6/9/2005: Enigmatic grave, cold without end
Have you ever tried to solve a cryptic or British style crossword puzzle? They look easy at first glance - fewer clues and words, fewer intersecting words, and a lot of blank space.. until you try to solve it. You can end up wondering WTF? Did I lose my mind, or did they? But once you get the hang of them they can be fun and addictive, and the kind of mental exercise that keeps mental stagnation (or senility) at bay.
If the title of today's entry were in a cryptic crossword, the answer to write (or type) into the little boxes would be CRYPTIC.
HUH?? you say.
Cryptic clues usually come in parts and usually have (at least) two paths to the answer. In this example, "enigmatic" is a synonym for the answer. It could be a stand-alone clue in a regular crossword. Now take the rest separately: "grave" is a synomym for CRYPT; and "cold" becomes ice or icy which without its end becomes IC. CRYPT+IC = CRYPTIC.
Confusing? Yep. And that's just one version of cryptic clue. Figuring out which type of clue is being used is usually the key to solving, but some clues come with hints letting you know what to try.
Note that cryptics give you the number of letters and/or words in the answer, and be warned that doing British cryptics you will sometimes run across Britspeak in the clue/answer combinations. But computers are wonderful - solving this type of puzzle online saves a lot of erasers.
Here are a few of the more common clue types, and examples taken from the June 10, 2005 puzzle from The Herald, Glasgow, which you can find here, at least for now.
Container:
Lots of people argue in the Civil Defense (5) = CROWD
"argue" = ROW, which is in the Civil Defense = CD. "Lots of people" is a synonym for CROWD.
Anagram:
Scuttle off for something to eat (7) = CUTLETS
off here means to rearrange the letters in "scuttle" to come up with CUTLETS, which is something to eat. Anagram clues are common and usually have words like mix, chaos, disturbed, wrong, etc. to indicate you need to rearrange the letters of a nearby word.
Another example from The Herald puzzle:
Put England into terrible danger, making a bomb (7) = GRENADE
terrible says to mix up the letters of "danger" plus an added E for England, combining an anagram with an initial clue. The result makes a synonym for bomb.
Initials or ends:
The above example also demonstrates an initial clue - using E for England; and today's entry title demonstrates an ending clue - ICY without end. You'll also see Roman numerals, letter i for number 1, and all kinds of abbreviations, acronyms and initials. Very often these clues have hints like "beheaded" or "starting" or "finish" or "tail", especially if they aren't standard abbreviations.
Hidden words or phrases,and reversals:
These work like anagrams but the letters in the answer aren't mixed up; they're in order in the clue, forward or backward. They might be palindromes (same word backward and forward) or they might involve parts of different words. I haven't found one in the example puzzle (I haven't been able to complete it yet..) but an example might be:
An age when things are looking up (3) = ERA
This would probably be a "down" clue: if you read "are" looking up you get ERA, a synonym for "an age". If you have a really long and bizarre clue, it's often got hidden words in it. If it refers to "up" or "down" for a "down" word, or "back" or "reverse" for an "across" word, that's another hint to look for hidden words.
Soundalikes or audio clues:
Not a lot of money to instigate legal proceedings, we hear (3) = SOU
we hear tips you that this is an audio clue: "sou" (not a lot of money) and "sue" (instigate legal proceedings) sound the same.
Combination clues:
These are common, and what will drive you nuts but keep you coming back. Today's title and GRENADE above are actually combination clues. Here's another:
I speak about nasty curse (4,3) = EVILEYE
This one combines a soundalike (the hint is speak) "I" sounds like EYE; with a container (the hint is about). Put that EYE about or around VILE, a synomym for "nasty", and you get E+VILE+EYE = EVILEYE.
These are some of the more common solving methods you'll find, but there are many more. You don't need to know or memorize them all right away, because you can work across & down like a standard puzzle to fill in blanks, and there is almost always a double meaning or path for every clue. Here is a good list of most types of clues with examples though, if you find yourself getting hooked: Cryptic Crosswords by Val Burton.
Remember that this is the type of daily crossword puzzles found in most British newspapers.. and people do them. (The British education system also produces generally better knowledge of geography, world politics, spelling, grammar, math, history, etc. than the average American education does.)
Here are a few to get you started.. answers in a day or two!
The mist erased that man (6)
Do you care badly about that piece of land? (4)
Halt! Inverted pots sing chaos! (4,4)
I heard a singing group of ponies in their pen (7)
Prisoners see their penalties empathized (8)
Recently I posted a void, I blame a bad sinew (7,2,3)
p.s. Why am I writing about all this? I came across a cryptic puzzle today and remembered I used to enjoy working on them. I also wrote a cheesy little program to make cryptic puzzles years & years ago on my Sinclair computer. It was a wonderful and tiny machine, probably the first affordable home computer, and it was very affordable. It used the tv for a monitor, it had 1k memory (til you turned it off, then zero), and it had to be programmed in BASIC. That was a learning curve for me that's served me well since; the cryptic-writing program was just an exercise for me to learn BASIC.. I didn't think it would ever be of interest to anyone else. Well, looking for a good list of cryptic clue hints for this post today, I found far more programs for sale to make cryptic and crossword puzzles than I found lists for how to solve them. Just goes to show you.. another idea, 20 years ahead of its time, that didn't make me rich lol!
