tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post2251237632079108052..comments2024-03-16T00:21:43.240+00:00Comments on Separated by a Common Language: crosswordslynneguisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-77189744678597919312013-04-15T06:26:46.468+01:002013-04-15T06:26:46.468+01:00Really interesting article!
In the US we call &quo...Really interesting article!<br />In the US we call "setters" "constructors" not "compilers".<br />Crossword Compiler is the name of crossword software, but no onewould call one who makes them a compiler...<br />There are about 100 different contructors for the NY Times every year, but many regulars... <br />Very few women proportionally (at least 10:1) but some of the top ones are women, eg Elizabeth Gorski.<br />A topic for another time, but is that true in England too?<br /><br />And definitely rent "Wordplay" it will change your life!Andrea Carla Michaelsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-26834902236563916012013-04-15T04:56:29.862+01:002013-04-15T04:56:29.862+01:00A number of inaccuracies.
In the picture, the puz...A number of inaccuracies.<br /><br />In the picture, the puzzle on the left is not a British cryptic grid. It is what is commonly called a "vocabulary puzzle" or a "vocabulary crossword". The grid style, frequently used for puzzles accompanying grade school vocabulary lessons, is intended to make sure you know the actual words, that you're not just guessing. In the example you give, PIANO or VIOLA would have been in the vocabulary list. In a vocabulary puzzle, every word is part of the vocabulary set -- there are no extra words.<br /><br />If you watch the linked video, the presenter shows a true British grid at about 0:35.<br /><br />In the UK, if someone says "crossword", they usually mean what Americans call a cryptic, not a quick crossword, which is more like an American-style crossword. If they mean a quick crossword, they'll usually use that term, just like an American would not say "crossword" to mean either an American-style puzzle or a cryptic.<br /><br />In the US, I think the phrase "British-style crossword puzzle" is incredibly uncommon and it is even more rare to see an American puzzle with a British-style grid and American-style clues. I honestly can't recall ever seeing one. I hear the phrases "crossword" (American-style puzzle), "cryptic crossword" (just that), "British cryptic" or "British cryptic crossword" (a cryptic in the British style, where the cryptic rules are a bit different).<br /><br />In the US, people who make crosswords are called constructors (and, rarely, authors), not compilers. There is a program called Crossword Compiler, though.<br /><br />Barred puzzles exist in the US as well, and are the most common format for variety cryptics, in which there is a trick of some sort. The greater interlock allows for more flexibility in the trick. But, not all barred puzzles are variety cryptics, and not all variety cryptics are barred. My company (Puzzazz) publishes some barred riddle crosswords with American-style clues.<br /><br />On extraneous words, all constructors/setters try to avoid them. A "for" or "is" between halves is not an extraneous word -- it is a connector.<br /><br />I highly recommend Puzzazz's <a href="http://www.puzzazz.com/how-to/cryptic-crosswords" rel="nofollow">guide to solving cryptic crosswords</a>.<br />Roy Lebanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16120240595362341255noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-35083848844481257062013-03-25T19:18:50.977+00:002013-03-25T19:18:50.977+00:00I recommend GAMES magazine (a US-based puzzle maga...I recommend GAMES magazine (a US-based puzzle magazine not limited to crosswords). It has a number of quick crosswords, but always two cryptics, which I have only recently started trying. I get excited when I get even two of the answers.Melaniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13079552644298678178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-16680732834351050072013-03-10T10:26:35.928+00:002013-03-10T10:26:35.928+00:00Very sad to hear about Araucaria. His crosswords a...Very sad to hear about Araucaria. His crosswords are fiendishly difficult, and he takes the conventions to their limits. But what I especially liked about them is that there are never any extraneous words in his clues; every word is there for a purpose, and the grammatical logic is strictly followed, especially as regards tenses.Warsaw Willhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15373568589613033674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-25201929453389346782013-03-07T22:05:49.965+00:002013-03-07T22:05:49.965+00:00I do the Times 2 (quick) crossword every day and t...I do the Times 2 (quick) crossword every day and the jumbo version at the weekend. While these depend upon general knowledge to solve the clues - and hence can be restricted in time and geographically - recently I find that several clues are 'American', presumably because many overseas readers do the crossword online. For example, last week we had cowcatcher (rack on front of train) and hooch (illegal spirits), which are not common UK vocabulary; US spellings such as anesthetist are usually signalled in the clue. Quite often the weekday puzzles have answers with quirks such as all containing double letters, all beginning with the same letter, and so on. This is sometimes helpful for solvers!<br /><br />My mother solves the Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword very quickly every day - she is rather snooty about the Times cryptic, saying that their clues demand some knowledge (of the Bible, Shakespeare and cricket for example) whereas the Telegraph clues depend more strictly on wordplay. <br /><br />The ultra-cryptic puzzles that were published in the now-defunct Listener magazine are now found in the Sunday Times - golly, they look really difficult. I wonder how many people even attempt them.biochemistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-38028921908280067092013-03-02T20:14:38.753+00:002013-03-02T20:14:38.753+00:00Great book on American crosswords by Marc Romano, ...Great book on American crosswords by Marc Romano, Crossworld: One Man's Journey into America's Crossword Obsession. You're right about cultural references. My friend's mom has lived in the US (from China) since the 1960s and is a librarian and still has trouble with US crosswords.Wendy Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10328543923627296282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-79159523212572370652013-02-28T03:46:03.936+00:002013-02-28T03:46:03.936+00:00Nice post, I'm a big fan of (American) crosswo...Nice post, I'm a big fan of (American) crossword puzzles, and I enjoy the occasional "cryptic" but they are much harder to finish. <br /><br />Regarding the video, I think it's worth noting that the guy doing the "long 2 minute" introduction is Will Shortz, crossword puzzle editor for the New York Times. There is a movie called "Wordplay" that focuses on Mr. Shortz and the NYT crossword, which may be of interest to American crossword fans. This explains Mr. Beresford's opening joke about British crossword editors "toiling in complete obscurity", with no movies being made about them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-48327320141900897042013-02-27T15:48:39.411+00:002013-02-27T15:48:39.411+00:00I too used to do the Telegraph crosswords (quick a...I too used to do the Telegraph crosswords (quick and cryptic) with my parents. After my father died, Mum just took the paper on Saturdays, and I used to help her with the big general knowledge crossword which was in that day's issue. <br />Kate (Derby, UK)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-30431183104627564372013-02-27T12:22:35.445+00:002013-02-27T12:22:35.445+00:00I grew up doing the Telegraph crossword - my fathe...I grew up doing the Telegraph crossword - my father, almost 90, still does it and other word puzzles (and Sudoku) obsessively to avoid senility (it seems to be working). He and my mother always do the main crossword (the cryptic one) together, but very often Daddy will do the quick crossword in his head and let Mummy do the writing-in. The first two clues across in the quick crossword always make some kind of phrase or word, like Gold and Finger - in our family these are known as "Marigolds" after my mother kindly pointed this out to a friend who had never noticed....Mrs Redboots (Annabel Smyth)https://www.blogger.com/profile/11270027663691257254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-6041235421041949592013-02-27T09:45:29.170+00:002013-02-27T09:45:29.170+00:00Thanks for taking the time to comment, Alan!
(An...Thanks for taking the time to comment, Alan! <br /><br />(And the rest of you. But I'm more used to the rest of you. :) )lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-68842691991976905502013-02-27T09:40:12.867+00:002013-02-27T09:40:12.867+00:00Hello there - I'm the author of that Guardian ...Hello there - I'm the author of that Guardian blog and you're quite right; in that context, "crossword" means "cryptic crossword" 99.999% of the time. In spoken English, I suspect the proportion would be a lot less - workmates talking about doing "the crossword" in a lunchbreak could be talking about the quick or the cryptic. One little thought: cryptic setters do try to avoid extraneous words in their clues, leaving only a "for" or something similarly innocuous between the wordplay and the definition.Alan Connorhttp://www.alanconnor.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-90056632276708119952013-02-26T15:26:08.161+00:002013-02-26T15:26:08.161+00:00I agree with R. Sabey; the supposedly British cros...I agree with <a href="#c869510592418947184" rel="nofollow">R. Sabey</a>; the supposedly British crossword in the picture is the kind of thing thrown together by a complete amateur for a children's page in the parish newsletter's Christmas special. It has far too many black squares, and newspaper crosswords have a 180-degree rotational symmetry.mollymoolyhttp://mollymooly.livejournal.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-39373496810574527732013-02-26T13:15:36.105+00:002013-02-26T13:15:36.105+00:00CORRECTION
for people like me who like cryptic c...CORRECTION<br /><br /><i> for people like me who like cryptic crosswords but are much good at them</i><br /><br />I mean, of course, <br /><br /><i> for people like me who like cryptic crosswords but are <b>not</b> much good at them</i>David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-12488814429110993862013-02-26T13:13:03.222+00:002013-02-26T13:13:03.222+00:00I recommend the Guardian crossword site with onlin...I recommend <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords" rel="nofollow">the Guardian crossword site</a> with online versions of the there types printed in the Guardian and the Observer: quick, cryptic and barred. Some are available only to subscribers, but there must be enough free-access material to illustrate all that people have said here.<br /><br />If you're interested, you can learn quite a lot about the clues by using the <b>cheat</b> button and/or by reading the comments.<br /><br />Best of all, theres a new type of crossword, which they call <i>Quiptic</i>. These are cryptic crosswords for people like me who like cryptic crosswords but are much good at them. They're supposed to train you up to cryptic level. Even if they're not going to train me quite like doing them occasionally.<br /><br />The reputation of the famous compiler Lynne referred to, Araucaria, is such that you'd expect his puzzles to fiendish. Strangely, I find them easier than other cryptic puzzles. There's no objective measure of difficulty; it depends on how soon (if ever) you get onto the compiler's wavelength.David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-19431963123147967142013-02-26T12:14:33.886+00:002013-02-26T12:14:33.886+00:00When I was working at a restaurant during grad sch...When I was working at a restaurant during grad school (in the States), we'd copy the local crossword and work them in the back. On really quiet Sundays, we'd do the tougher Washington Post weekend puzzles with favourite regulars at the bar. Became a bit of a team sport. As for the joy of watching someone else find the answers, 'Wordplay' is a great documentary: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0492506/<br /><br />I love American-style crosswords, and haven't assimilated yet to the British quick *or* cryptic puzzles. No one at school does them, so I can't even live vicariously through my native friends - one of whom asked me to bring back a NYT book of puzzles on a recent trip home.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-8695105924189471842013-02-26T07:55:05.854+00:002013-02-26T07:55:05.854+00:00The grid at the left of your picture is not typica...The grid at the left of your picture is not typical of British cryptic crossword grids. Here is a typical one:<br />http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/media/2238942/Crossword%20grid_1174.jpg<br />Note that alternate rows and alternate columns are almost entirely white (and occasionally entirely white for a 15-letter answer).<br />Thus typically a slot for an answer has either as many checked as unchecked squares, or one more checked. Less commonly the grid is in the opposite phase, like this:<br />http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/media/2563976/Crossword%201175_grid.jpg<br />which produces 5-letter slots with only 2 checked letters. This is as bad as it gets with British-style crossword grids.R. Sabeynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-33308155157951441742013-02-26T03:58:00.223+00:002013-02-26T03:58:00.223+00:00There are some fairly well-known crossword setters...There are some fairly well-known crossword setters with unique styles in the U.S. as well; Henry Hook and the team of Cox and Rathvon, who alternate setting the Boston Globe Magazine crossword, have fairly distinctive styles, and both also do puzzles for other publications; Cox and Rathvon long did puzzles for The Atlantic before it became primarily a public-affairs magazine. (I find Hook's harder to do.) Often the title of the puzzle gives essential information for solving some of the clues. Sunday puzzles often have a series of clues in all-caps with answers that run the entire width of the puzzle; often the clues will be something like "FUBAR" or "Part 4 of quip", such that solving most of the rest of the puzzle is required just to identify what the theme is. US puzzles often presume some knowledge of French, Spanish, Latin, or German (depending on the predilections of the setter, I think) although this is mostly restricted to common phrase-book level.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-89228561143524927642013-02-26T02:16:06.478+00:002013-02-26T02:16:06.478+00:00@Alice: You are right. I (American) have tried Bri...@Alice: You are right. I (American) have tried British cryptics and failed miserably because of the culture gap. Even a time lapse causes a problem. Last year a collection of Stephen Sondheim's variety-cryptic puzzles from the 60's and 70's appeared online, and I find them hard to do (I have completed several and given up on several) because they refer to long-ago people and events, even though I have an advantage being 75 years old.Charles Wellshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14261531542957899211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-475386150978239662013-02-26T00:58:29.147+00:002013-02-26T00:58:29.147+00:00That's why I never try to solve an English or ...That's why I never try to solve an English or American crossword. It's almost an impossible challenge if you aren't native!<br />Learn some Italian and give a go to our crosswords, they're way easier ;)Alice in Translationhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04702699628604634560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-3205987188670993502013-02-26T00:16:43.474+00:002013-02-26T00:16:43.474+00:00I suspect most people in Britain encounter crosswo...I suspect most people in Britain encounter crosswords in the mass market tabloid papers rather than the broadsheets and therefore equate them with the quick rather than cryptic variety. Shaun Clarksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16290670832534929741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-35142822452926471262013-02-25T23:50:50.598+00:002013-02-25T23:50:50.598+00:00In case anyone's still confused about the clue...In case anyone's still confused about the clue discussed above, you need to split it up as follows:<br /><br />1. "What can you get for 20p" = I (this is an in-joke for the newspaper)<br /><br />2. "Oddly, silver" = SLE (odd-numbered letters of "silver")<br /><br />3. "key" = ISLE (as in Florida).<br /><br />I + SLE = ISLE<br /><br /><br />Cryptic crosswords are one thing I definitely miss from the UK. I used to do they with my mother when I was a kid. Harper's Magazine probably has the best example from the US.<br /><br />vphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16647609487352038948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-74195054255248911602013-02-25T23:34:37.955+00:002013-02-25T23:34:37.955+00:00Barred crosswords appear in the US as variety cryp...Barred crosswords appear in the US as variety cryptics, where some of the solutions (or clues) have to be changed before entering them into the puzzle.<br /><br />I prefer regular cryptics to the variety; Stuff.co.nz has a weekly online cryptic (mostly) that tends to violate some Amercian cryptic conventions.<br /><br />(Despite the spelling of my name, I am American)<br />Geoffreyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06423410130579518677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-18397701115943223672013-02-25T23:24:24.604+00:002013-02-25T23:24:24.604+00:00In the 'What can you get for 20p' clue the...In the 'What can you get for 20p' clue the 'key' isn't just the rhyme, but the definition of the clue - Key = Isle. Most cryptic clues include a straight definition of the answer, although it does depend on the type of clue!<br /><br />Cryptic crosswords take practice - no longer getting a print paper, I now only tend to do them when I'm visiting my parents (for whom crosswords are a team sport :) - and so find them much harder than I used to.<br /><br />The thing I find interesting about cryptic crosswords is how the style of the setter is so personal. Some I find easy, some I find hard - but often instantly recognisable.Owenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15363304748950192248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-40617001357094046332013-02-25T23:23:50.109+00:002013-02-25T23:23:50.109+00:00As you probably know but didn't get round to m...As you probably know but didn't get round to mentioning, there's also in the UK a further style of crossword puzzle called "barred". The only examples I know are the Beelzebub in the Independent and the Azed in the Observer. The grid for these has bars between some squares to separate words, but no squares are blanked out, so you typically get a higher proportion of letters for a word by dint of solving intersecting clues.<br /><br />Barred crosswords compensate for this by using many words that are very rare (to the extent that they are not in my vocabulary), so they require a dictionary to hand. As a result, Azed is probably the hardest UK crossword.David Younghttp://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/davidy/noreply@blogger.com