Arsinoë's Puzzling Pages

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Cryptic Crosswords

For basic explanations of the apparently inscrutable clues that populate cryptic crosswords, consider those provided (in American) by The Atlantic Monthly and Frank W. Lewis of The Nation. The Guardian provides not only a basic solving guide, but also guides to abbreviations (which prove quite useful for the American solver).

The aforementioned Guardian, the Telegraph, and the Times all publish online five to seven new puzzles per week. Directions to further puzzles (and more general cruciverbal information) may be found at crosswords.about.com.

British vs. American cryptics

Most American cryptics are published in crossword books, or as specialty puzzles in larger crossword magazines. However, reliably periodical puzzles appear in The Nation (weekly), Harper's (monthly) and The Atlantic Monthly. Of these, only the Atlantic Puzzler is freely available online.

By way of transatlantic comparison, the Nation crossword (15x15 black-square) is probably most akin to the more interesting Guardian puzzles; it often features multi-light clues, and is reasonably difficult yet occasionally quirky.

The Harper's and Atlantic puzzles are of comparable difficulty; the Atlantic Puzzler is somewhat more consistent in clue construction and employs a greater range of themes, while the Harper's puzzle is often trickier (for good and for ill). It seems that the Harper's puzzle aims to be the American equivalent of the Listener (many of its themes explicitly acknowledge that puzzle); the Atlantic Puzzler, well, doesn't. However, despite both puzzles' rigor, neither can be easily compared to presumed British equivalents.

A basic difference between the more difficult British puzzles (many of the weekend barred-diagram cryptics generally, the Listener and Azed puzzles specifically) and their American counterparts lies in the permissible vocabulary. In the Harper's and Atlantic puzzles, obscure words and variant spellings are quite rare, and usually explicitly indicated when they do appear. Meanwhile, British puzzles of similar cleverness blithely litter their grids with hordes of words not found in most unabridged dictionaries. When a puzzle suggests that Chambers [the British dictionary] is recommended, the warning should be taken very, very seriously.

Further and better information concerning these more difficult species of crosswords may be found at The Crossword Centre and its accompanying mailing list.

Acrostics

Acrostic puzzles are also known as crostics, anacrostics, quote-acrostics, and double acrostics, thanks to the idiosyncrasies of branding strategies and copyright laws. They feature the simultaneous solution of a series of clues, a quotation, and an acrostic (the initial letters of the clue answers, which usually reveal the source of the quotation). The accompanying figure describes the basic mechanics of this sort of puzzle.

Variations upon the ordinary acrostic puzzle include the cryptic acrostic, where the clues are of the sort found in cryptic crosswords, and the diagramless acrostic, where the quotation grid does not indicate breaks between words. These may also be combined.

Like cryptics in the United States, the most consistent sources of published acrostics are specialized books and crossword magazines. The New York Times acrostics (published biweekly) are only available online via subscription. Again, crosswords.about.com (or a favorite search engine) should provide directions to and further information about acrostic puzzles.

And now for something slightly different... Jigsaws

In a textual jigsaw puzzle, the answers to the usual series of clues comprise contiguous pieces of the grid (with their letters interestingly jumbled); these are appropriately fitted together to reveal the puzzle's answer. Given that the jigsaw isn't quite a crossword (as none of the answers actually cross), and isn't an acrostic (as the clues' answers' initial letters possess no additional meaning), this sort of puzzle seems to warrant its own category.

For the moment, please direct requests for explanations (or any other correspondence) through this address.

Thank you.