To round off the Mekong collection of opaque clues, here’s a raft from various Times puzzles, with a few Guardians for good measure. I have several theories about these, but urge you to float your own, and together we may plumb these chickens into clarity, if my metaphor hasn’t pulled a vital muscle by now.
Fact is, [...]
Back in March this year, a crossword clue in the LA Times read: Word that rhymes with its opposite.
The answer in the end was FIRE (rhyming with HIRE), yet the clue sparked a hunt to find other pairs. Limiting the quest to words of one syllable (thus ditching all those CREATE/ANNIHILATE duos), I fudged a dozen-strong list [...]
Rolling down the Mekong, you get some QCT – or Quality Crossword Time. While my fellow crewmates took snaps of limestone tors and albino bullocks, kids splashing and men throwing catfish nets, I wrestled with Pasquale and Shed, Paul and Araucaria, Hendra and Logodaedalus in an old Guardian collection, plus a slew of other English [...]
Three weeks away in southeast Asia, and already the rice paddies are waning in the mind’s eye, quicker than the tropical suntan. Thoese fugitive words of Laos and Vietnamese are also working loose: sayanora Sabadi, ciao xin jow.
But one keepsake that’s proving harder to shake is my insurance policy, all 29 pages of it. While [...]
We speak in bites, grabs, tweets. As my last post discussed [in brief], art and media are being boiled to their marrow, a menu of morsels for the time-poor. And the last book I read [quickly] underpins the craze: Three Minutes or Less: Life Lessons from America’s Greatest Writers.
In short, here’s a smatter of succinct [...]
Brief is looming as the new long – going by the boom of short plays, short films, short stories. Last month, at the annual Webby Awards, prizes issued to the best in Net-land, winners were challenged to give five-word acceptance speeches. Among the orations:
YouTube: Thank God for short attention spans.
The Onion: Free all attractive political [...]
If tigers and lions create baby ligers, or tigons, depending on the dam, these clues splice two of the cryptic recipes, by far the hardest clue of any stripe. Again, out of mercy, I supply both answer length and initial.
Senior priest holding Mass at two in old city (7/P) [Viking]
Family doctor warns about seafood (4,6/K) [...]
If CREATED is E inside CRATED, what are these container clues? I’ve supplied both answer length AND an initial to help you navigate these ornery six.
Doctor binds a fracture (3/G) [Times 8368]
Current in river – or is it still? (5/P) [Virgilius]
Gun sure to grab attention (7/F) [Paul]
Dummy plugs supplied at a loss (9/F) [Times 8294]
Girl [...]
Punt may mean a river boat, a kick, or a wine bottle’s hollow. Ready for a punt with these double-meaning clues of 2009, the pick of the calendar’s top half.
Make fast journey in other people’s cars (5) [Orlando]
Couple prepare for impact (5) [Times 8294]
I could be Irish (6) [Cinephile]
Went off as the revolver did (6) [Alaun]
Accepted [...]
You, we hear, may be ewe. Or yew. Or U. You ready? Here are the best sound clues (so far) of 2009.
Veil passed over the ears (4) [???]
A jousting contest said to be brief (8) [Times 8271]
Suffering a cold, talk about other source of milk (5) [Mudd]
Driver sounded horn (9) [Times ???]
Heard question about identity [...]