[HN Gopher] Stephen Sondheim on How to Do a Crossword Puzzle (1968)
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Stephen Sondheim on How to Do a Crossword Puzzle (1968)
Author : library
Score : 56 points
Date : 2021-12-02 20:42 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (nymag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (nymag.com)
| dekhn wrote:
| my parents solve these and tried to get me interested. I looked
| at them and said they would be a good test for AGI.
| chmaynard wrote:
| What a fine writer. Posts like this are why I follow Hacker News.
| dekhn wrote:
| you might want to see some of his other work, including West
| Side Story (retelling of Romeo and Juliet itself a retelling of
| another story) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the
| Forum....
| tangus wrote:
| Cryptic crosswords sound like fun. Unfortunately, at least in the
| Guardian's and the Independent's[*], words cross only every
| second letter. That, in addition to the cryptic clues, makes them
| too difficult for me.
|
| [*] Those are the ones Forkyz (crossword Android app) provides.
| objclxt wrote:
| I don't use Forkyz but The Guardian has an introductory cryptic
| every Monday (the "Quiptic") which is somewhat easier.
|
| I also find it depends on the setter: Qaos (one of The
| Guardian's setters) is a mathematician and software engineer,
| and his clues tend to be a bit more analytical and attuned to
| my sensibilities.
|
| The Guardian also has a blog with a number of explainers and
| guides for those getting started:
| https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog
| tclancy wrote:
| I've been trying to get into cryptic after getting really good at
| American crosswords but it's just so hard to find enough success
| to keep coming back. A number of constructors do offer hint
| versions now if you're a better person/ more stubborn that me.
| https://squarepursuit.com/
| earlgray wrote:
| I grew up with the Times crossword over dinner. We're not the
| most talkative family so a puzzle gives us something to do
| together while we're eating. A few observations, learned from
| introducing various other people to the hobby over the years:
|
| 1) The number one problem for new people is simply absorbing the
| rules of how to parse a clue. The linked article does a good job
| of going through these. Try to avoid the sense of learned
| hopelessness that often sets in early on.
|
| 2) The second most common isue is not managing in practice to get
| away from a literal reading. You need to take every word in
| isolation and try to escape the inevitable misdirection. For
| example, if the word 'rose' is in a clue that also contains the
| word 'flower', it's very unlikely that you're supposed to read
| 'flower' to mean something with petals. You need to think of any
| possible interpretation other than the obvious one. The classic
| second meaning here would be to read it as 'something that
| flows', which will mean the name of a river. Which brings us
| neatly onto the third difficulty:
|
| 3) Cryptic crosswords are heavily grounded in old-fashioned
| English culture. A reference to a river could mean a major
| international river or an obscure one from the British Isles, but
| it would be considered unfair to refer to an obscure river from
| another country. There are also some incredibly dusty references:
| 'sailor' could mean 'tar' (an archaic english slang that now
| exists only in crosswords) or 'AB' for 'able-bodied [seaman]'.
| 'Men' could refer to 'RA' (Royal Artillery) or 'RE' (Royal
| Engineers) among other things. One of the worst is 'posh' (or
| synonyms of it) to clue the letter 'u', which comes from high-
| society slang in the early-mid 20th century. 'Home counties'
| would be SE for South East [of England]. Cockney rhyming slang
| also often features, among many other things.
|
| Problem 3 is the most insurmountable. It's also largely
| unfixable. If the range of acceptable references were broadened,
| it would become almost impossible for anyone to finish any given
| puzzle. But the references were fixed at a time that is no longer
| relevant and provides a huge barrier to entry for new people,
| which is why I expect these puzzles will largely die out over the
| next generation.
|
| The bottom line is that if you feel like you struggle with
| cryptic crosswords, it's probably not because you're being
| stupid. There's a surprising amount of domain-specific knowledge
| you have to absorb, and in the best of cases any given puzzle
| will typically contain one or two absolute stinkers. A few
| references to help:
|
| 1) A list of common abbreviations:
| https://www.dummies.com/games/crossword-puzzles/cryptic-cros...
|
| 2) A website that solves clues and tries to explain:
| https://www.crosswordgenius.com/
|
| 3) A blog where people solve puzzles and explain them so you can
| learn how it works: https://www.fifteensquared.net/
|
| 4) I haven't seen squarepursuit before (linked by tclancy) but it
| looks like an excellent resource.
|
| A few random tips:
|
| 1) Try to get the clues from the first row and the first column
| early on, as these give you starting letters for other clues
|
| 2) Get used to looking for anagram indicators. 'drunk', 'rotten',
| 'altered', anything like that. The other anagram indicator is
| always from adding up letters: if the answer is nine letters,
| look for combinations of words that add up to nine letters. Once
| you identify them, anagrams are a solid place to start once
| you've looked at the first row/column.
|
| 3) If possible, crosswords are best done with company. Everyone
| thinks in different ways.
|
| 4) Be wary of fish references. These can be incredibly obscure,
| and often indicate that setter was struggling to clue the last
| few letters so just googled them and found some vietnamese river
| fish that fit the bill.
|
| 5) If you're truly fed up, you can use a thesaurus on the word
| that you think is the definition. This is a bad habit, but if it
| lets you open up the puzzle a bit then it might be the right
| course of action.
|
| My favourite clue ever: 'geg' (9-3)
| scottdupoy wrote:
| I've been attempting cryptic crosswords for 20+ years and this
| is a great answer.
|
| My favourite clues: Die of cold (3-4) hijklmno (5)
|
| All the tips you've given won't help with either of those, or
| your 'geg' clue, which is interesting. Maybe the best clues are
| all about lateral thinking.
| dado3212 wrote:
| Rot-13 I think these are VPR PHOR and JNGRE?
| scottdupoy wrote:
| Correct!
| openfuture wrote:
| This article is a nerd snipe. Be forewarned.
|
| I had some hallucinations of spending the next decades solving
| crossword puzzles as I read that, but they seem so arbitry I
| would go crazy, I'll stick to mathematics puzzles.
| dorchadas wrote:
| Where do you get your mathematics puzzles?
| sirdavidof wrote:
| It seems like a certain type of mind would be great at this. I
| wonder what else being good at cryptic crosswords correlates
| with.
| fancyfredbot wrote:
| Cryptic crosswords were supposedly used to recruiter
| codebreakers to work at Bletchley park
| thom wrote:
| Cryptic crosswords make me feel very stupid. Even when I give up
| and look at the answers, some of the time I don't even understand
| how the clue suggests the answer, despite practising for several
| years. That's when I know the word at all. It's a humbling
| experience, but still very addictive!
| thom wrote:
| Just because I want to be clear I do still love the art form, I
| was particularly tickled by this in the Guardian on Friday: Act
| unwisely and get lost (4,2).
| Tycho wrote:
| The British penchant for cryptic crosswords is the equivalent of
| the Russian enthusiasm for chess.
| JosephHatfield wrote:
| Modern-day NYT crosswords are much more like the "British"
| crosswords described in the article in that they are are often
| chock-full of clever, cryptic clues.
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