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It pays to have connected friends. Regular visitors to the BEQ.com know that I’m on a steady diet of solving variety cryptics, and not much else. These regulars also know that I pretty much worship at the altar of Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon (hey, who else regularly drops enough variety cryptics to sate my appetite?). So, when I recently sent Emily a rather gooey mash note raving about their work and expressing dire concern that I don’t know what I’ll do when I’ve depleted my stack of their stuff, she offered to replenish said stack. (Let the record show that this pile is crazy big, but I have no doubt that I will eventually run out of them. But I like to plan ahead for the inevitable Nocrypticocalypse.) Emily’s sent me some books, and one of them was a copy of an out-of-print anthology of their cryptics going all the way back to the late ’70s! I mean, to think they’ve been doing this for 35 years is an accomplishment. And to think that there’s still new material to draw from is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
It’s been a trip to pore over idol’s work especially from their primordial stages. It’s not unlike getting your hands on the special edition rerelease of a favorite record with hours of unheard demos, live shows, practice space recordings, you name it. It’s like stepping into a time machine to see how we got to where we are today. One thing that’s apparent with these old puzzles is that Hen’ & Em’s sense of humor (and build-up to the big punch line) was there from the get go. Another thing that’s apparent is that they’ve learned to ease back on the anagram clues. At times these felt more like a Puns and Anagrams than a straight up cryptic. But like all great riddles (and let’s face it, cryptic clues are just riddles), there’s a certain timelessness to them. Two examples from the latest one I just solved made me laugh out loud: {I’m old and I’m in the way} (7) and {Pacify star in Taming of the Shrew with speech} (7). It’s been a fun trip.
Note to self: I should do a post wherein I look back at some of the primordial BEQ puzzles and marvel at how far I’ve come.
Share the puzzle. New one on Monday.
Not linking the jpz’s anymore?
Not enough variety cryptics in my diet, but I try to compensate by doing tons of straight cryptics. I started doing the Azed to mix things up and it’s been “plain” the last few weeks and was an easy anagram thing before that. 🙁
Where do you folks find your cryptics (variety or not, though I tend to prefer the varieties)?
Once every couple of years I’ll tear through the archived Cox & Rathvon’s over at theatlantic.com (though it’s not easy to navigate), but I’ll often remember the “gimmick” for each of them.
Loved “Fleeced figure”.
The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/) has a lot of puzzles (mostly cryptic) and a website that’s OK on computer, but super, super, super awful on an iPhone (don’t disagree until you try to fill a puzzle in). Try the Quiptic if you need to work on your skills. Try the Azed (which is sometimes a variety) if you have a good dictionary or large vocabulary of old and odd words.
I also do the FT puzzle (http://www.ft.com/intl/life-arts/crossword), though it’s usually a lot easier.
I always have trouble with The Independent, which is available on their website and in the Crosswords app for phones. I get through, but I’m just not convinced the clues are up to snuff.
The Private Eye puzzle comes out twice a month and is available online. Probably easier if you read the thing since they use a lot of inside jokes, but I’ve caught on to a lot of them by just doing the puzzle semi-regularly.
Are the Atlantic ones still online? I couldn’t find them there, but I’ve done all the ones they used to have online.
Games Magazine usually has two cryptics and a variety (sometimes two) per issue. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t looked at an issue lately, though I subscribe to it and WoP.
Oh yeah! And “225” (fifteensquared.net) is the place to go if you need answers explained or want to see a huge library of old clues. They have links there too.
http://blogs.wsj.com/puzzle/
Took a trip last weekend, with a half dozen recent BEQ printed out for the flight. Enjoyed them, then turned to in-flight magazine (Southwest) and found 2 more BEQ puzzles! I OD’d on BEQ, and enjoyed it. Consider this my gooey mash note, sire.
The self-published and available on Amazon book by Roger Woolf is pretty good.
Almost finished with all of them. I found them to be at a high level. Some of the “variety” half are quite complex. All in all, a must for variety fans.
I find it is worth subscribing to Atlantic once every few years to gain access to their archived puzzles.