Of all the wedding photos my friend, the extraordinarily talented Dallas Curow, has taken, there is one that I find particularly magical.
It’s a shot that was taken between shots, which is to say in a candid moment. The bride and groom are laughing uproariously at something we can’t see. On either side of them, guests turn their heads, searching for the source of that mirth, smiling the hesitant smiles of people who anticipate seeing something funny very shortly.
It’s a shot that was taken between shots, which is to say in a candid moment. The bride and groom are laughing uproariously at something we can’t see. On either side of them, guests turn their heads, searching for the source of that mirth, smiling the hesitant smiles of people who anticipate seeing something funny very shortly.
(Credit: Dallas Curow)
The composition is lovely and the value (which is to say, the balance of black, white and grey) is perfect. But what really makes this photo for me is the ease of it all, in particular, what we see in the sliver of space between his suit and her dress: the intertwined fingers of their hands communicate that this is a couple for whom meeting life hand in hand is second nature.
Dallas Curow, the magic-maker. (Credit: Brian Fauteaux) This is what makes Dallas Curow so good at her job. Yes, she can do all the traditional, posed fare—the wedding gown hanging by the window, the groomsmen adjusting one another’s ties—but when an unexpected burst of beauty presents itself, she know exactly how to snap it that up, too, and make it into magic.
Ever heard of an &lits clue? They are so rare, I didn’t even know they existed until long after I’d written and posted my tutorial. Short for “and literally so”, the &lits are the most elegant and masterful of all the clues because they are both riddle and definition, combined.
Ever heard of an &lits clue? They are so rare, I didn’t even know they existed until long after I’d written and posted my tutorial. Short for “and literally so”, the &lits are the most elegant and masterful of all the clues because they are both riddle and definition, combined.
Many years ago, I read a New Yorker article by Adam Gopnik entitled “The Real Work of Magic” in which Gopnik describes the hours of dedicated skill-building that are required to master the art of illusion. He writes that telling an expert magician you know how the trick was done is a bit like telling Yo-Yo Ma that you've figured out how he makes the music he does: “he scrapes that bow thing across the strings”.
I have been solving Fraser Simpson’s cryptic crossword puzzles in The Globe and Mail for years but I only spotted my first &lits clue there recently:
Pub’s motto, perhaps? (7, 2)
I felt like a birdwatcher who has suddenly seen an extremely rare bird.
Working hard to make magic is exactly what's involved in writing really elegant cryptic crossword clues, chief among them &lits clues. When the clue is published, we can figure out how it works but that’s not the real magic; the real magic is that it exists at all.
Pub’s motto, perhaps? (7, 2)
I felt like a birdwatcher who has suddenly seen an extremely rare bird.
Working hard to make magic is exactly what's involved in writing really elegant cryptic crossword clues, chief among them &lits clues. When the clue is published, we can figure out how it works but that’s not the real magic; the real magic is that it exists at all.
There’s another passage in that Gopnik article that you might enjoy. He writes that “much of the pleasure of being a magician is membership in a subculture, where methods and myths can be appreciated only by initiates... Just as chefs know that recipes are of little value in themselves, magicians know that learning the method is only the beginning of doing the trick… The real work is the complete activity, the accumulated practice, the total summing up of tradition and ideas.”
Sound familiar?
Who are your favourite cryptic crossword magicians?
Sound familiar?
Who are your favourite cryptic crossword magicians?
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