May 22 2012
Modern Families
After so much intensoid clue-crafting recently, let’s take a turn for the pithy – and a prize. Time to exploit this week’s collective vein with more fun & flair. Our challenge is to to coin a few modern groupings. Seven in all – three fixed, and four yours to conjure.
Don’t worry about the numbering at this early stage – just chuck your responses into the forum for any and all categories. The numbers only matter when you file your final seven by Thursday 9pm to be peer-voted. (And since this is a peer-voter, choose a collective noun as alias.)
With a puzzle book on offer, come up with the collective noun for these seven challenges:
1. A group of crossword solvers?
2. Of crossword makers?
3. Of Australians?
MODERN PEOPLE/THINGS (4, 5 & 6)
REJUVENATED (7)
To kick-start your cortex, Modern People/Things may encompass a wall of Facebookers, a leap of personal trainers, a can of sitcoms, a shift of paradigms. While Rejuvenated requires you to rename some established group labels. Instead of flock of sheep – why not a caucus? Or a loaf of lions? A goggle of owls? Tell us both old, and your new suggestion.
As for voting, come Friday, appraise every player’s 7-strong list, and choose your favourite three (3 for best) for the first three challenges, then favourite four (4 for zinger, 3 for next-best…) in the latter half. Sounds tricky, but it means just 7 votes in all – 3/2/1 for the top half, and 4/3/2/1 for the second.
The winner won’t just win a collective cheer, but Rainy Day Crosswords, with 75 Quicks from a [insert word] of compilers, including my good self. Not to mention, the best brainwaves will likely appear in my column next week, crediting the [insert word] of Dabblers. Have a bunch of fun.
May 21 2012
Salon 29 - Marinara Version
English has a flair for assembly. What other language could forge such arcane frippery as a cete of badgers, or a nide of pheasants? (‘Hey look, kids, there’s a nide in the copse!’) Ancient poets had a field day dreaming up a leap of leopards, a bask of crocs, a crash of rhinos.
Collective nouns are on my mind, thanks to a contest I’m judging. The cause is to keep our rockpools clean for future browsers. If you have a beach bum in your family, or know a school that would like to snag some prize packs, then head here to invent group terms for all sorts of intertidal critters, from crabs to cunjevoi. (Deadline is World Oceans Day, June 8.)
But leaving that quest to the CCI Contest, I’d love to hear some droll names for any other congregations. Some faves I’ve encountered – true or bogus – include:
a clutch of mechanics
a fraid of ghosts
a phalanx of flashers
an indifference of waiters
a horde of scrooges
Send in some ideas, or groovy links, for anything but rockpool critters (!), and I’ll toast the collective best in a column to plug the coastal comp. Consider it your bit to sustain the sea, the sea.
PS – if you can sidestep the pallet of posts, or sine of brainwaves, then here’s the place to tell us what you love about this week’s chiaroscuro of crosswords.
May 21 2012
WoW: Zonkerpede
ZONKERPEDE [ZONK-uh-peed] – comic slang for any insect one cannot identify [Zonker, unknown, pes, Greek for foot] Campsites abound in drop bears, no-see-ums and the odd zonkerpede.
May 20 2012
Who Art I? [BB363]
Keeping the paint flowing in our veins, this Birdbrain paints a cryptic picture of a well-known artist. Read the instructions carefully, and see if you can make the right creative leap:
This noted man of the brush was aged in his early 80s when died, enjoying fame for most of his later years. To uncover his first name, mix a letter into a word in this passage. To spell his surname, mix the next letter in the alphabet into the very same word. So what bohemian belongs in the frame?
SOLUTION NEXT WEEK
BB362 SOLUTION: Free-darker-low, chair-freeze-mart, mar-sell-do-chomp, day-fed-hock-knee, vase-silicon-din-ski
May 19 2012
(Wo)Men Acing Menacing
Peer voting has its perks. These Storms are getting tougher to sift, and I felt the heat of getting the grading right as the solo judge. (But in a privileged way.)
My three guiding lights were quality, originality and the all-important menace, as I tried to identify which premium clues would send a quiver through intelligence ranks. This last demand put several gems to one side, such as KM’s biennial Bali Nine, or JD’s Peres/pester schtick.
Also loved the verve of AG’s no-U’s, the goss of RK’s Area-51 aliens, the macabre skew of Ophelia’s quartet, and Mrs Madrigal’s explosive Cameron. Doffed my green beret to SK for his C(riter)IA construction, though I balked at the definition of ‘controls’.
A bonus mention to KM for his Bar-ACK novelty – an ingenious idea. It was only the low reading on the Menace Meter that saw MEGAWATTS bumped. Anyhoo, here’s the coup. From fifth best to revolutionary:
FIFTH to RK for CROCKERY: China keen to conceal missile reduction [Dazzling wordplay, with an extra-sly definition. Though in terms of alarm, the story felt a lyrical evocation of our dire status quo.]
FOURTH to SK for AVENGERS: Nerve gas dispensed by those seeking retribution [The best of the anagrams, with a haunting surface.]
BRONZE to Mauve for EXHILARANTS: Circulate anthrax piles, not soft stimulants [If this compound anagram about a lethal compound doesn’t spark a stampede, I’ll be Jihad Jack.]
SILVER to Boniface for LADS: Every second, al-Qaeda’s getting bucks [Nifty alternation, with a deft signpost, and a dire call to action for ASIO.]
GOLD to AC for the field’s stand-out CHATTER: Twitter exposes Opening Ceremony bomb threat [A maiden win for AC, I’m thinking? And what a way to do it, a harrowing murmur, so seamlessly built, as David Beckham is moments from igniting London’s torch.]
After this paranoid play, Hugo Chavez has nothing to fret about. These top five excelled in calibre and threat, and you should all adjust your daily habits just in case security forces are heading to your neighbourhood. Thanks for such Code-Red revelry. Till next tempest.
May 17 2012
Notes on a Sandal
Just heard a bunch of manipulated book titles as part of an NPR podcast. The rule was omission, where a single letter had to be axed. And amid the Tweeted suggestions:
Minor portent observed during the American Civil War: Little Omen
At peace among nature: One With The Wind
Cormac’s cowboys wear umpteen dainty socks: All the Pretty Hoses
The Jewish Kama Sutra: The Oy of Sex
Not too shabby, but I kept thinking this corner of cyberspace could do raise the bar – or is that The Return of the Naïve? Anyhow, some brain starters:
Trucking Magnate: Lord of the Rigs
Allied mutiny in the Somme: All Quit on the Western Front
Peak-hour freeway shuffle: Oh the Paces You Will Go!
Drop me a line: MailDA
Or better still, post your own depleted publication, and see if we can’t out-shout the sexy oy.
May 15 2012
Venez the Menace
In case you missed the yarn across the weekend, a crossword setter named Neptali Segovia found himself in major doo-doo. The Venezuelan puzzler intersected ADAN (the president’s brother) with ASESINEN (the plural of the imperative form to kill). The palace wasn’t pleased. Secret police in unmarked Cadillacs came to make inquiries….
Segovia is safe for now, thank God. The criss-cross was accidental. But the story highlights the danger of a volatile clue. And that’s where we go with this week’s Storm – another clue-fest, but this time with full disclosure.
Create a clue that may oblige a midnight call from ASIO, the CIA, the FBI, the Stasi and/or Mossad. Please, for reasons of lawsuits, don’t make things too red-rag, just edgy. Enough to cock a security eyebrow. Like this:
SHORTEN: Throne’s rigged by Cabinet Minster
BIMBO: Lara Bingle, perhaps, detonated one bomb
DERRICK: Cabal murder Ricky with old gallows
Be alert, and alarm us with your wordplay. Before Thursday 9pm, submit your favourite three, and I will judge the pick on (a) quality, closely followed by (b) menace.
May 14 2012
Salon 28
Question: is yucky stuff a fair definition for grunge? I reckon, but Paul seems to think that gunge goes nearer the mark, hence his peculiar clue on Saturday:
Yucky stuff about right for 80s music genre?
The recipe is a container, with R inside GUNGE. But as Paul goes, a setter who sets his bar aloft, that would have to be one of his lowliest in a while. Not to mention his stale chestnut for SLOT MACHINES: Cash lost in ‘em. Must think our champion was having an off-day. He’s allowed. (Or am I being harsh?)
Before we turn the spotlight onto this week’s lot of Oz and G clues – when’s the last time you said whom? Are you a whom subscriber? Or have you placed a gentle pillow over the word’s visage and pressed forcibly, following the lead of Kurt Cobain? Would love to hear your who/whom thoughts, with a Wordplay column on the back burner.
Now’s the time to talk about clues. In the Comments at least. Enjoy your solving.
May 14 2012
WoW: Dauerlauf
DAUERLAUF [DOW-er-LOWF] – cross-country marathon [German dauern to endure, lauf, run] Nordic commandoes excel in biathlon and dauerlauf.
May 13 2012
Polyphonic Painters [BB362]
If salve + adored + alee sounds out a certain Spanish painter, can you arrange the words below to reveal five more notable painters? (Words can stem from anywhere in the cluster below, yet can only be used once only.)
And as a further challenge, if your ear is tuned, can you break up other notable folk into homophonic chunks? Best way to present your find is to clue each fragment (including length) and see if we can pinpoint the mystery luminary…
chair/chomp/darker/day
din/do/fed/free/freeze
hock/knee/low/mar/mart
sell/silicon/ski/vase
SOLUTION NEXT WEEK
BB361 SOLUTION: Staircase, saddle, trombone, column, book, epee, brain, hang-glider
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