attract' becomes 'act' నటించు (naTinchu).

Clue 4A నేర్వరితనం (nerparitanam) has the answer 'skill'. By dropping the first letter as instructed, the word 'skill' becomes 'kill' చంపు (champu).

Clue 7A చక్రం (chakram) has the answer 'wheel'. By removing the first letter as instructed, the word 'wheel' becomes 'heel' మడము (maDamu).

This crossword was quite innovative and I was impressed by the unknown setter's ability to do this regularly as this requires not only a good vocabulary in both languages but also the skill to play with components of the words in two languages at the same time.

And this, my friends, is the way I got to spend a good three-fourths of an hour deciphering a crossword in a language I am not on very good speaking terms with.

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Ambassador Abbreviated

2012-08-31T01:38:00.001+05:30

If you are new to cryptic crosswords, you will probably wonder at the connection between 'ambassador' and 'he' in this clue:

Everyman 3405: Long account given by ambassador (4) ACHE
defn: long, verb; wordplay: AC (account) + HE (ambassador)

In my early days of solving I used to think this was a case of using the personal pronoun with awed respect, in the style of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

The actual explanation turned out to be less far-fetched.

HE is short for His/Her Excellency, the honorific style used for ambassadors. Heads of state, governors, royalty, aristocracy and ambassadors in the clue can all map to HE in the answer.

With that insight, have a go at these clues:

Guardian 25700 (Crucible): Writer recalled ambassador's wife's relative (6)

Times 25161: Nothing on before noon? Ambassador will ring eminent people (4,2,4)

Times 25020: Ambassador entering Peru, not worried at that point (9)

Times 24971: Governor's found in a sleazy bar? That’s sticky! (8) _D______

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Kannada crosswords

2012-08-22T07:32:00.001+05:30

Kishore Rao chanced upon a Kannada crossword during his lunch break at work. His curiosity piqued, he solved the crossword, discovered other Kannada crosswords in mainstream publications, analysed them over a couple of weeks and soon this article took shape. I'm happy to share Kishore's insightful article with Crossword Unclued readers.

Kishore lives in Bangalore and is well-known on the Indian crossword circuit. He is an ace puzzle solver, math whiz, pun-crafter and polyglot – his repertoire includes familiarity with languages as diverse as Tamil, English, Swahili, Konkani and Sanskrit (he once gave a speech in Sanskrit in the Bangalore Town Hall!).

Over to you, Kishore. – Shuchi

Shuchi had recently brought up the topic of crosswords in Indian languages and even got the ball rolling on Hindi crosswords and clueing. Curiosity got the better of us cats and we started looking more closely at crossword puzzles in Indian languages. I looked for puzzles in Kannada (which is not my native language, or as it is quaintly called, my maternal lingo). My mother tongue, Konkani, is next only to Hindi in terms of the sheer length of the distance it is spoken across India. Konkani sadly lacks a script and makes do with a plethora of others systems of writing, from Roman and Devanagri to Kannada and Malayalam scripts, thus dividing the flock on a script basis (as if other bases were not enough).

Kannada has linguistic attributes similar to Hindi, and so brings with it the same difficulties of crossword setting as in Hindi.

[First, a confession: My Kannada is pretty bad. I left Bangalore in my first standard (Kannada medium) and came back for my tenth standard (English medium with Kannada as a compulsory language). When I came back, I did not know a word of Kannada or the script and had to come up to speed in about eight months. Even now, though my spoken Kannada passes muster, I do grope for words when I try a crossword.]

I came across Kannada crosswords being published in mainstream publications:

a 9x9 in PrajavaaNi (from the Deccan Herald group) presently running numbered over 1450,

(click the image above to enlarge)

a 9x9 KannaDa Prabha (from the New Indian Express Group), presently running numbered over 6250,

a 7x7 in UdayavaaNi (from Manipal based UdayavaaNi group) presently running numbered over 4150.

All the three have symmetric grids, more than half blackspace in many cases, triple unches, and sometimes, whitespace islands not linked to other parts of the crossword. I tried all three but found PrajavaaNi, a daily puzzle set by Ms.Vidya Vinay, the most intriguing since the other two did not seem to have any cryptic side to their wordplay^[1].

The clue sheet headings are a little more elaborate compared to English: Across is Left to right, Down is Up to down for Down. All three Kannada publications use this wording.

I observed a rummy thing in Kannada crosswords which is not kosher in English crosswords: in an English crossword DEER being reversed as REED is ok, but DEAR cannot be reversed as RAED. But the Kannada crosswords I solved had such instances of grid fills with no meaning, such as #7 below.

The most delightful surprises were some clues that displayed shades of wordplay similar to what we see in English ones:

ಯೋಗ ಕೊನೆಯಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಈ ಹಂಚಿಕೆ (4) (Yoga koneyalliruva ee hanchike)= This distribution has yoga at the end of it
ಪಟದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ದಾರ ಹಿಡಿದಕ್ಕೆ ಈ ಪೇಚಾಟ (4) (PaTadalli daara hiDidakke ee pechaaTa)= This disturbance/dislocation/embarrassment is due to the chart holding the string
ವಸತಿ ಬಳಿ ಬಂದ ಉಪಪತ್ನಿ (3) (vasati baLi banda upa-patni)= The minor wife who came to the house
ಮಹಿಮವಂತನ ಮೇಲೆ ಬಿದ್ದ ಮಂಜು (2) (mahimavantan mele bidda manju) Dew/frost that fell on the famous person
ಸೂರ್ಯನು ಹುಟ್ಟುವ ಪರ್ವತ (4)(suryanu huTTuva parvata)= The mountain where the sun is born(rises)
ನೆರವು ನೀಡುವವನು, ಉರಿಯೋಳಗಿದ್ದಾನೆ (4) (neravu neeDuvavanu, uriyoLagiddane)= Person who helps, is in fire
ತಿರುಗಿ ನಿಂತಿರುವ ಅಗಸ (4) (tirugi nintiruva agasa)= A washerman who is standing, turned/ a washerman who is facing away
ದೊಡ್ಡ ಹಾರೆಯಿದು (3) (doDDa haareyidu) = This is a big garland
ಮಾರುತಿದ್ದಾಗ ಬೀಸಿದ ಗಾಳಿ (3) (maarutiddaga beesida gaaLi) = The wind that blew when selling

No.3 was sheer magic, though the anagram indicator was missing. This is not a rare omission - many a times, anagram and container/contained indicators are not given with clues in Kannada crosswords.

The answers:

ವಿನಿಯೋಗ viniyoga (as in the Sanskrit/Hindi विनियोग) means distribution, investment or putting into, and has yoga as its ending.
ಪರದಾಟ pardaat means travel (=dislocation), and consists of the word play of insertion of anagram (without indicator) ದಾರ (daara=thread) as ರದಾ inside ಪಟ (paTa=chart)
ಸವತಿ savati=minor (junior/second) wife (as in Hindi सौतन) which is an anagram of ವಸತಿ (vasati=house).
ಹಿಮ hima=dew/frost (as in Sanskrit/Hindi हिम), which is a synonym of ಮಂಜು and is hidden in ಮಹಿಮವಂತನ, a famous person
ಉದಯಗಿರಿ udayagiri (उदयगिरि) there are several places called Udayagiri in South India, which roughly translates to the sun-rise mountain.
ಉಪಕಾರಿ upakaari (उपकारी), person who helps, the outer two characters of this word spell out ಉರಿ (fire) as mentioned in the clue.
ಳವಾಡಿಮ does not mean anything, to my knowledge and subject to correction, but is a reverse of ಮಡಿವಾಳ (Madivala= washerman), also the name of a lake and locality in Bangalore, which probably like the Washermanpet (ண்ணாரபேட்டை/ Vannaarappettai ) in Chennai or Dhobi Talao (धोबी तलाव / धोबी तालाब) in Mumbai was where all the laundering took place in days of yore, and probably continues.
ಗಜರಿ gajari (a type of flower garland equivalent to गजरा, in Hindi), the reference to big may be an allusion to the ಗಜ (गज) which is an elephant (=mammoth/large)
ಮಾರುತ maaruta (मारूत = wind) hidden in the Kannada word ಮಾರುತಿದ್ದಾಗ (maarutiddaga) = when selling

Solve These

Kannada clues set by Kishore:

1. ಭೈರವಿ ರಾಗದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೀಗೆಕೂಡ ಕರೆಯಬಹುದು ಸೂರ್ಯನನ್ನು (2)
(Bhairavi raagadalli heegekooDa kariyabahudu Suryannu - You can also call Surya thus in the Bhairavi raaga)

2. ಯಾವ ದಿಕ್ಕಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಹೋದರು ಈ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಯ್ ಹೆಸರು ಓದಬಹುದು (3)
(Yaava dikkhinalli hodaru ee zilleya hesaru odabahudu -Whichever direction you go, you can read this district name)

3. ಈ ಊರಿನ ವಡೆ ಬಹಳ ಹೆಸರಾಗಿದೆ (3)
(Ee oorina vaDe bahaLa hesaraagide - The vaDa (an eatable) from this town is very well known)

Notes:

[1] Except one clue in UdayavaaNi (ಹೇಗಾದರೂ ಬಂಗಾರ – hegaadaru bangaara = gold anyway, with an answer ಕನಕ=kanaka=gold), the answer being a palindrome as indicated by the 'anyway' in the clue.

[2] Another thing that made my day with the PrajavaaNi crossword is the fact that it is adjacent to the Henry cartoon strip, called ಗುಂಡಣ್ಣ, GundaNNa= round elder brother (euphemism for a bald chap) in the Kannada paper. The Henry cartoon was created in 1932 by Carl Anderson and used to appear on the 'filler portions' of Mandrake and Phantom comics published by Indrajal Comics, a rage with kids in India in the seventies and eighties.

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Crossword Unclued turns four

2012-08-08T03:52:00.001+05:30

Four years! 8th August 2008 was the day the first post [Tackling cryptic crosswords: 7 step guide for beginners] was published on Crossword Unclued. On the blog's birthday I usually take stock of notable events of the past year - this time I also went through the Archive and made interesting discoveries about the site, and my personal journey with crosswords, since 2008.

What has changed in four years?

When I started blogging, I solved the crosswords in the Economic Times, New Indian Express, The Hindu, occasionally the UK papers. Now it is the other way round, and the clues used as examples in my posts reflect that change.

There has also been a slight shift in my thoughts on good and bad wordplay in cryptic crosswords. I am more receptive to indirect definitions such as unindicated D-by-E, less tolerant of superfluous link words. If I write about "About" today, I would surely mention that #7 is not a great use of the word.

The early blog posts had many short, quickly composed entries. Those updates have now moved to twitter and Facebook: Crossword Unclued.

The Last Twelve Months: A Brief Look

The interview posts – Roger Squires and the new setters of The Hindu Crossword – were the highlights of the year. They were also among those rare posts that my non-crossword friends read and enjoyed.

March 2012 was an excellent month for the blog. For one, Anax shared this lovely crossword specially created for Crossword Unclued. Soon after, on the morning of 21th March 2012, I checked Sitemeter and wondered if it had broken. It turned out that those additional couple of thousands of visitors were from a link on OMG-Facts.com. This was the best-ever time in terms of traffic, thanks to their link.

Popular posts on social media

Most Shared on Twitter		Most Shared On Facebook
Why Hindi and cryptic crosswords do not mix (34 tweets)		Cryptonyte's special crossword (Tony Sebastian continues to attract the max FB shares. In 2011 the top-shared post was his interview.)

New navigation pages

New navigation pages were added this year to help you find your way around the site easily.

	A listing of ALL the posts on Crossword Unclued, organized month-wise.
	A compendium of interviews with crossword personalities - expert solvers and setters.

Crossword Unclued has been a constant source of joy for me. Thank you very much for reading and for making blogging so much fun.

Special thanks to my top referrers: THCC, Big Dave's Blog, fifteensquared, @sancryptic, amrith10, @ya_sree.

Past Birthdays:

V and W in homophone clues

2012-08-03T07:52:00.001+05:30

In The Hindu Crossword, it is not unusual to come across homophone clues that equate V with W.

THC 10238 (Sankalak): Prisoner reportedly put on the scale and transported (8) CON VEYED ~weighed

THC 10262 (Buzzer): Escape route pronouncedly left intact (4-4) VENT HOLE ~went whole

THC 10403 (Arden): Effort to put up the painting gets an audible cry (7) TRAVAIL (TRA)< ~wail

Very few Hindu crossword solvers object to it online. The defence is that V and W sound similar enough to be acceptable in cryptic crosswords.

I'm interested to hear your opinion. Do you think the three clues above qualify as accurate homophones?

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