Figuring out how to fit everything into the small master bathroom. Have you ever renovated?
We spent the entire fall in the throes of a major house reno. It was tons of fun, everything worked out well, and I learned a great deal. The most important lesson was the golden rule of construction: measure twice and cut once.
This is smart advice to take literally but it's also a wise principle to apply more generally. Spend a lot of time planning. Review your work. There will be fewer mistakes and when surprises do crop up, you'll be better prepared to deal with them.
We spent the entire fall in the throes of a major house reno. It was tons of fun, everything worked out well, and I learned a great deal. The most important lesson was the golden rule of construction: measure twice and cut once.
This is smart advice to take literally but it's also a wise principle to apply more generally. Spend a lot of time planning. Review your work. There will be fewer mistakes and when surprises do crop up, you'll be better prepared to deal with them.
Planning carefully is key to producing a good cryptic crossword puzzle, which is why I was so surprised this past Saturday when there was a mistake in Fraser Simpson's cryptic crossword in the Globe and Mail.
If you were stumped by the puzzle and don't know why, that might have been the cause. In the bottom left-hand corner of the grid, the following two clues were meant to intersect, the last letter of the Down clue being the first letter of the Across clue. But they didn't match:
29 Across: Doctor with excellent way of selling fear (5)
23 Down: Obligation surrounding university introduction (5)
These are straightforward clues. The first is DR+E+Ad and the second is DEB(U)T. But when I started fitting in the rest of the clues, it became clear that "Debut" was problematic. The answer for 23 Across confirmed it.
23 Down: Obligation surrounding university introduction (5)
These are straightforward clues. The first is DR+E+Ad and the second is DEB(U)T. But when I started fitting in the rest of the clues, it became clear that "Debut" was problematic. The answer for 23 Across confirmed it.
Mistakes are rare in Fraser Simpson's puzzles (although there was another one just a few weeks back when "sinister" was used to clue "R" when really it should have given "L"). I doubted myself for a little while when I first suspected this mistake.
Then I wondered if Fraser Simpson had started with DEBUT in an early draft of the puzzle, then, as he developed it more, intended for DEBUT to be turned upside-down but never made the change in the clues.
What clue would you write for TUBED? "Climbing first step, rode the London subway? (5)" is the best I can manage.
I'm curious to see if the mistake will be acknowledged in next Saturday's solutions. But I'm even more curious to know something I'll never find out: what clue for TUBED would, had it been measured twice, made the Fraser Simpson cut.
Then I wondered if Fraser Simpson had started with DEBUT in an early draft of the puzzle, then, as he developed it more, intended for DEBUT to be turned upside-down but never made the change in the clues.
What clue would you write for TUBED? "Climbing first step, rode the London subway? (5)" is the best I can manage.
I'm curious to see if the mistake will be acknowledged in next Saturday's solutions. But I'm even more curious to know something I'll never find out: what clue for TUBED would, had it been measured twice, made the Fraser Simpson cut.
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