Word Salad | The Nation

We are not the only ones to have written introductions to cryptic clues. (See last week’s Hinter Land.) Here are links to some other explanations of the basics:

• Our predecessor (Frank Lewis): http://www.thenation.com/crossword

• Wall Street Journal (by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon): http://s.wsj.net/blogs/html/wsjcrypticguide.pdf

• The UK’s Big Dave: http://bigdave44.com/crosswords/crossword-guide/

• India’s Crossword Unclued: http://www.crosswordunclued.com/2008/08/tackling-cryptic-crosswords-7-step_11.html

Since no one posted comments, we have no idea whether the format we launched last week is serving anyone’s needs. For now, we’ll continue in the same vein, but please, let us know if you’re finding it helpful!

Here are hints for Puzzle 3230. The whole puzzle becomes a lot easier after you solve 7D, so you might check out that clue before reading any further.

For beginners:

11A  “To the west” indicates a reversal.

16A  The memoirist was in the news in 2006, but you can still solve the clue if you have never heard of him. The definition is “craze.”

27A  The musical instrument is not well-known, except perhaps to habitual crossword solvers. “Superficially” means “on the surface,” which in this case refers to the first and last letter of “celesta.”

8D  Republican is often abbreviated to R.

24D  “Getting high” indicates a reversal (in a down clue).

For experienced solvers:

1A  First solve 30A.

17D  The question mark indicates something is not quite right about this clue.

One thing that solvers often wonder about on encountering cryptic crosswords is why the grid looks so different from the one in a regular crossword puzzle. Why this

 
instead of this?

 
What do we need all those black squares for?

The answer makes more sense if we take a minute to define the precise nature of the difference. In a regular (or “vanilla”) crossword puzzle—the kind that you would encounter in the daily newspaper—one of the fundamental rules of construction is that every letter in the grid must appear in two separate words, one going across and one going down. (In crossword terminology, that letter is said to be “checked.”) In the Nation puzzle, and other cryptics like it, the requirements are just the opposite: every word should contain letters that appear in no other words.

Why the discrepancy? It is rooted in the difference between cryptic and standard clueing. A standard crossword clue consists of a definition only, which is often not enough to guide the solver to an answer. If you saw the clue “US president” in a standard crossword, for instance, you would have no way to be sure of the intended answer. Even knowing that the answer is five letters would not be enough. You’d need to fill in some of the crossing letters—to find out, for example, whether the first letter was N (NIXON) or O (OBAMA)—before you could fill in the answer with confidence.

But a cryptic clue has two parts, the definition and the wordplay, and they confirm one another. If the definition in a cryptic clue is “US president,” you don’t need to rely on crossing letters in the grid, because the wordplay will tell you whether the answer is NIXON or OBAMA or HAYES.

In fact, we don’t want too many crossing letters, because that robs you of the pleasure of cracking each clue. When you solve a standard crossword, some of the answers will appear by themselves as you fill in the crossing answers. But in a cryptic crossword, each clue is a little puzzle of its own, and ideally the solver should have the experience of tackling each one.

Of course, it’s still important to make sure that filling in one answer gives solvers some help with the next clue. That’s why we stick to a fairly standard rule when making grids: In each entry, half the letters should be checked. In an entry with an odd number of letters, we round up, so that entry should begin and end with a checked letter.

Do we always adhere faithfully to that rule? Almost, but not quite. Occasionally, a word with an odd number of letters will have unchecked letters sticking out on the front and back, which means that fewer than half of the letters are confirmed by crossing words. We did it in our audition puzzle because—well, because we didn’t notice (and were publicly lambasted for it by a friend who didn’t recognize us beneath our anagrammatic alias). We did it again in Puzzle 3210 because we were trying to get a high proportion of thematic entries into the grid, and that was the only way they would fit. Remember, it’s not really a flaw if you do it on purpose.

Today’s post is about Puzzle 3228, whose solution was posted on the Nation website yesterday. We plan to do this every Friday, on the day after the new puzzle goes live. Of course, we realize that many solvers work on the puzzle when the hard copy reaches them, which can be as much as three weeks after the online version appears. But since the blog is on the website, it seemed to make more sense to be in sync with the online schedule.

If you don’t want to see answers, either because you are still working on the puzzle or because you haven’t started, don’t look at our Friday posts!

We invite your responses and comments; feel free to reveal answers to this puzzle if it will help you make a point or clarify a question. We will read all your comments, but we may not be able to respond immediately, so please feel free to respond to other solvers’ comments and questions

Puzzle 3228 is here and the solution is here. (Subscribers only).

1A QUARTERBACK  Change offensive position (11)

One might interpret “change” to clue “quarter,” instead of the intended “quarter back” (the change you get after a 75-cent purchase). To us, it seemed that change in the sense of “coins” would refer to more than one quarter, and the dictionary backs us up. Still, there’s no denying that the clue could easily be misconstrued.

26A PROLIFERATE  Multiply what some Republicans might charge each other? (11)

Long-time solvers of the Nation puzzle may recall that Frank Lewis had used the same basic idea in cluing PROLIFERATION.

3D TOP HAT  …to cool stovepipe (3,3)

PHAT = cool, in slang. You may be surprised that this usage dates back to 1963 (per Merriam-Webster). Also note that in the surface reading, “cool” is a verb, but in the cryptic reading, it is an adjective.

5D ADAM  A hydroelectric structure is ur-
gent? (4)

Ur-, as a prefix, means “original.” So Adam is the “ur-gent,” the original man. We felt this clue was difficult enough that we wanted to give a hint as to what was going on, hence the hyphen and the line break.

15D TERIYAKI  With Garr or Hatcher around, I chatter and dish (8)

The clue puts TERI around I YAK, but of course TERI is also there intact at the beginning of the word. That’s a slight weakness; perhaps there was a better way to frame it.

19D INTENSE  The way we count on energy is extreme (7)

We were under the impression that ten-based counting was one of those cross-cultural constants, like fear of snakes, but we’ve since been told that that’s not true. Oops.

Your turn to comment! Please limit yourself to puzzle #3228 (or earlier).