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And the correct grid is...

11/27/2021

Every once in a while, The Globe and Mail publishes the wrong grid with their cryptic crossword. The first time I saw this happened, I reverse engineered the grid and shared my hand-drawn version. Since then, I've been in touch with a lovely woman named Sally who has saved all the grids used over the years, just in case she needed to find a mismatched one in the future.

And guess what? Today's the day that we all give a collective "Thank You!" to Sally because I was able to find the right grid from her stockpile and share it with you.

Happy solving, everyone!

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Best Wishes for a Happy Cryptic Holidays

12/24/2020

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Happy Holidays!

I've made you a gift again this year: a holiday-themed cryptic crossword puzzle! I hope you enjoy it!

Safe, healthy and happy holidays to all,
Sarah

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The Fourth Wall of Cryptics

11/28/2020

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When I was student, living in Edinburgh, I attended the most wonderful performance of Dracula at the Bedlam Theatre.

The acting was creepy and superb, and the Bedlam theatre itself, being a decommissioned Neogothic church, was an ideal location, but what really blew my mind was the way the actors were not confined to the stage. Characters made dramatic entrances or exits by walking straight down the aisles, between the rows of audience members. During the intermission, one character skulked by the bar in the lobby, his demeanor growing more and more disturbed until, intermission nearly over, he made a conspicuous departure.

The troupe didn’t quite break the fourth wall—that invisible, imaginary wall that divides the actors from the audience—but they made us feel its fragility.

As you’ll know if you’ve read this blog before, the very first thing I tell someone unfamiliar with cryptic crosswords is that it’s a form of codebreaking: the answer is the message, the clue is the code, and the solver’s job is to crack it.

But something I hadn’t really thought of until I started teaching courses is that in cryptic crosswords, as in theatre, there is a kind of “fourth wall”—an invisible barrier between the setter and the solver that, when broken, connect the setter with her solver in an unexpectedly personal way.

I don’t know why I didn’t realize this before because there are so many examples of it happening.

In November of 2013, the Australian setter LR published a cryptic crossword in The Age with a message given in the first four Across answers: MEREDITH TICKET SEVERELY NEEDED. The Meredith Music Festival is an annual three-day concert held on private land in Victoria, Australia, and LR was frantic to go.

Last year, LR stepped right out through that fourth wall into the audience to shake everyone’s hand, exhausted and ecstatic (or so I picture it, anyway) when he became a father and shared his baby’s name with the world in a clue.

A few years ago, Fraser Simpson published a fantastic themed puzzle which, he said, marked a “grand occasion”. Solvers discovered, as they worked, that there was an extra letter in 16 of the answers. Putting these together, in order, revealed this message: THOUSANDTH PUZZLE. A remarkable achievement that deserved recognition.

Fraser Simpson breaks the fourth wall again today in his puzzle with these two clues:

A9: Shift focus this writer put into paper purchase (5)
D5: Hearten crossword solver beginning to buck up (4)

You can’t solve this if you don’t adopt Mr. Simpson’s point of view. When you do, it becomes clear that “this writer” in A9 is “I” and “crossword solver” in D5 is “you”.

What’s your favourite example of the fourth wall of cryptic crosswords being broken?

Happy puzzling.
Sarah

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The Creative Gifts of Confinement

7/16/2020

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Cryptic crosswords are the epitome of creativity in confinement.

There’s the confinement of the grid, which is typically square and symmetrical, with clear conventions on the placement of lights (white squares). Then there are the clues, which require mathematical precision in their construction (if you’re a Ximenean constructor like me, anyway).

One might think that confinement like this would squash any creative instinct. But instead, creativity thrives.

Just think of the all-lights grid that Fraser Simpson created for The New Yorker when told that the print magazine could not support a typical 15x15 grid. Just think of the endless parade of clever clues we read every week. A few Saturdays ago, my favourite part of Fraser Simpson’s puzzle was the way in which he used the answer of one clue as the definition portion of the next:

3 Down: Going it alone, Han? (6, 4)
4 Down: Foreign capital 3-Down (4)

When the lockdown first happened, it was still winter here and Montrealers were told not to leave their neighbourhoods. To motivate my kids to go outside, I wrote an interactive neighbourhood mystery story that is played using local landmarks as hints. I made it freely available to everyone in the community and it was so popular that I wrote a second. (You won’t be able to solve them unless you actually play the games -- sorry, non-Montrealers!)

Then, one day, I found a gorgeous locking leather briefcase being given away. The question came to me immediately: could I create an Escape Room-style game that could be played at home, without any fears of COVID exposure? Rather than break OUT of a room, could I create a game in which players break INTO the briefcase (and the myriad other locks inside)? And could I make it something that would entertain and maybe even educate kids, who have been forced to endure so much boredom during the pandemic? And couples who are longing for a fun Date Night?

It took several weeks of puzzling, and the carpentry work of my father (thanks again, Dad!), but I now have two Locked Box Mystery games available for rent: one for kids and one for adults. Adults stand to inherit a substantial sum if only they can locate the bank account number and passcode. Kids have been recruited by INTERPOL to help catch a couple of international jewelry thieves.

The reception has been incredible.
And knowing that I'm helping to create some fun where previously there was boredom is a real thrill.

Have you noticed the same thing about creativity in confinement? What has the lockdown done for your sense of creativity? And what creativity have you seen from others that's been a balm when you needed it?

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Deliberate, Three Ways.

7/11/2020

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This little gem from Fraser Simpson gave me pause a few weeks back:

Considered deprived of freedom? (11)

The lockdown was brutally difficult in my household. With two little kids home from school and daycare, and two full-time jobs that still needed to get done, plus all the usual grind of groceries and cooking and cleaning and laundry, and all the added fear of a poorly-understood yet highly contagious virus, the lockdown, that period of de-liberation, was anything but a period of ample time for thought in our household.

In fact, that wonderful Fraser Simpson clue above was part of a massive, 24x24, all-lights cryptic crosswords puzzle — something I’d heard of but never seen. But instead of a thrill of excitement on discovering the grid, I felt the bitterness of knowing I would not have the opportunity to do it. When I heard George Saunders advise his creative writing students to journal, I nearly cried. It was all I could do to meet my work deadlines and keep my kids safe and semi-entertained. Deliberation was a luxury I couldn’t afford.

And yet, the more the pressures of the lockdown squeezed me, the more something creative and thoughtful within me fought back. No matter how busy I was, my mind lapsed into periods of reflecting and imagining and planning.

I got back to blogging after a long hiatus, as you see. I took the plunge into teaching cryptic crosswords through Zoom, which I absolutely adore. I created neighbourhood-specific interactive adventure games and a form of “Escape Room in a box”, which I’ll write about in my next entry.

But all of this was hard-won. It required intention. I had to snatch minutes wherever I could (often during middle-of-the-night insomnia) and fight against the pull of despair that the news and circumstances inspired.

When my children tantrumed, fed up with the confinement and isolation and fear, I had to dig deep (very deep) for emotional resolve.

But then again, so did everyone. No matter our circumstances, no matter how relatively easy it was or how rough, we all had to become very deliberate in our actions, from the medically necessary (washing hands and not touching our faces) to the aspirational (exercising more, following through on learning new skills).

I came across this article from the BBC a few weeks ago about people who have received surprising messages of apology from their exes (and another one published yesterday). When I first read it, all I saw was the de-liberation of confinement and the deliberation it provoked. But these thoughtful individuals were also deliberate: they didn’t just think about how they had treated their exes poorly, they deliberately got in touch and apologized.

I’m still working out how I can do “deliberate” three ways in a clue, bringing in the intentionality that Fraser Simpson’s clue didn’t have. Here’s my best attempt so far:

Think “lock up?” on purpose (10)

But I’m sure you can do better. How would you clue all three definitions of “deliberate”?

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When the student is ready...

7/8/2020

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It's incredibly exciting and satisfying to receive emails from readers who say that the tutorial on this blog helped them learn to solve cryptics.

It's even more fun to see them learn face to face, which is why I've launched a six-part course introducing people to cryptic crosswords. It's taught through Zoom, so it's available to everyone, anywhere in the world. There are weekly lessons, plus worksheets to help the concepts sink in.

If you'd like to take one, or if someone you know might enjoy it, send me a message through the Contact Me link to learn about rates and the upcoming course schedules.

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And the correct grid is...

6/6/2020

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If, like me, you awake on Saturday morning with a thrill of excitement, knowing that Fraser Simpon's cryptic crossword awaits you in the Globe & Mail, you will have felt crushing disappointment this morning. In today's puzzle, the clues don't match the grid.

This isn't the first time it's happened, although it's rare. A few years ago, when I discovered that the grid didn't match I reverse engineered the grid based on the clues provided. (That was back in my pre-toddler days when I had more time!) It was so exciting to be able to share the right grid with all of you. I even got a shout out from the public editor at the Globe & Mail, which was a lot of fun. And it brought me in touch with other cryptic crossword fans, including one named Sally who has been compiling Fraser Simpson's grids for years just in case a mismatch happens. She kindly sent me her library.

So, let's all give Sally a big "Thank you!" Because when I saw the mismatch today, I immediately dug out her old email and located the right grid. I'm happy to be able to share it with all of you. Happy puzzling!

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Think Locally, Set Globally

4/27/2019

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If you grew up in Ontario in the 1980s like I did and you're tackling this Saturday's Globe and Mail cryptic crossword by the great Fraser Simpson, you'll notice two things that other solvers might miss.

The first is a blatant and, to me, very welcome political commentary in 8 Down:

"Done with Ford," I snarled (3, 2)

As with any great cryptic clue, you don't have to know who Ontario Premier Doug Ford is to solve this riddle, which is an anagram. But there's a whole other level of satisfaction if you do. Doug Ford, is the brother of the internationally notorious, and now deceased, crack-smoking Toronto mayor Rob Ford. Among the many, many things Doug Ford is enacting as the newly elected Ontario Premier that are infuriating Ontario residents (especially teachers, which Fraser Simpson is, parents, and anyone else who cares about the education of an entire generation of fellow residents) are extreme cuts to education funding. Experts predict these will have profoundly negative effects on students.

Ontario high school students, like cryptic crossword setter Fraser Simpson, are snarling "Done with Ford!" Photo credit: Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images

As I've blogged about before, here and here, cryptic crosswords have a long and interesting history of serving as a vehicle for political messages. This is not surprising: setting cryptic crosswords is a form of creative writing, and writers have long found wonderfully creative ways of asserting their political stances, including, more recently in the U.S., the use of an acrostic in the resignation letter of the U.S. President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, and the creation of a special two-part "The Writers Resist" episode of the Dear Sugars podcast.

Now, the Ontario budget cuts are making headlines across the country; you didn't have to grow up in Ontario in the 1980s to appreciate it. But if you did -- if you were a student during the Mike Harris era like I was -- you will be feeling an especially maddening sense of déjà vu.

The second clue that shoots right to the heart of 1980s Ontario kids is 26 Down:

Bruno's roomie at Macdonald Hall voices displeasure about start of term (5)

Again, you don't need to have read the iconic Gordon Korman young adult series to solve this clue, which involves a homophone.

But if you did, it will be a thrill to see the main characters mentioned in an internationally distributed puzzle; to catch a cultural reference so many others will miss. Here in Canada, we are so flooded with cultural references from the U.S., especially given how globalized things have become, that it's rare and lovely to see an authentic provincial cultural reference.

I loved (and still love) the delightfully far-fetched adventures of Bruno and his roommate at their fictional Ontario boarding school of Macdonald Hall so much that I kept all the books. I still have them on my bookshelf, ready to read to my kids once they're old enough.

My daughter learned about recycling and reusing at her daycare this week. A tagline for the environmental movement is "Think Globally, Act Locally".

Culture typically works the same way, though perhaps to our detriment. We make art, we practice culture, here, in our studios, in our homes, but unless we take measures to tune it out, the vast majority of the cultural information we receive is global. My friend and fellow writer Derek once argued that when we are all inundated with the same cultural references, we become homogenous in our creative thinking. I have thought about that for a long time. It's why I think it is so important to not just see the blockbuster movies and read the best-selling books, but to explore local art exhibits, seek out TV shows and films with smaller distributions, discover authors we have never heard of, buy foods from local shops and not just chain grocery stores.

Thank you, Fraser Simpson, for flipping the script, and bringing local Ontario cultural references to the world with today's puzzle.

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Making the Cryptic Political

5/1/2018

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This past Saturday, I was a little surprised to see the following clue in Fraser Simpson’s Globe and Mail puzzle:

Escort enters sound bargain with the prosecutor (4, 4)

I stared at it and wondered: could it be it anything but a reference to President Trump’s alleged affair with the porn star Stormy Daniels and the $130,000 his lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid her not to disclose it?

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Cultural Zeitgeist and the Cryptic Clue

4/20/2018

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On Saturday, April 14, 2018, Fraser Simpson published a simple clue in the Globe and Mail cryptic crossword that made me want to cheer:

Actress McGowan stood up (4)

Why cheer for this? You may ask. It’s just a straightforward double meaning clue. The actress in question is Rose McGowan. And if someone stood up, they rose from their seat.

Here’s why.

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<<Previous

And the correct grid is...

Best Wishes for a Happy Cryptic Holidays

The Fourth Wall of Cryptics

The Creative Gifts of Confinement

Deliberate, Three Ways.

When the student is ready...

And the correct grid is...

Think Locally, Set Globally

Making the Cryptic Political

Cultural Zeitgeist and the Cryptic Clue

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