XWord Muggles Forum

hoover wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 12:35 am For those of you who are on Macs and were thinking you had to print this out so you could use a pen and paper, let me introduce you to the Annotation feature of the Preview application.

Greenshot 2021-06-13 23.32.01.png

SReh26 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:05 am

Obie J wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 6:16 am I didn't have a printer available, so I used a couple of pieces of string!

I took a single ply of a napkin and carefully laid it over my iphone, then, hunched over and squinting, draw the dots and the star!

As I was doing so, kinfolk walked in and saw me, discreetly keeping their conclusions to themselves!

SReh26 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:05 am

Obie J wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 6:16 am I didn't have a printer available, so I used a couple of pieces of string!

I took a single ply of a napkin and carefully laid it over my iphone, then, hunched over and squinting, draw the dots and the star!

As I was doing so, kinfolk walked in and saw me, discreetly keeping their conclusions to themselves!

DMc wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 8:16 am Can anyone explain why the answer to 50A letters above 6 is "MNO"? I was thinking 6 must be a "P" but that didn't make sense.

M and M wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 8:19 am MNO are the letters above the six on a telephone dial. Or below the six, if you have an I Phone.

boharr wrote: ↑Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:55 pm

sanmilton wrote: ↑Sun Jun 13, 2021 4:55 pm

Scott M wrote: ↑Sun Jun 13, 2021 4:24 pm

I'm new to cryptics, and often have no clue where the answer came from even when I have it. Is there a good resource for breaking down how the annswer fits? Didn't see anything on Wordplay at NYT or on crossword fiend.

There are online resources for this, like this one: https://www.dummies.com/games/crossword ... n-edition/.

Clues almost always involve two parts: (1) a definition of the entry, and (2) a way to get to the entry involving wordplay.

The wordplay part of the clue is almost always one (or more) of several set types: anagrams, puns, rebuses, reversals, hidden (embedded) words, etc. It could even be a second definition.

But the resultant clue often reads like nonsense. The trick is to sort out the definition from the rest of it. To do that, you typically have to ignore punctuation (and sometimes even capitalization).

Feel free to bounce cryptic clues off me, and I'll happily parse them for you!

I'm convinced that the only way to learn to do cryptics is to get some tips from folks here about a few that are not impossible. Then wait until the solutions are available. Then go over each clue until you understand the answers. Then if you still don't understand a clue and answer, ask a friendly muggle to parse it. Then repeat this process for, say, 100 years. Then if you are still baffled, move to England to see what they are really like.

Kas wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:28 am Aaaaaauugh! KAS 3.

I had it…I WAS SOOO CLOSE. I got the “star” hint, was even circling around the “crossed lines” nudge…but I didn’t know “E” = “dot” in Morse Code.

My puzzle looks like a ven diagram done by a caffeinated squirrel, after trying 17 ways to draw a star through (first) all of the “i’s”, (then) all of the “o’s”, (and finally) trying to figure out how to balance a 5-Pointed Star in an even/symmetrical grid.

On the bright side, Isaac and I are gettin’ real friendly, these days….

femullen wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:46 am I chased the diagonal O's, the dotted I's, and the two together. I was reviewing the clues for perhaps a mention of "DASH," so maybe I could make some Morse code word of the dots and dashes. That's when the Montreal daughter, who is a complete meta newbie, called me on the phone. She said she hadn't yet finished the grid, and she was finding it difficult. I told her that I'd done the grid, and I described to her my misadventures with O's, I's, and such. She asked, "Did you try connecting the E's?"

"Oh, that's brilliant," I said, "and that's just how Shenk thinks." Found the five E's, connected them, and told my young Canadienne that they made not quite a regular pentagon. She said, "What if you make a star? There's a clue about a star."

If my average improves, you Muggles will know why.

femullen wrote: ↑Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:46 am I chased the diagonal O's, the dotted I's, and the two together. I was reviewing the clues for perhaps a mention of "DASH," so maybe I could make some Morse code word of the dots and dashes. That's when the Montreal daughter, who is a complete meta newbie, called me on the phone. She said she hadn't yet finished the grid, and she was finding it difficult. I told her that I'd done the grid, and I described to her my misadventures with O's, I's, and such. She asked, "Did you try connecting the E's?"

"Oh, that's brilliant," I said, "and that's just how Shenk thinks." Found the five E's, connected them, and told my young Canadienne that they made not quite a regular pentagon. She said, "What if you make a star? There's a clue about a star."

If my average improves, you Muggles will know why.