Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
Having consulted our friend Gemini I was offered several candidate sets to consider: days of the week / months of the year, the seven dwarfs or seven deadly sins, noble gases or chemical elements, musical notes (do, re, mi…), planets in the solar system, greek alphabet letters.… Continue reading
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
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?”
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
Gemini is improving. When I asked it how to deal with the preamble below it actually proposed a sensible structured solving process.… Continue reading
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
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?”
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
Kcit, AKA Phi (also on offer in this week’s EV) or Pedro, has set us a mostly-orderly puzzle. … Continue reading
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
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.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
I submitted the preamble to OpenAI which to be fair found it completely incomprehensible and proposed several rewrites and offered to: “suggest alternative single-line preambles with different tones (concise, cryptic-setter-house style, or very-solver-friendly)” – is this an improvement: “In greyed columns missing bars, solvers must follow the name spelled by extra letters from down clues to form expected bottom entries, then rearrange and divide each to reveal what was actually seen, all resulting entries being real words or names”? … Continue reading
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
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?”
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
Skylark apparently has set an inspired puzzle for us. Is AI inspired by the preamble?… Continue reading
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
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.”