Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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Gaston to my middlebrow brain hints at Beauty and the Beast – of which my main memory is that of my son sitting on my lap when the Disney film was released and since he was so excited he…
Gemini wasn’t much help: e.g.… Continue reading
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So we need to find 6 clues in acrosses and downs respectively that have their definitions swapped.… Continue reading
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According to my “sources”, Skylark is supposedly on the easier end of the solving spectrum. … Continue reading
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The original “Name of the Game” by Ranunculus (EV 1502) was blogged on this very site by its author. … Continue reading
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Kruger has been setting EV puzzles for almost 30 years now. What do our AI friends think about this one? Trying Gemini again, I gave it the preamble…
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I gave Gemini (if nothing, I’m loyal – for now) the preamble. And they proposed a promising tactic and one completely wrongheaded observation: “Two Unclued Entries: These are the key! They spell out PRESS RELEASE”. They don’t. The promising tactic: “Tackle the Wordplay-Only Clues: These might be easier to solve initially as they don’t have the extra layer of surplus letters.” Slightly helpful albeit a bit obvious.
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Shark is familiar to me as being at the harder end of the spectrum – he’s a frequent contributor to the Usual Cryptic Suspects. The title probably meant that something thematic was going to show up there and might be of some help while solving. Though I’ll admit I usually only manage to decode titles ex post facto. I didn’t bother consulting my Gemini advisor since I couldn’t imagine even him/her having anything useful to contribute given that particular title. Also, I didn’t wonder (though I should have!) whether Easter Sunday might be thematically relevant.
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If nothing else, I’m loyal to Gemini (I’ll admit to being somewhat biased, so I don’t flirt with ChatGPT and Claude). I asked him/her: “In an advanced thematic crossword, we are asked to find the real names of two GOOD BUDDIES that have ‘better-known aliases’. What do you make of this?”.
He/she coughed up “Batman and Robin” (yes, they have real names and aliases indeed) and “Holmes and Watson” (real names but no obvious aliases). And I was finally advised to: “crucially, understand the theme of the crossword”. Oh, OK. Will do. Not helpful.
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Inspired by the title my first thoughts led me to Dr Seuss. I wasted a bit of time rereading “Green Eggs and Ham”. Jigsaw puzzles are somewhat daunting at first since a lot of cold solving invariably lies ahead. Also, we immediately realised that this is a semi-carte blanche.
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For me Craft is a new setter, at least of the EV series. But I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong. Perhaps it’s an alternate identity of a well-established compiler. In any event, I must say the title didn’t provide much context. The preamble does indicate parenthetically something “broken” – perhaps that’s a way in (apropos “entry”)?
I didn’t bother Gemini – who’s probably obsessing about “Majorana fermions” anyway as I was when I solved this and doesn’t have time for cryptic archaeology. Unclear whether understanding topological quantum computing would help me with ENTRY or not. To be honest, I didn’t understand it.