Friday, June 21, 2013

On the Road, Part I (Puzzle No. 3,287)

Today finds me on the first of five trips this summer, but if there's signal and a puzzle, there'll be a post.

Link to puzzle:  http://www.thenation.com/article/174866/puzzle-no-3287

Degree of difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle):  very hard.  The solvers who complain about Hot and Trazom’s cluing will find things particularly tough.  Even those of us who like the style are probably going to miss some of the twists and rely on intersecting letters to get some of these (23a in my case).

Hozom’s comment:  From Point A to Point B (Part I), in which Hot and Trazom debate two-word answers, and particularly the ones where the answer as encoded in the wordplay is a heteronym of the answer as defined.  Methinks the correspondent that Hot and Trazom refer to as “John” protests too much.  It's a cryptic: it's meant to play with letters and words, and heteronyms are nothing if not wordplay.  Not to mention that refs play a fairly significant role in some heteronyms....

Back with the solution on Monday.  Join us this weekend for Sunday Brunch, and I'll probably throw a quick In the Pink in the mix somewhere too.



2 comments:

  1. I hope you won't mind if I post a link to a few cryptic crosswords I've created, and ask anyone who's interested to have a look (and maybe take up the challenge!) I'd be very interested in any feedback.

    crossswords dot wordpress dot com

    (note the extra 's' if typing the above :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Welcome, Xanthippe. We look forward to crossing swords with you! Was that pun intended? (as if perhaps you're a fencer?)

      Solvers, there are also some crossWHOrds over there for your enjoyment. Go pay a visit and let us know what you think.

      Delete

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