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Discussion » Questions » Games » Crossword puzzle enthusiasts: what are some of your personal rules for clues that completely stump you?
Randy D

Crossword puzzle enthusiasts: what are some of your personal rules for clues that completely stump you?


  For instance, do you eventually look them up in a dictionary?  Do you turn the page where the solved puzzle is shown?  Do you wait until the next issue to look at the solved puzzle? Do you go online to search for answers?  Do you share the puzzle with someone else for help in answering tough clues?  Do you just leave tough clues unanswered?

Posted - June 16, 2018
Tags : None

Responses


  • 43
    Stands on one leg in a circus (4)

    hijklmno (5)

    They did stump me for while but with a little perseverance you will get there
      June 16, 2018 6:56 AM MDT
    0

  • 19942
    I try to work the across first, then the down unless there are a lot of across that I can't get and then I work both.  Depending on the difficulty of the puzzle, I usually get it all in the Daily News.  I don't look anything up in a dictionary and I rarely look at the solution the next day.  The News doesn't publish the answers the same day.
      June 16, 2018 8:54 AM MDT
    1

  • 53045

      Thank you, great answer!

    ~
      June 16, 2018 11:27 AM MDT
    1

  • 19942
    Thanks.  By the way, I'm surprised you haven't weighed in on the grammar question.  Any thoughts on it?
      June 16, 2018 12:26 PM MDT
    1

  • 53045

      Which grammar question? I answered one a couple of hours ago. 
    ~
      June 16, 2018 12:33 PM MDT
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  • 19942
    The one asking whether to use "was" or "were."
      June 16, 2018 12:34 PM MDT
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  • 53045

     Yes, that's the one I already answered. 
    ~
      June 16, 2018 12:35 PM MDT
    1

  • 19942
    I just went back and saw it.  It wasn't on there when I looked early this morning.  thanks.
      June 16, 2018 12:37 PM MDT
    1

  • 3694
    I'll sometimes look at the answers, if I happen to buy next day's edition of my local paper (Dorset Echo - I found the Bradford Argus, up in Yorkshire but another Newsquest title, seems to use the same puzzle pages!). Otherwise I tend to let them go.


    The Dorset Echo's rather pretentious Saturday magazine, mainly TV lists and publicity for Bournemouth-area events, has its own puzzle page with both cryptic and general-knowledge / synonym crosswords, and it does give the answers in small type, upside-down, below. If really stuck I manage to skim-read the inverted answers without picking up too many yet to be attempted. I score myself: I dock 1 point for each looked-up answer, including those inadvertently read, from the puzzle's total number of words. 

    They can be tough - I rarely complete them, and sometimes solve barely a quarter. However, I've developed an eye for some inner clues or key instructions to the question type (anagram, pun, homonym, a word bridging or within others, etc), and use marginalia tools; e.g. "letter clouds" for suspected anagrams, word-dissection to prove or disprove possible answers. 

    I think the hardest are obscure-reference questions, because these often rely on both thinking laterally and knowledge of certain topics such as sports, music or games. E.g., inventing one here, at random:

       "Exchange ruler and bird on board" (6).....  "- a - - l - "       A drawing instrument? Flying animal or slang for "woman"? At sea?


    I'll leave you to try it, answer and explanation below.....




    Keep scrolling down
    ;
    '
     '
    ...
    ...

    /


    A bit further,


    This might be enough...
     
       No: the answer is "Castle" - To "castle" in chess is to swap partially, the board positions of one monarch piece with its own-side rook (the castle itself).
      August 31, 2018 4:04 PM MDT
    0