Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

T R E 4 5 O N

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

I really should read my own blog.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

You are here: Home / Authors In Our Midst / Dr. Daniel Price – Cryptic Crosswords!

Dr. Daniel Price – Cryptic Crosswords!

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Our featured writer today is Dr. Daniel Price!   Let’s give him a warm welcome. If you would like your talent featured in the Artists in Our Midst series, send me an email message.  Don’t be shy!  This is the final Artists post in the queue, so please get in touch if you would like to be featured.

Dr. Daniel Price – Cryptic Crosswords! 1 Cryptic crosswords are common in the UK, appearing daily in multiple newspapers and regularly in other periodicals.  Publications in Australia, Canada, India, and New Zealand feature daily or weekly cryptics, with a few US newspapers (The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times) occasionally printing cryptic crosswords.

The popularity of cryptic crosswords  (sometimes called ‘British-style crosswords’ in the United States) is attributed to the challenge in deciphering each clue.  Traditional US crosswords rely on pure definitions to indicate the words or phrases to be entered, with many of those definitions recycled within and across publications (e.g. “Guido’s high note” is ridiculously common as a clue for ‘ELA’). 
 
By contrast, “[c]ryptic crosswords comprise a compendium of different types of brain teaser, so you get a lot of variety within each puzzle – anagram clues, acronym, puns and riddles,” as described by Dr. Kathryn Friedlander, a researcher in psychology at the University of Buckingham, in a 2021 BBC.com article (‘Cryptic crosswords:  A puzzling British obsession’).  A solver will not achieve success by memorizing definitions and the associated words; although the clues of cryptic crosswords must include a definition of the word or phrase to be entered, said definition will not be obvious. Dr. Daniel Price – Cryptic Crosswords!
Cryptic clues are, by definition, designed to mislead, but also to indicate their solution.  Apart from uncommon literal (‘&lit’) clues and punning ‘cryptic definitions’, clues must consist of the word or phrase’s definition and wordplay that encodes that word or phrase.  The primary (denotative) definition can appear before or after—never within— the subsidiary definition (wordplay), and while linking words may be included, superfluous verbiage included merely to mislead are considered unfair to the solver:  the primary and subsidiary definitions must be separate and sequential within the clue.
 

Acceptable clues are written in the form of sentences or headlines; most often, the clue’s ‘surface’ (apparent meaning) is unrelated to the word to be entered, adding another layer of misdirecting challenge.  The human brain’s attempts to create meaning allows the solver to be fooled by the clue’s surface and requires them to ignore what is plainly visible in order to identify the word that is meant.  “Detainee repatriated, hangs around every bash  (6)” calls to mind a former captive being observed at all of the best parties.  The six-letter word—its length indicated by the numeral in parentheses—thus described is ‘WALLOP’, a synonym of ‘bash’; the rest of the clue is the wordplay that forms ‘WALLOP’, namely “Detainee” (POW) “repatriated” (sent back, or reversed), “hangs around” (surrounds) “every” (= ALL). 

In shorter terms, the reversed letters of POW, a sort of detainee, surround ALL, a synonym of ‘every’, and the result is ‘WALLOP’, synonymous with ‘bash’.  [“Hangs around” may be considered to be an unsound indicator of ‘surrounding’ but it can be argued that the reversed letters of ‘POW’ are indeed suspended about the letters of ‘ALL.’] The goal of the ‘setter’—the cryptic crossword’s constructor—is to create clues that are fair but challenging:  Dr. Friedlander states that “[s]olvers experience a powerful insight moment when they [realize] how the clue should actually be interpreted.  It’s a highly pleasurable kick which rewards the solver.” 

Musical composer Stephen Sondheim attempted to popularize cryptic crosswords in the United States (you can determine whether his efforts have been successful), writing in a 1968 New York magazine article that “[a] good clue can give you all the pleasures of being duped that a mystery story can.  It has surface innocence, surprise, the revelation of a concealed meaning, and the catharsis of solution.”  Famed British setter Jonathan Crowther, under the pen name of Azed, summarizes the rules succinctly:

A good cryptic clue contains three elements:
 
  1. a precise definition
  2. a fair subsidiary indication
  3. nothing else
 
Standard crossword grids also tend to feature ‘crosswordese’—words found only in crosswords, often because the crossword’s constructor cannot complete the grid without including ‘STLO’, ‘ASTA’, ‘ERSE’, and the aforementioned ‘ELA’.  Cryptic crosswords will include some rare words, but a vast vocabulary is unnecessary, as the wordplay can lead to the solution where the definition does not.  ‘RHOMB’ is an uncommon term and may not spring to mind when one uses ‘diamond (shape)’ as its definition, but it can be identified from “Facets of rare, heavy, oval, magnificent blue diamond  (5)”:  the “facets”, or ‘faces’, of “rare heavy oval magnificent blue” spell out the word to be entered.
 
… I began composing cryptics in 2015 after many years as a consumer.  With no hope of being hired as a full-time setter, the quest was either to be a vanity project—wherein I would share the few compositions with a few interested acquaintances—or to result in larger sets of cryptics to be published as print-on-demand collections.  In addition to having no prior experience writing single clues, let alone entire puzzles, I decided to complicate the process further by creating only themed cryptics, viewing unthemed cryptics as a mere exercise in clue-writing.  
 
In a themed puzzle, multiple entries are related; examples from my own creations reference include ‘one-word album titles released by a particular musical group’, ‘words that exist with a particular letter of the alphabet and also exist, as different words, without that letter’, and especially silly contrivances (intersections of BULLS with CAPES).  [I hope that the themes are incorporated more elegantly than the descriptions provided above would suggest.] Some of the published puzzles are also ‘variety puzzles’, in which words—once identified from their clues—must be modified before entry according to rules stated in the puzzles’ introductions. 
 
As an example, otherwise innocuous words that contain letter sequences that are viewed as ‘naughty words’ must be bowdlerized by replacing the offending letter sequence with an asterisk.  Each member of the Price family has a dedicated cryptic that (with one exception) is related to a feature of her or his name. The Excruciverbiage® series currently consists of four volumes of original cryptics, along with three compilations.  Links to books, a sample cryptic, and a guide to identifying and solving cryptic clues, can be found at excruciverbiage.com.  Should my works ever be published in magazines or newspapers, I would, in keeping with tradition, adopt a pseudonym (those of Spanish Inquisitors are popular); for now, I compose under my given name.  
 

Reader Interactions

125Comments

  2. 2.

    Ken

    I generally get nowhere solving cryptics, but enjoy the failure.

    Also, if you know someone who’s really into them, giving them a nonsense clue is a good practical joke.  For example, “A mess of stew, not unknown in the South, is coveted (7)”; or, “I generally get nowhere solving cryptics, but enjoy the failure (6,4)”.

  9. 9.

    smith

    I am a cryptic puzzle addict — it’s my bedtime ritual to work out puzzles printed out from the Guardian website before going to sleep. The mental engagement required to figure out the answers very effectively clears my mind of the nattering anxieties that would otherwise keep me awake.

    British crosswords don’t at all shy away from unusual or archaic words, and one of the greatest pleasures comes from working out an unfamiliar word from the clues alone and then looking it up to see if that really is a word and if it really means what the clue says it means. Just a couple days ago I figured out “tribade” this way and got a real charge when I saw I’d got it right.

  10. 10.

    MagdaInBlack

    My mother loved these. She used to do them as we camped our way across Canada in the summer.

  11. 11.

    JoyceH

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: search on cryptics on Amazon – they have quite a few. I tend to avoid the ones that are compilations from British newspapers (Times, Guardian, Daily Mail, etc) because so many of the clues require a good knowledge of general British stuff. There are series, though, that are for “the rest of us”. One series is called Can-Am and one series promises “NO cricket clues!”

  14. 14.

    smith

    @Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent): I find I can usually get the cricket clues from the internal logic and the crossing letters, but I admit the geography sometimes is way beyond reach. No way I’m going to come up with the name of that small town in Berkshire.

  16. 16.

    glc

    Speaking of Sondheim, according to my recollection this was one of his, in the 1960’s (in a Saturday Review of Literature puzzle).

    Broken harmonicas found floating in Manhattan [10].

    And this is probably British, very elegant in any case:

     The switch ain’t electrified [8,7]

  17. 17.

    zhena gogolia

    Buried in work right now, but I look forward to studying this.

    I do all sorts of word puzzles, but British-style cryptics are usually beyond me. I wish I had Endeavour Morse here to help me.

  20. 20.

    Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)

    @smith: …nor should that be necessary, in this setter’s opinion, such that I would tear down and rebuild sections of any puzzle that included obscure references.

    Fortunately, cryptic clues can be made easier than their “standard crossword” counterparts, as the definition and another means of obtaining the letters of the definition are provided.

  22. 22.

    Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)

    @Betty: While I have not been an active solver of late, I always required some time–and really, some number of clues–to get into the setter’s mindset.  Each of us has a style, even if we (maybe it’s just me) cannot articulate it; once the solver recognizes that style, even if unconsciously, solutions come more easily.

  23. 23.

    smith

    @Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent): That’s one of the interesting things about cryptic puzzles — by all rights they should be easier to solve, since you have two chances to get the answer in each clue, but in fact they aren’t. I guess it shows the power of the misdirection that is also part of a cryptic clue.

  24. 24.

    Kalakal

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Me too! It’s something I really miss since I moved to the states. I still do the Grauniad occasionally and the Private Eye one (which is pretty easy).

    My alltime favourite clue was sgeg (9, 4)

     

    Ans Scrambled eggs

  25. 25.

    Abnormal Hiker

    My favorite clue, from Araucaria in the Guardian years ago: Where to find the Greek character in your home (7,3,3,2).

    ans: between you and me

  26. 26.

    Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)

    @Baud: Rules of Calvinball are fluid.  Rules of cryptic crossword clues are rigid:  the clue must provide a definition and a means to obtain the letters of that definition.  The two parts can be in either order, but the clue can have only the two parts; the subsidiary definition (wordplay) cannot overlap the definition.  Moreover, the clue in its entirety must make some sense, even though that sense may not be related to the word to be entered.  In short, the clue in its entirety must evoke some sort of image; a clue such as ‘Number One troughs about insular (7)”‘for URINALS is technically accurate but makes no “surface sense”.

  27. 27.

    Martin

    I never liked crosswords once I realized it was mostly an exercise in memorizing crossword clues. I like puzzles where I arrive with all of the information needed to solve it. If I don’t know the word for some obscure Brazilian tree, I pretty much can’t progress in the puzzle. I do like the expanding vocabulary aspect of crosswords, but I dislike the mechanism to get there.

    These sound a bit more appealing to me. But also a bit like a puzzle where every clue/word was Cockney rhyming slang.

  28. 28.

    Kalakal

    @Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent): That’s my experience too, I used to do the Grauniad every day for about 30 years, some setters I could get right into their style and were easy(ish) , then along would come a new one and it usually a struggle for a time.

    The other trick is getting to know the conventions eg ss for ship, tar or ab for sailor etc

  30. 30.

    smith

    @Kalakal: I have the same experience. There are some setters I simply skip, mostly because so often they and I disagree about what constitutes a synonym for the answer.

  31. 31.

    Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)

    @Kalakal:  Indicators for single letters and short combinations (e.g. “ab” and “tar” for “sailor”) cause suffering to the solver in two ways:  the first time, such contrivances are too obscure; subsequently, they are familiar, obvious, and therefore dull.

  32. 32.

    Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)

    @Martin: My irritation with “crosswordese”, and the memorization of certain letter combinations–how many dozens of times did I encounter “stlo” in a standard crossword–drove me to cryptics.  I will admit that I initially found them impenetrable, and reliance on hoary standards (such as the “ab” and “tar” you reference) does not help those who want to enjoy the process without having to be ‘in the club’.  As such, I try to avoid such devices, and certainly strive not to repeat them more than, say, once every hundred puzzles.

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Huge cryptic crossword fan here! I should have known that I wasn’t the only one amongst the jackals.

  37. 37.

    zhena gogolia

    @WaterGirl: I don’t find any cryptics easy. I can do the New Yorker and New York Times ones (that occasionally appear in the Sunday magazine), but they’re not easy. I can’t do the British ones. I bought one of Dr. Price’s books and got nowhere! A project for retirement, I suppose.

  38. 38.

    WaterGirl

    @Abnormal Hiker:

    My favorite clue, from Araucaria in the Guardian years ago: Where to find the Greek character in your home (7,3,3,2).

    ans: between you and me

    I don’t get it.  Can you explain?  (sorry, not good at crosswords)

  39. 39.

    Benw

    I’m staring at your easy puzzle and I applaud your effort and commitment to this practical joke!

  40. 40.

    Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)

    @zhena gogolia: I am sorry to hear of your tribulations; I want the puzzles to be challenging but solvable.  Some of them have alternative versions that are less demanding; for others, I can share the theme and/or hints to break into the grid.  [When attempting to solve a puzzle set by someone unfamiliar to me, I will usually find the puzzle impenetrable at first; eventually something ‘clicks’ and solving the puzzle becomes increasingly easy.]

  42. 42.

    Almost Retired

    divide  up “your home” as “you”  “rho” (greek letter) and “me.”   The Greek letter rho is between “you and me.”  And that’s the only one of these I’ve ever solved…​

    ETA this was responding to watergirl

  45. 45.

    lol chikinburd

    Favorite might be

    E? [13]

    Either that or the “chaste Lord Arthur vegetating” one from Araucaria.  This topic makes me happy.

  46. 46.

    Miss Bianca

    I’m too dumb for cryptic crosswords. Hell, I can barely manage regular ones.

    ETA: That said, I admire the clever sorts of coves who can solve them!

  47. 47.

    Benw

    I’m confused because the two example clues mentioned in the comments (ans: scrambled eggs and ans: between you and me) don’t seem to follow the rules that Daniel described?

  48. 48.

    Shana

    While I do regular crosswords every day, Hubby prefers cryptics. He has found that the Globe and Mail has a daily one. In addition the New Yorker has several a week. At least I think it’s several a week, it may be only one or two. While I always say my brain doesn’t work that way I do occasionally help him with an answer or two.

  49. 49.

    debbie

    I and two co-workers used to solve the London Sunday Times’ cryptics in New York Magazine. Back when I had a brain.

  52. 52.

    Kalakal

    @zhena gogolia: A good way to get into the mind of the setter is to try your best with the puzzle and when you finally admit defeat go through the answers and see if you can work it out backwards if you see what I mean. It is very difficult at first but does get easier with practice. An advantage of having them in a daily newspaper is that you can’t see the answers till the next day so you can’t cheat.

  53. 53.

    Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)

    @Benw: So-called “&lit” clues, in which the definition and wordplay are the same, violate the conventions but are usually indicated with ‘!’ or ‘?’.  The clue regarding a Greek character does not seem to be an &lit clue, however, and would benefit from inclusion of the definition of “between you and me”.

  55. 55.

    Almost Retired

    @WaterGirl:  Exactly.  I’m taking a victory lap, and then going back to doing easier crossword puzzles.  Otherwise, who would remember who “Esai” Morales is?

  56. 56.

    smith

    @zhena gogolia: I think it’s worth saying that it takes a certain amount of time and persistence to learn how to solve these. Maybe there are some “naturals” out there who get it right away, but I think for most people it’s a process that takes a while.

    And it’s not a matter of smart or dumb! You have to learn to click into a certain mindset that’s different from the more straightforward problem solving that works for most things. It’s kind of a cockeyed literalism where you see the words as both their constituent parts and their underlying meanings at the same time.

    I started (trying to) work cryptics when I was 18, and did bits and pieces over the years as they were available, but without developing much skill. It was only in the last 20 or so years, when cryptic crosswords became abundantly available on the internet, that I was able with practice to complete more of them than not. For me it’s a really satisfying mental exercise, like reading a good mystery novel and figuring out whodunnit 20 seconds before the detective hero does, and that enjoyment makes the slog of figuring out how to do them worthwhile.

  57. 57.

    debbie

    Each author has a specific slant on punning. Once you figure that out, the clues are far less nebulous.

  59. 59.

    WaterGirl

    Somewhat related…

    Hey guys.  I have a few more Author posts in the queue, but not a single Artists post.  Come on, I know there are more talented BJ peeps out there!  Send me an email.  I don’t think there is a single person who has regretted it yet!

  64. 64.

    Kalakal

    @Benw: The second one does, the first doesn’t. I remember it well because it stopped me in my tracks for hours. I was completely fooled because I thought it had to be some fiendishly clever device and it was actually a simple anagram of a four! letter word, and a pun to boot. Brilliant

    Setters don’t always follow the rules completely but when they break them it had better be good and not an act ofdesperation just to fill the grid. Also not too often

    I think that one was by Arucaria as well, it’s nice to see how many people in this thread remember him. I loved the way his pen name was a joke, Arucarias are monkey puzzle trees

  70. 70.

    WaterGirl

    @Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent): Thank you so much for doing this!  Perfect for a Saturday afternoon.

    I will tell you what I tell everyone, these Artists and Authors posts go on long after someone might assume the thread is dead, so even once it slows down, you’ll probably want to check back in for the folks who arrive later.

    (But I don’t think the thread is even sleeping yet, let alone dead!)

  73. 73.

    FelonyGovt

    Like @zhena gogolia: I love word puzzles of all kinds but have never been able to even begin to solve cryptics. I think my brain just doesn’t work that way. I will try the “Easy” one and let you know!

  74. 74.

    grandmaBear

    I love cryptic crosswords too, so much that I have to limit how often I do one, because everything stops until I’ve solved it.

  80. 80.

    Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)

    @WaterGirl: Books are available via Aerio, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, all of which are linked at the Excruciverbiage site, so I will not clutter this comment with multiple links.  I have discount codes listed for Aerio so that the cost is similar to that available from Amazon.

    If the promo codes do not work, please alert me, as I can fix them.

    I wish to acknowledge my bride’s role in all of this; she has created cover art for all of the books, and has contributed most of the titles, including the brand name.

  81. 81.

    Benw

    @Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent): I had never heard of these. And now I’ve been staring at “Easy” for over an hour, only solved 1 clue (with help), and have completely derailed my planned trip to get groceries. In other words, successful Saturday afternoon! Thanks for sharing.

  82. 82.

    Barbara

    If I had started earlier I might really like these, but I do crosswords now mostly to disengage and I don’t like it when they become too involved. I still think they are fascinating.

  84. 84.

    62across

    I have loved doing cryptic crosswords since college when my roommate and I would try to solve them together.  The rush you get when you’ve finally figured out a particularly devilish clue is fantastic.  Harper’s has a cryptic every issue and they are very well done.

  85. 85.

    NoraLenderbee

    I did not know the New Yorker had cryptic crosswords online. There goes my weekend. Thank you very much.

  86. 86.

    Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)

    @Kalakal: Could be one, could be…seven!?

    Each of the smaller volumes (Excruciverbiage, CruciFix, Vex’t Text, and Mincing Words) has 26 cryptics; beginning with the second book, variety puzzles–which require additional manipulations of clues or entries–are placed after normally-themed cryptics.

    And then there are the compilations:  Double Crossed (books one and two combined), Unnatural Selection (books three and four), and Quadraliteral (all four volumes:  104 cryptics).

    Thanks for giving me the opening to mention each collection by name.

  87. 87.

    MattF

    I’ve been doing cryptic puzzles since I was in grad school— so, around 50 years. Started with Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon ‘variety’ cryptics in the Atlantic, and I still do their puzzles, now in the WSJ. Another source of variety puzzles is Richard Maltby in Harpers. Variety cryptics are cryptic puzzles with an added twist that varies from puzzle to puzzle. Cox and Rathvon also publish cryptic puzzles in the New Yorker magazine under the name ‘Monica Zook’.

  91. 91.

    J R in WV

    My grandma loved traditional American crossword puzzles, and finished all she every started pretty promptly. I do not.

    In 8th grade I had a reading class. Now, I’m a big reader, taught myself speed reading after reading an article about it as a V young person. But the teacher did spelling tests by requiring us to solve anagrams of the week’s spelling assignment. I cannot solve anagrams at all, not even t-c-a = cat. So I reliably flunked each week’s spelling test. So I reliable got terrible grades every  6 week period.

    I’m also terrible at scrabble, even tho I have a good vocabulary from reading strange fiction. I knew what “tribade” meant right off, for example. I can score 45 or 60 when everyone else is in the hundreds. I stopped playing because I was always dead last. If you can’t recognize words in a random mix of letters, you can’t play scrabble.

    I suspect crypto-crosswords would be really impossible for me. I don’t understand the explanations of how they work, and the examples make absolutely no sense to me either. Sad. huh?

  92. 92.

    J R in WV

    @Abnormal Hiker:

    @WaterGirl: Rho appears between you and me in ‘you-rho-me’

    ETA I was away and already answered.

    But where did “Rho” come from? What clue leads one to Rho? Plain nonsense to me…

    ETA: Could as well be you Pi me as anything else. Nonsense all along.

  95. 95.

    smith

    @J R in WV: What points to rho in this clue is “Greek character.” Rho is a Greek character, that is to say a letter of the Greek alphabet. This is a hidden word clue, with rho hidden in the middle of the phrase “your home.”

  96. 96.

    Sure Lurkalot

    I remember trying my hand at cryptic crosswords when I was younger and flailing. Even our resident rocket scientist finds “easy” hard!

    But I love this post and the pointers enough to try my hand at “easy” even though the title isn’t the level of difficulty.  Thanks, Dr. Price!

    P.S. I was good at cryptograms…

  97. 97.

    J R in WV

    @debbie:

    @smith:

    Yes, it’s always very simple when explained. It is still meaningless to me, even having this one clue explained, how am I to winkle out the next clue, completely different. No offense to anyone, especially to Dr. Price, but the whole art and craft is opaque to me, sadly so.

    I cannot do traditional American crosswords very well either, nor Scrabble. Sad, wife would love it if I could, but i can’t at all. Missing the part of one’s brain that works with letters => words…completely.

  98. 98.

    J.

    @Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent):  My late stepfather, John de Cuevas, created cryptic puzzles for Harvard Magazine and ran a site called Puzzlecrypt. He loved creating cryptic puzzles and delighted in the people who solved them. He would love it that others are keeping the tradition alive.

  99. 99.

    smith

    @J R in WV: 
    You certainly can’t be missing it if you knew the word “tribade.” Probably just your verbal processing style isn’t particularly sympathetic to these kinds of contortions.

  100. 100.

    prostratedragon

    “Detainee repatriated, hangs around every bash (6)”

    Yet some wonder that another thing for which the British are known is murder mysteries. But really, I’ve been meaning to get into cryptics for a while. Maybe Dr. Price’s article and the resources in it will get me over the edge. Or should I say drive.

  102. 102.

    Almost Retired

    This has been a great discussion and thread.  I always blew past the Cryptic Crosswords when they appear on the puzzle pages of the Sunday NY Times.  I just assumed that I had reached the “old dog” stage when it came to “new tricks” like this.  But today I pulled up a couple of these puzzles and spent a beautiful 85 degree weekend afternoon on the couch working on them, when I should be playing outside with the other kids.

  104. 104.

    NoraLenderbee

    Sometimes, even after I figure out the answer I can’t quite see how the clue leads to it. 17 down, 21 down, 28 across.

  114. 114.

    Dr. Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)

    @stinger: You refer to “Easy”, or to “Expensive Vocabulary”, or “Excruciverbiage”?  The last of those was my bride’s creation.  She has no use for cryptics (“I don’t understand that stuff at all, but you do you”) but does not mind being the artistic director.

  116. 116.

    Jill

    @WaterGirl: I am addicted to cryptics and have really enjoyed the Australian ones done by David Astle.Initially they were impossible, and I did have to learn some Aussie slang and geography; but there is an online site called DA Trippers that’s quite helpful

  119. 119.

    Zinsky

    I gave up crossword puzzles right after I finished college about forty years ago.  I found that I was wasting two to three hours per day, just doing puzzles and the real world intruded.  They are an addiction, no doubt….

  120. 120.

    mle

    Thanks so much! I have been a huge fan of cryptics since the 70s. ( I miss Henry Hook). I think it helps if you start young. Also looking at clue answers if you are stumped and trying to see how the clue gets you there. I did compose a few puzzles many years ago, before computers so sadly now lost to time. But I do remember my favorite clue – not quite according to rules, but the clue itself had a theme:
    Spanky whips Buckwheat and Alfalfa (5)

  124. 124.

    Kelly Price

    It has been suggested that I leave an additional comment, so here is that. I am also responsible for the cover art on all Dr. Price’s Excruciverbiage books. If you like the art, cool. If you don’t, well, I tried.

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