ilan caron

12:04 pm: fifteensquared has moved...
New location is: http://fifteensquared.net.

12:01 pm: Tuesday Times
I've switched to the Tuesday Times as well (from my heretofore steady diet of Sunday Times) -- which is a nice change.

http://community.livejournal.com/times_xwd_times

06:12 pm: From Sunday Times to Times
Thanks to Neil Talbot and Peter Biddlecombe, I'm also shifting from doing the Sunday Times to the daily -- looks like Tuesday will be my slot. This will be a different kettle of fish since I've kind of twigged the Sunday puzzles. Wish me luck.

http://community.livejournal.com/times_xwd_times.

06:01 pm: promotion
Newsflash: I'm now on the rota for Azed as well. (note to self: must memorize Chambers). I'm also no longer the Sole Rufus Solver...

http://fifteensquared.wordpress.com

12:59 am: Guardian blog as well
I'm also contributing to the Independent/Guardian blog as well (run by Neil Wellard)... I've volunteered to solve and comment on the Observer's Everyman on Sunday and The Guardian's Monday puzzle (usually Rufus and usually on the gentler side as befits my skillset!)

http://fifteensquared.wordpress.com

03:22 pm: blog lying fallow: shifted to community
As you can probalby tell, this blog has been lying fallow for a couple of months. I've started to participate regularly in the Times community cryptic puzzle solutions (organized by Peter Biddlecombe). I'm doing the analysis for the Sunday Times puzzle -- which I can solve in its entirety within 1/2h typically. Given that I now own a copy of Chambers -- that job is that much easier.

http://community.livejournal.com/times_xwd_times

05:34 am: test community posting
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together

06:28 pm: cryptically preoccupied
Events on the northern border of Israel have had me preoccupied a bit lately. When in Israel my office is in Haifa. I don't think they can really aim those rockets extremely well -- Haifa is a fairly large target so it's rather random. You'd think I'd get more cryptics done sitting in the shelter -- but, no, it's somewhat a social scene. Everyone getting together and exchanging war stories -- as it were.

I do recognize that the other side's getting the worse of it. And I don't envy them.

Anyway, today's Friday Telegraph #25056 has a couple of things to keep my mind unpreoccupied:
20A: "Come into American HQ avoiding the front entrance" (5) must be ENTER given the crossing letters, but I can't see the wordplay?

On the other hand, 21D: "Tease the 'unmanned' female of the family" (5) is quite clever. Tease == TAUNT, remove HE from "the", (i.e. "unman" it) and follow it with a female member of the family (AUNT)... who often herself is "unmanned" and single.

Tags: cryptic crosswords

10:08 am: cryptic caravan
Every once in a while a cryptic definition crops up that is both misleading and satisfying once solved. Just went through an old (syndicated) Telegraph cryptic from probably the last couple of years and encountered: "Travelling home" (7) -- this looks like a good candidate for a double definition (especially considering that "home" can be a verb) but ends up being CARAVAN. The combination of misdirection and literal meaning makes for a good cryptic definition.

Unless I've got it all wrong.

And I might add thank goodness for the brief lull in World Cup activities -- but Wimbledon and the Tour de France come close on its heels so I can't really see significant contribution to the world of cryptics in the near future.

Tags: cryptic crosswords

01:57 pm: cryptic quarterfinal
Gary Lineker's well-known epigram about football again proved all too true yesterday... "Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win" -- there was an inevitability about it as soon as they equalized late in the game. Where was Messi?

Which doesn't bring me to the point of this item: today's Telegraph #25033: 13A: "Ordinary person who is not politically correct" (8) must be EVERYMAN. Is this a dig at the Observer's cryptic? Or is this another type of dig at the Archie Bunker mentality of the proletarian? (how's that for PC?)

Tags: cryptic crosswords

05:40 am: it's a cryptic world cup...
This blog has suffered from some serious competition from the world cup -- not that the world cup itself always provides serious competition. Last night's Italy/USA game showed that the goal was really providing farcical entertainment with each nation providing a performance true to national character.

Anyway, all this goes to show that my attention is wandering away from cryptics: first to my iPod (now permanently connected to the flat screen TV, providing far too many hours of commercial-free entertainment) and now to the world cup also providing far too many hours of commercial-free entertainment. No game is beneath contempt. Well, except for France/Switzerland.

The truth of the matter is that only half a brain is still available. So I just do the Daily Telegraph. Which at least isn't too much of a distraction. Though I'm somewhat disappointed that the setters aren't incorporating the world cup cryptically. At least I haven't noticed -- have they?

And what's the NOT doing in Saturday's Telegraph (#25021) 26A: "Madeira question not constructed in Middle East" (4)

Tags: cryptic crosswords

09:05 pm: cryptic cathedral
The Sunday Times cryptic #4175 has no spelling errors nor obvious semantic errors which makes a nice change. And it was rather an easy puzzle to solve -- though I'm not sure I see why 10A: "See a building here!" should, as it must, be CATHEDRAL -- why?

Likewise, 24A: "I clamp Ian cruelly -- then towers required" (9) has both a very weak surface and is an easy anagram to solve. Unless there's some witty relationship between clamps and bell towers that escapes me.

25A: "Floppy headless monkey" (3) left me feeling rather queasy once my mind's eye kicked in.

Actually the more I think about it, the quality of the surface definitions by and large is weak... some more samples:
"Being out of work returning to fielding in the middle" (4)
"Basis of rat on rotten torso" (4-4)

One marginally clever clue redeems the puzzle a bit... "He gets the sack and stamps inside" (7) -- I never seem to hear my postman probably because she doesn't stamp.

Tags: cryptic crosswords

04:28 pm: orwellian cryptic
Today's Guardian #23782 has a nice twist in this clue: "Blair's service to Catalonia?" (6). I was rather pleased with myself for remembering that George Orwell had written a memoir of his Spanish Civil War experiences: "Homage to Catalonia" and that Eric Blair was Orwell's nom de plume (not sure why he took a pseudonym??). So this qualifies as doublespeak indeed!

I'm quite puzzled by 8D though: "When it's musty, the plane shakes" (8) -- given the crossing E?E????? must be ELEPHANT == anag("the plane") -- but how does mustiness relate?

And of course having just written that, the penny dropped -- it must have something to with elephant's going into must once a year. A nice clue after all. And my obtuseness just about balances out HOMAGE.

Tags: cryptic crosswords

08:16 am: el dorado cryptically
Meagre output in this blog last month. Excuses must be submitted. Namely, I've been traveling in Central Europe. Slumming it a bit in internet cafes but mainly in 4-star etc. hotels. Without my laptop. So I was unshackled from my online bonds. Every once in a while I encountered an FT. Which brings me to El Dorado.

Today's #12,164 by Sleuth has: "Director in part retired faces difficulty -- finding area of great wealth?" (2, 6) which has to be EL DORADO (though frankly I can't work out exactly how... indeed??). Likewise, yesterday's FT included EL DORADO as well -- not sure what the clue was precisely but it involved anagramming "London" without "points north" or some such.

I'm no longer surprised by these coincidences but at least it shows my short-term memory hasn't completely rotted away.

Tags: cryptic crosswords

11:30 am: cryptic spam
After a long hiatus of rather lukewarm interest in cryptics -- probably because other things in my life were more compelling... ok, I admit it. I bought a new iPod -- the video kind.

Last week's Everyman (#3111) has me v. puzzled about the secondary definition for SPAM. "Junk mail - plans for circulation" (4).

Oh... again the penny dropped. Just as I was writing out the clue. Of course, it's another indirect anagram -- of "maps" (I can never remember the rules here... The Times disallows them? but the Guardian doesn't?).

I wonder whether this clue will stand the test of time... spamming being a v. modern internet-fueled phenomenon. Which most email servers spend their time on... identifying and then removing.

I'm thus left with one clue that escapes me: 20A: "Despicable person, close to forty, grovelling" (5) -- even with the crossing: W_R_Y. Why would it be any of {wordy, warty, worry, wormy...}. What have I missed?

Tags: cryptic crosswords

10:54 am: new words
It goes without saying that virtually every time I solve a cryptic I learn something new. Sometimes because something catches my eye when scouring the dictionary (for some reason I found myself reading up on "prison sex" today... perhaps it's all those Harlan Coben thrillers I've been not putting down lately). Often though it's simple ignorance.

Sunday's Everyman (Observer #3109) -- not the hardest cryptic around: certainly in difficulty terms one notch below The Times -- introduced me to "trout" in the sense of tiresome woman: "Solicitor protecting right of interfering old woman" (5). I've probably seen this before but I had to reinforce this belief with the dictionary entry. In addition, an "imperial" beard (thanks to Napoleon III) from: "Sovereign's small beard" (8).

I didn't know that the town of Hyde was in the Greater Manchester area nor in fact that there was an English Hyde other than the park: "Before beginning of autumn, called into Gtr Manchester town for a plant" (9) -- though I think I'd be able to distinguish between a daffodil and a hydrangea.

As for "First to criticise article about river bird" (5) -- I prematurely and sloppily convinced myself (in ink) that this should be CRANE -- there was enough to go on at first blush: first to criticise = C, R == river, article == "AN" , "RE" = about. Not hard to see the flaw in this reasoning with a bit of patience. The answer is really CAPON -- which again I know I've seen before -- but since I don't typically deal on a daily basis with male castrated chickens, this eluded me.

Tags: cryptic crosswords

09:10 am: modifiers
I know it's considered a bit infra-dig to do the Sunday Times cryptic, but I actually enjoy it. It's sufficiently challenging to keep me involved but not put-offingly difficult like other puzzles (Azed, Listener and the like that require some serious quality time). And I'm no longer prudishly shocked by the occasional editorial lapse.

This week's #4169 has a few words that while actually contrived aren't very common modifications of common words. E.g. "Region one leaves ere going in when it's free from control" (10) is DERESTRICT. Possibly common in legalese and/or politics. Likewise, "A foreign worker full of bitterness and lacking courtesy" (9) is UNGALLANT. I suppose this is a bit more acceptable.

Finally, I struggle with understanding why "So, traditionally, you must keep soldiers as supporters" (9) must be THEREFORE. Which must parse as: THE(REFOR)E -- "traditionally, you" = THEE -- but I don't see why REFOR is "soldiers".

Oh, the penny just dropped. It's actually THE(RE+FOR)E. RE = soldiers (royal engineers) and FOR = "as supporters".

Well, at least this time my intuition held.

Tags: cryptic crosswords

09:11 am: no longer haunted
No longer haunted by "Paradise Now" I can return to the subtleties of cryptic clues -- a domain in which, as far as I know, no untoward acts of violence or aggression have ever disturbed the cryptic solver's concentration. I did see "Hidden" (Daniel Auteiul/Juliette Binoche) the other day -- also haunting but ultimately unsatisfying since it feels incomplete and unresolved. Perhaps that's the point?

Everyone's a critic. But not many are very good. So I'll stick with something that is somewhat more tractable.

Consider this from an older Telegraph puzzle: "So my acer tree has had to be transplanted" (8). A nice clue in that a SYCAMORE is an anagram of "so my acer" and of the genus Acer.

My quibble is that the anagram indicator ("has had to be transplanted") isn't immediately adjacent to its fodder. I wonder given the elegance of the use of Acer and the botanical "transplanted" whether this doesn't compensate?

Tags: cryptic crosswords

08:59 am: cryptics now
I saw "Paradise Now" on DVD last night. Disturbing and powerful -- and passed the test of a strong movie by triggering dreams last night. Instead of reinforcing preconceived notions, it forced me to challenge my own assumptions and attitudes -- which is a good indicator of successful art.

I wonder if the director's title choice was an allusion to "Peace Now". But perhaps that's just another bit of wishful thinking that is often prevalent here (in Israel) -- even on the left.

My main thought was that the west bank (and Gaza) has become a huge prison with more and more seething resentment. I hope that Suha's point of view is adopted by both sides.

But what does this have to do with cryptics now? Nothing. All I want do is go and have a cup of coffee and plan my next vacation somewhere with fewer internecine tensions -- probably France because "I love France, possibly for the drink there" (4, 4). And I say that knowing that the Muslim underclass in France is upset at the rate of change of French society.

Tags: cryptic crosswords

08:05 am: no more complaints
I've stopped complaining about a surfeit of Britishisms in UK crosswords: I mean it's hardly fair to expect British newspapers to stop assuming regional knowledge. Clearly the burden is on me to keep with it.

Having said that (and I meant it...), Chifonie's Guardian #23740 had me scouring through dictionaries for several clues: "Frenchman plugged hole in umbrella" (4) -- I'd never heard the term GAMP in any context, much less rainy.

Is a "Very tall, awkward swimmer" (8) familiar to most UK solvers? Turns out that TREVALLY is a fish down under.

It took me a long time to crack: "Cloth worn by unfortunate in Kentish Town" (10) -- largely because I couldn't leave London and next, even though I know that Gillingham has a soccer team, I don't associate it with Kent.

Finally, "Petty Officer's usual drink" (6) ends up being POSSET. POS is easy enough but the rest was a struggle.

I suppose I deserve a drink now. Of tea.

Tags: cryptic crosswords