The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament starts tomorrow. I’ve paid the entrance fee for the online “bragging rights only” track, so I’m looking forward to seeing some interesting puzzles and to get an idea of how my solving skills stack up. Considering that competitive solvers often finish well under five minutes on a Monday and my best is in the ten minute range, probably not that great, but we shall see.
I recently started a couple of the London Times cryptic crossword books; these are hard. As in NYT Saturdays are a cakewalk by comparison. Partly, because I’m not terribly knowledgeable of British geography and slang, partly because I haven’t learned to recognize the various clue forms, and partly because they are just tough. Example clue: [Notice boy going round vehicle after parking]. Answer: PLACARD. Because “PLACARD” is a notice, and in that word “LAD” (boy) is literally going around “CAR” (vehicle), which both come after “P” which you just have to know is an abbreviation of parking. So yeah, tricky.