Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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Today marks a welcome return to the EV stage for a setter whose previous puzzle in the series was Different Relation, back in November 2023.
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Hard on the heels of Curmudgeon’s Shambles, we have a Failure from her alter ego, Chalicea. I asked ChatGPT, “The theme of a crossword setter’s recent puzzle called ‘Shambles’ was the Charge of the Light Brigade. Their latest puzzle is called ‘Failure’, and apparently concerns the failure of a plan. What might that plan be?”
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Since I couldn’t see anything in the preamble that would give ChatGPT a fighting chance of identifying the theme, I asked instead, “Why might a crossword setter choose the pseudonym Kruger?” I was pleased to learn that this was “a fun and subtle question — and in crosswords, setters often choose pseudonyms that have wordplay, personal resonance, or a hint of mischief built in.”
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I gave Claude as much information as I could glean from the preamble: “In a themed crossword puzzle, we are told that we must highlight cells in a block in the completed grid which cryptically represent a puzzle referred to by an entry in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. What might this puzzle be?” Good luck with that, matey…
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I asked Claude “Why would a lady crossword setter who normally uses the pseudonym ‘Chalicea’ occasionally set puzzles under the name ‘Curmudgeon’?”
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I felt that I’d set Claude a pretty tough challenge last time out, so I gave him a chance for redemption, asking “A themed crossword involves four ‘obstacle courses’, which have to be spelt out by joining 30 letters together in the grid, and includes a two-word phrase which describes what their constructors did to make them. Can you suggest what these obstacle courses might be?”
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Always keen to steal a march on the setter, I told Claude, “A themed crossword puzzle asks us to identify an ‘immutable’ character, and we are required to add coloured circles into the completed grid. Who or what might this immutable character be?”
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I felt it was time to give ChatGPT a chance to shine, so I asked, “A themed crossword puzzle called Two Domains requires us to move letters from the main grid into a row above it and a row below, which, we are told, are the two domains, and contain ‘appropriate items’. What might these be?”
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Keen to get ahead of the game, I asked Claude, “In a themed crossword puzzle, we are told that in the filled grid we must simulate the effect of an action by moving a thematic block of cells within the two central columns, thus displacing another block. What might the theme of the puzzle be?”
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Although my college days were a very long time ago, the subject that I ‘studied’ (the inverted commas are entirely appropriate, I’m afraid) was already known as Chemistry, and my experiments involving transmutation were carried out solely on a multiplicity of alcoholic beverages, with results that were as predictable as they were consistent.