In an effort to kick-start my brain after years of inactivity, I have started to learn the skill of solving cryptic crosswords. Some time ago, I bought a book of Daily Telegraph puzzles and began struggling away. I know there are some who rattle through them each morning in no time at all, but never having really attempted more than a handful before, I still usually battle to get beyond half way, though I am getting better. I actually completed my first puzzle, without help, just before Christmas. Occasionally my grey cells ignite and I will get several in a few minutes, but other times I stare blankly and cannot for the life of me figure out the answers.
Apart from forcing my brain to think in a more lateral plane, there has been an added benefit of learning a few facts. I must confess that I have been surprised and even shocked by some of the things I did not know.
Recently I came across a clue, ‘Lavish gold pair removed’ (8). Well, it was fairly obvious even to me that the answer was an anagram of ‘gold pair’ i.e. ‘prodigal’.
I was reminded of this by a comment today. OMG said that he ‘felt like a prodigal son returning’. As the product of a good Catholic (yes Janus there is such a thing) upbringing, I am very familiar with that particular parable. It is my experience that the only time one ever hears the word prodigal is in the context of one who left but has now returned. Until then, had I been asked its definition, that is probably the answer that I would have given. I doubt that it would have occurred to me to look at the root of the word to determine why it might mean that.
So, I was at somewhat puzzled by the appearance of the word ‘lavish’ in the clue. Then, I thought, ‘prodigy’ and ‘prodigious’ which clearly had nothing to do with errant sons. With a growing feeling of embarrassment I looked up the word: “A person who spends money in a recklessly extravagant way”. No doubt everybody here knew that, but I was surprised that I had been so ignorant. I was greatly relieved when I found one or two other people in the same boat; a ship of fools, you might say!
I wonder if anybody else here ever been in a similar position where they learn that certain facts, meanings, definitions, etc that they always thought they knew, turned out to be completely wrong. I have a sister-in-law, who used to say, ‘little own’ instead of ‘let alone’ as in ‘I could not eat one, let alone two.’ It was easy enough to miss the mistake when spoken, but extremely puzzling when seen in writing.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Hello Sipu,
I only learned last week when reading some essays by Clive James that the idiom- he shot himself in the foot originally referred to a soldier in the Great War harming himself with a bullet to get out of the trenches. Nowadays the saying is used to denote clumsiness instead of cowardice.
Jay Dubya,
I never linked “shot in the foot” with clumsy. I have always known it was the means by which a Tommy could get himself a ‘Blighty’. Nowadays I associate it with any act of self sabotage deliberate or otherwise. Politicians for example, are bloody marksmen.
Hi TR. Years ago, I was standing next to one of my brothers-in-law when he really did shoot himself in the foot and blew off his big toe. But that was clumsiness. I think.
Just this morning I was browsing a book on the history of Yiddish Culture. I came across an excerpt that went something like this.
According to the antiquarian William Camden, the English mint’s glowing reputation dates back to the reign of Richard I. It had come to his attention that German coin was of exceptionally fine quality and so he arranged for some German craftsmen to come to England in order to mint coin there. These people, coming as they did from the East, were known as Easterlings from whence came the word Sterling.
But then I go and find this web site, which seems to dismiss the theory. So now I do not know what to believe. Perhaps our resident expert could shed some light on the matter when she returns. http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/06/sterling.html
Sipu, I do the DT Cryptic daily, as an exercise for the ‘little grey cells.’ You will soon get used to it..
Hi, Zen. I will take your word for it. I am getting there, but some compilers are much more brutal than others.
Like Zen says Sipu, you begin to get a feel for each compiler and how he thinks. It does get easier trust us. A day rarely goes by when I can’t finish the cryptic now.
Once it was cause for great joy and lashings of ginger beer if I did complete one. 🙂
Very true, particularly on Sundays!
Hello Sipu: For much more about the unknown origins of the word “Sterling” there is a little book called “The Pound, a biography” by David Sinclair, Random House. Published about 2000.
Subtitled ” The Story of the Currency that Ruled the World” I like that.
Well worth a read if you can find a copy someplace.
From that book:
Ordericus Vitalis a 12th century monk refers to”librae sterilensium” in his writings without explanation as if the term was widely known.
esterlin (little star) was the French Norman name for a series of silver pennies decorated with a star.
There is an old English word “Steorra” which also means star and so “steorling” would mean “little star”
So it goes for several pages and concludes the origin of the word is prior to the Norman Kings of England and probably unknown.
The Pound of course refers to a full pound weight of silver pennies of the day (remarkably about 240 if they had not been clipped)
Re: The cryptic, I do it every day, there are only a few compilers 3? and one quickly gets used to their style, it’s by far the best crossword published IMHO. Persevere, it’s a lot of fun when one gets rolling, but one has to be quick with the anagrams, probably half of the clues are that way.
A few hints, the bottom is easier than the top, most compilers make one across a challenge and they have to make it all fit at the bottom.
Multi-word answers are easier to solve than single words (again to my mind, so I always start with those).
The Prize (Saturday) is always easier than the regular puzzle, but always has at least one ambiguous answer.
After ten years or so you will almost always “get out” but some days it may take all day to get the last few.
Thank you gentlemen for your encouragement, I will persevere.
LW, I would love to get a copy of that book. I love that sort of stuff.
Hiya Sipu! The Great Wolf, aged 84, still does the Telegraph cryptic every day. Specifically he buys the DT at Manchester airport and has the crossword finished long before the plane lands in Faro (flight time two and one half hours). He even won a prize from the DT for the Sunday general knowledge jobbie a few months back although he did have to ask me for the capital of Vanuatu.
OZ
Hi OZ. I am quite a fan of quizzes, in fact I am going to one this evening. Our team had a spell of 4 wins on the trot, but we have come second on the last two occasions. I normally fall down at the music rounds. I seem to have got stuck in the 80s and don’t know anything after that.
When in the UK, I try and do the FT Polymath crossword. But with that I really struggle. In the end my sister and I agree that we are allowed to google, ‘otherwise we will never learn’!
The other past time for old timers is bridge. I need to take that up again.
Sipu – I enjoy pub quizzes too, particularly the drinkies bit and I am constantly having the pish taken out of me for apparently having a head full of useless information. The cubs keep pressng me to go on a TV quiz show, but I refuse, knowing that as soon as they ask me for the title of Lady Gaga’s first hit, for example, I’m stuffed.
OZ
My uni tutor used to complete the Times crossword over his breakfast cuppa in 20 minutes. If I had been married to his fragrant wife, I would have been unable to concentrate.
“Just Dance” OZ.
Thought that was Bowie.
I knew that, but who the hell’s Adele?
OZ
laconic – I had always tought of ‘laconic’ as ‘laid back’ for some reason, but in fact it has such a different meaning I have never known where I got that from
la·con·ic – Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise. See Synonyms at silent.
[Latin Lacnicus, Spartan, from Greek Laknikos, from Lakn, a Spartan (from the reputation of the Spartans for brevity of speech).]
la·coni·cal·ly adv.
Word History: The study of the classics allows one to understand the history of the term laconic, which comes to us via Latin from Greek Laknikos. The English word is first recorded in 1583 with the sense “of or relating to Laconia or its inhabitants.” Laknikos is derived from Lakn, “a Laconian, a person from Lacedaemon,” the name for the region of Greece of which Sparta was the capital. The Spartans, noted for being warlike and disciplined, were also known for the brevity of their speech, and it is this quality that English writers still denote by the use of the adjective laconic, which is first found in this sense in 1589.
laconic – brief and to the point; effectively cut short; “a crisp retort”; “a response so curt as to be almost rude”; “the laconic reply; `yes'”; “short and terse and easy to understand”
terse, curt, crisp
Well, I never knew that. Bugger oi with a pitchfaaark.
OZ
Hugh,
My record for the DT cryptic is 17 minutes. Doubt I’ll ever beat it. 😦
Hi Sipu.
I used to “help” my father with The Telegraph cryptic crossword, so I was hooked from a very early age. I did it every day until a few years ago. You can indeed learn how to do it, and you can also forget! I picked up a copy the other day and couldn’t do more than half a dozen clues.
I used to download it every day and print it out! My record was about five minutes, I think, but it sometimes took anything from half an hour to a week!
Minty MBE,
You have long been my idol, but 5 minutes? I am truly in awe. Not worthy, not worthy, not worthy…
Akshully my lupine lump, Adele is one of the few young ‘uns who I would recommend. That girl is a rare talent. She has buckets of the stuff Wingehouse only dreamt of.
It didn’t happen very often in fact once, to be precise , Furry, it must have been an easy one! 🙂
Ferret – In that case and assuming she is still alive and not one of yer akshull celebrity smackheads, I shall go and Google the wench forthwith.
OZ
Howzit Sipu
One of my biggest gripes about the Cape is that the Argus group don’t do the DT crossword. Johnnic (or whatever they are called now) have always had the rights to the DT crossword and am I a lucky boy or what? My local paper (E.P. Herald) has published DT crosswords all my life!
The furthest west I can go and still get my DT fix is Mossel Bay, I’m afraid that the crossword selection in your part of the world is awful.
I’ve been doing the DT cryptic since about ’72
I still remember the very first clue that I ever got, We had a lodger who would do the Herald cryptic and I’d forever be looking over his shoulder, the solution was ‘royalty’ (something to do with golf and obviously the king or queen) I’ve been hooked ever since.
I spend one hour a day at my coffee shop doing the crossword, I’ve often (well, now and again) finished in under ½ hour, I hate it, feel almost cheated.
The fun here is that we get them a month or so after publication, I had the Christmas one a fortnight ago followed a week later by the New Year one, all good fun 🙂
My old girl was singularly depressing, she used to finish it with one cup of coffee, ie about 20 mins, put me off for life.
What irritated her beyond was that I always beat her at Scrabble.
I’m a sudoko freak myself, the hard ones. Ido them at night I find they empty the brain.
Yup Mrs O,
Sudoku rocks.
Well, there you go. I never knew there were so many fans. Compared to you all, I feel deeply inadequate. Add to that the fact we did horribly in the quiz this evening, I shall go to bed somewhat depressed. However, I am glad to learn about laconic. I too had the same sort of idea as Pseu. In novels, youths are always laconic especially in the hands of an authoress. But perhaps you and I Pseu, muddle the word with languid.
Speaking of Suduko, when the craze first took off in about 2005, I was visiting my sister in London. A national Suduko competition was held with three of the first four places going to women. Naturally this raised a great deal of debate in the Times Letter pages about the superiority of female brains. I managed to get a letter published in which I surmised that once you understood the process behind finding the solution to Suduko puzzles it became a routine task. I went on to maintain that women had always been better at routine tasks than men, that is why they excelled at household chores. My sister read the letter at work and nearly
throughthrew me out of the house when she got home.I think that men are generally better at general knowledge than women; their brains are naturally wired to hold on to pieces of information and facts and trivia… Just something I’ve observed, at pub quizzes and the like…
They do the DT crossword in work; it is like some sort of obsessive cult, with photocopies of the thing appearing mysteriously in certain people’s pigeon holes every morning. I have never volunteered to join in…
Hello Bleubelle: I used to pay to have the DT crossword available for download in the US (£30 per year). Then a friend in the UK said he would scan it and email it to me each morning, before his wife filled it in. Now I get it free and in time for my morning cuppa.
Sipu: Your # 29.. When doing crosswords it’s helpful to know how to spell the past tense of throw. 🙂
I think you certainly have to learn the how to of cryptic crosswords. I once won the local rag crossword… but not the cryptic one! I need lessons for that.
I like your sister Sipu
My embarrassment knows no bounds.
I thought you might. She was not the only woman in my life to express her indignation.
Morning Sipu and other members
Here’s ‘today’s’ from my local read.
Sipu, you didn’t answer my #25 re the availability of thr DT x-word down in the Cape, so I thought that I’d give you one for today (just in case you had nothing else to do ;))
…and perhaps of interest to other members.
An ‘E-edition’ of my local paper is available at R480 (£40) per year, this obviously includes the crosswords, not sure if that is perhaps an alternative for members but thought that I’d mention it.
Details here where you can actually view a sample
Hi Soutie, sorry about not responding to your 25. I confess, I seldom buy the the local papers; rather I read them on line. As far as crosswords are concerned, I find it easier to buy a book of 80 and plug through them. There is the advantage of having the answers in the back. Also I do not have to have weeks of old newspapers around the place, waiting to be completed. When, or rather if, I get to the stage of being able to complete them in a day then I might look to doing them in the paper. Though, as you say, they are probably not DT standard.
Thanks for sending me this one. I may have to go off line for a few days as I will be hanging my head in shame at not being able to complete it.
A leather garment worn by a lisping singer – 5 letters
My first clue, aged 8, in 1953.
Thong?
A good guess would be that the x-word I’ve copied here is probably from the DT of 25 Jan 😉
Correct – it took two years to get another one.
2 years? Say it ain’t so!
From eight years old to ten!
Morning Sipu
How did you do? I thought it only fair to publish the solution…
(Clic pic for larger view :))
Morning Soutie. I am afraid, I went undercover and did not seriously attempt it. I would have been on a hiding to nothing. 🙂 I did write a lot of nonsense on this site, though, as you may have discovered!
Thanks for publishing the puzzle and the solution.
My computer screen is too heavy to turn through 180 degrees!
“You are old, father William,” the young man said,
“And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head
Do you think, at your age, it is right?”
Now you know why!