Welcome, Richard Maltby fans

By popular demand, I'm opening up a thread for comments on the Richard Maltby cryptic titled "Hidden Meanings" in the October 2012 issue of Harper's.

The thread kicked off during Sunday brunch when Meg asked whether the straight definition in 34a should have been in past tense.  That (plus the fact that she'd gotten her print copy of the puzzle before Harpers' published it online) got me interested enough to stop off at the library last night to get it right away.

I made like a busy beaver and worked on the SE corner first.  Sure enough, Meg is right.  Here's how I parsed 34a:

ADU(*LATE)D. *TALE (anagram indicated by "reprinted") contained in ("environmentally") A DUD ("a failure"). 

I did finish the puzzle last night.  As Meg notes, Maltby varies the level of difficulty and his harder puzzles usually take me two or three sittings.  There's no unusual wordplay in this one (unlike many of his puzzles): just six long unclued entries, each of which is a groan-inducing pun.

So, Harpers' solvers and WSJ commenters, welcome.  Any friend of Meg's is a friend of mine.  I'll fetch another mourvèdre from the cellar for you.  Feel free to use the comments space for questions, hint requests, and other cryptic chatter.  I'll cross-post Meg's follow-up to get things started.

--Braze

Good old paper... (Puzzle No. 3,251)

I got the paper copy of the September 24 Nation today, so now we have number 3,251.  And it's a fun one: notice the first letters of each clue.  Also four 15-letter phrases and two 13s give our constructors an opportunity for some creative cluing.

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/169736/puzzle-no-3251

Hozom’s comment: “The War Against Cliché.”  Here’s your chance to request that Hot and Trazom permanently banish whatever bit of crosswordese (like “Oslo” maybe?) or crypticese annoys you most.

Themework: see 24a.  Most of it is pretty natural, but a few of them are jarring enough to make it obvious there’s a theme here.

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): average.  The real challenge is in working out some of the wordplay (like 4d and 13a) as Meg does.  

solution and annotation below the fold

Anyone for seconds? (Sunday brunch: September 16, 2012)

What do you do when the person who was supposed to serve you is out sick, and brunch isn't served? Open up a box of pop tarts!  The full (!) names of ten entertainers (not just tarts) were included in Hex's National Post cryptic last week, so there's plenty for everyone.

Hex also had a variety cryptic in the Wall Street Journal last Saturday.  The gimmick was a set of 10 unclued answers, each one with one fewer letter than the last.  And of course the 12-letter starting word is a fine description of your task.

The New York Times had an acrostic.  I'll go back to solving them when they give us a Java app like the WSJ has.  

Now, on to this week's menu.  The Times has a "Split Decisions" word game.  And we're still waiting for the October Harpers' and a fresh Richard Maltby.

It's football season, so we have Marching Bands from Mike Shenk at the WSJ for your entertainment.  If the puzzle does not display properly in your browser, click on the "open publication" link below it.

Falcon will be around with the dessert tray shortly.  Let me recommend another light Hex cryptic to finish the meal, and an espresso made with the new low-tech but elegant Aeropress.  Thanks to Raydoc for sending me one.  Like one of the reviewers said, it gives you the flavor of a coffee from the Starbucks Clover machine, without having to go miles out of your way for one.

Do please take a mint on your way out: FT 14,104 from last weekend (constructed by Mudd):
12a: Got a screw loose? These should help! (4)
(solved under the fold)

We're back! (Puzzle No. 3,252)

The technical glitch at thenation.com seems to have been a one-week thing, and the puzzle is back where it belongs this week.  A double brunch will be served this weekend (the health department wouldn't let me offer brunch while I was sick with a cold).

The new puzzle (3,252) is impressive for the limited use of routine rebus clues, and for more literals than I’ve seen in a cryptic of this quality.  I’ll forgive one piece of obscure fill (16d) if it’s at least an interesting word.  Clever cluing (this one was just ordinary) also can excuse fill like this, but using an anagram for such an obscure word almost ensures that solvers have to go to the dictionary or Google to finish the puzzle.

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/169865/puzzle-no-3252

Difficulty (by standards of this puzzle): somewhat hard.  It took me a while to get a toehold, but then I made steady progress around the grid. 16d is obscure.

Hozom's commentary: "Georges Perec on Puzzles" in which we learn much more about the Frenchman who wrote a novel that never used the letter 'E' (quite a challenge in French) and then wrote a novel in which the only vowel used was 'E.'  Did you know he also wrote a 1,247 word palindrome?  Wow!  Go read Word Salad for more.

Solution and annotation below the fold.

We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please stand by.

There's a broken link at The Nation, so this week's puzzle is not available yet.  Keep watching this space.

Update 9/13: The link is still broken.  Solution and comments when I get my my paper copy of the puzzle.

Four by two

While you're waiting for this week's puzzle (technical problems over at thenation.com), have a crack at 7d from FT 14,097 set by Gurney.  I managed to finish this one, and 7d was the last answer to fall.

From the start seaman at home with computers, over the moon? (2,6)
Crossing letters are A* I*I*I*.

answer under the fold

Individual Medley (Sunday brunch: September 2, 2012)

If you count the puzzle from The Nation, we have an individual medley for puzzlers this week.

The first leg, butterfly, is Hot and Trazom's puzzle (see link in "Comprehension exam" below).  Like the swimming stroke, it's a challenge to do well, but if you're good at it, you'll find the results are elegant.

Second: backstroke.  The Puns and Anagrams puzzle in the NYT (a Mel Taub creation) fills this slot. This isn't quite a regular cryptic either: closer to the British rules in terms of cluing with lots of anagrams and some double definitions.  If you don't see an indicator for the type of wordplay, start by assuming it's an anagram.  Deb Amlen will have comment at http://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/http://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/.

Next up?  Breaststroke.  It's the most different stroke, with arms staying in the water the whole time, which also slows you down.  You'll need different solving skills from the cryptics  (most importantly a broad selection of words to sift through in your head) to get through Patrick Berry's "Section Eight" in the Wall Street Journal.

If you've made it through the first three, turn for home and solve the National Post cryptic by Hex (link to Falcon's forum).  You should be able to get through it without coming up for air more than two or three times.

I should have kept a stopwatch on my The Nation solution this week: it'd be fun to see if my predictions pan out as far as which leg will be fastest.