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#24000 03/22/01 11:39 PM
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Simple good old fashioned cryptic clues combined with instructions like:

Half of the clues are in the right place. The other half are displaced by the amount hinted at in 16A and 5D. Of those that are in the right place half are to be entered directly and the other half are anagrams.

Oh, yeah--I love those! Take a while, but tons of fun.

Then I finished a Harper's puzzle and the addiction was broken.
Mine was broken when I found this place!






#24001 03/23/01 11:49 AM
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I love the cryptics, particularly The (UK) Times, but then I'm British. A lot of the clues are real groaner puns and other wordplay. Though I try the USA Today type crosswords just to show up my lack of USA trivia knowledge.

Rod Ward

#24002 03/23/01 01:35 PM
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wwh Offline
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Dear Rod: how about a comparison of US trivia with UK trivia? Or is the comparison trivial?
And by the way, what would you call quadrivial?


#24003 03/23/01 02:57 PM
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On the subject of crosswords... I'm curious as to how many people here:
1) Do them,
2) Use pen, and
3) Whether you use caps or lower case letters.

In the spirit of some of the other polling that seems to be in vogue around here these days... Feel free to weigh in by private, and I'll accumulate the statistics for my own nefarious and esoteric purposes.


#24004 03/23/01 03:38 PM
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Crossword poll

I do them, but only the most difficult. Anything understood to be of lesser difficulty is too easy and boring. I do them in ink, all caps, and I never use any dictionary or source outside my own head -- that would be cheating, and if I can't do a puzzle without cheating, the hell with it.


#24005 03/24/01 02:02 PM
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I do the crosswords with a pen (don't own any pencils) or, if I am in a resto and reading their paper I do them in my head.

I always use a version of shorthand caps. Depending upon how I feel, I will write small neat caps that fit inside the boxes or big bold caps that fill entire box and sometimes overlap the lines.

When I do the Gazette crossword puzzle I do it with my left hand (I am a righty). Perhaps Bill can explain this to me. When I do it with my right hand, I can usually finish it off in 10 to 15 minutes. If I use my left hand the answers don't come as easily and it can take me some 5 to ten minutes more. If I get stuck on a word, a switch to my right hand will make the word pop into my head.

I never finish the NY Times crossword. There are so many references to U.S. people and events that I have NO clue about. I am always amazed that people in the U.S. will know the name of the wife of the guy that lost the presidential election in 1946.

Cryptics...well, I haven't gotten past the "what on earth are they going on about" stage.

Oh and, one grrrr point...crossword solving is contagious; my son has now taken to sneaking the crosswords out of the paper and finishing them off before I even get a look at 'em.


#24006 03/24/01 02:38 PM
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>my son has now taken to sneaking the crosswords out of the paper and finishing them off before I even get a look at 'em.
-------------------------------------------
Show him how to work the duplicating machine!



#24007 03/24/01 02:49 PM
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And be glad he is becoming a linguaphile.


#24008 03/25/01 12:17 PM
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I used to do cryptics a lot, mainly the Guardian, the Times, and the Telegraph. I did them in biro with capital letters. I even had a go at composing some myself five or six years ago. Unfortunately the diskette where I had the ones I'd made and the clues went missing when I was moving house and I never had the heart to start again. I still do the ones from English Today: they have prizes. I've actually won some good books off them like the 2nd Edition of the Cambridge Encylopedia of Language. I've looked at the ones from the Listener but never managed more than about one clue per puzzle.

In case you were wondering why I don't do them much any more. A certain bulletin board takes up all my time.

Bingley


Bingley
#24009 03/25/01 05:11 PM
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Congratulations on your prizes, Bingley. I am not surprised in the least.
What is the Listener, please?


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