Gosh, it’s been a while since I had the time to write about cryptic puzzles that I liked, so if you’ll indulge me as I try to get the ol’ blogging back into gear, let me direct you to the newest* puzzle from joeadultman, called “Guess Who #2.” I think you should solve it, obviously, and here are a few excerpted clues to explain why.
- [Cooking on the grill, but when last cut of meat is gone, yelling (9)] Joe’s really good at surfaces, and what I mean by that is, the indicators are smooth. “Cooking on the grill” doesn’t sound like an anagrind and anagrist, it’s just the thing that’s being done here, and a thing that would be done with cuts of meat.
- [Red meat of hamburger well done for kids (3,4)] Another instance of a smooth phrase not going as you’d expect with “Red meat of hamburger well done.” Anybody can look up a list of cryptic indicators online, but my favorite constructors are the ones who find ones that work for the specific surface, in this case “meat of” to indicate a middle letter. The synonym for “well done” is also fun: I appreciate constructors who are not afraid to play with a bit of slang here and there. Words are added to the dictionary based on usage; ergo, people have to start using a word before it’s formally recognized, and those who get on the bandwagon early are writing cutting-edge cryptics.
- [Affirmative votes to adopt truce finally brought about peace (3,2)] In addition to surfaces, Joe’s got a good ear for deceptive definitions. The use of “truce” strongly indicates that we’re looking for a definition of “peace” that means the cessation of war, just as “brought about” seems like an indicator of that definition. Not so; we’re talking about “Peace” as a line of departure and “brought about” not as “caused” but as “reversed.”
- [NY NEIGHBOR TOTORO is misprinted (around N) (7)] Here’s another instance of Joe taking a familiar phrase—in this case, a classic Miyazaki film—but doing a fun little meta twist on it by misspelling it and then having the rest of the surface comment on that; what fun!
- [Terrible bearing, small clump of hair: he’s Charlie Brown, famously (9)] My favorite clue in the puzzle, not just because the punctuation isn’t splitting the cryptic and straight definitions, but because of how descriptive the first half of the clue is of the second. The only way to get any straighter would be with an &lit, and as those sometimes sacrifice smoothness, I’ve come to prefer this sort of cluing.
- [Primarily song titles, arranged in a particular order! (3,4)] That said, I do appreciate &lits: they embody the sort of economy that I’m looking for in clues, where the most appropriate indicators are always the ones being used. With an &lit, there’s nowhere to hide: each bit has to work perfectly to convey both halves of the clue, and that’s what’s happening here.
*Newest as of the publication of this article, but I’m fairly certain that I still think you should solve whatever Joe’s newest cryptic happens to be.
I can’t promise to regularly post about clues I like, but if y’all keep writing stuff this consistently good, I’ll have no choice.
The Crossword Scholar 