Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
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In July 2022, I stepped in for five weeks to give the Numpties an extremely well-deserved break. Little did I know that in February 2026 I would be doing my 100th EV blog…
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There was nothing in the title or preamble for the AI contingent to get their virtual teeth into, so I asked Claude, “Shelley wrote a poem ‘To a Skylark’; could you write a five-line verse along the same lines to a lady crossword setter called ‘Skylark’?”
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Today, in the words of Bonnie Tyler, “It’s the Heart Ace.” I decided to give Claude something specific to get his virtual teeth into, so I asked, “A themed crossword puzzle involves a single keyword which could be cryptically described as ‘short kind of party dress’. What might this word be?”
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I asked Claude, “A themed crossword puzzle has the title ‘Gripping Yarns’. On the basis that this title is unlikely to refer to riveting tales, what might the theme of the puzzle be?”
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Following his notable success with Operation Market Garden, I asked Claude, “In a themed crossword, we have to identify some words from an epitaph, unscramble a description of five events, find all but one of the contestants who came first or second in these events, and then establish the final resting place of the remaining contestant. Do you have any ideas?”
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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’?”