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Diabolically Arcane

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Salon 9

4 March, 2013

Just finished reading Crosstalk, an inbox of letters received by Eugene Maleska, one-time crossword editor at The New York Times. In one section he talks about avoiding brand names – something his successor, Will Shortz, happily waived.

Eugene mentions the pains he took to ensure Dove, or Pears, or Dial were never clued as soap, say. While coke was always fossil fuel. Of course that made me think of some fun to be had – pretending a brand is not a brand, and contriving a clue. Say:

More like Perry = PERRIER
Stosur chorused = SAMSUNG

So what brands can you dignify with pseudo-definitions? Less a cryptic treatment, than if-they-were-a-word indicator. See what we can make. Your byline and number, and we can build a solving chain too.

(Speaking of clues, talk about the best of the British stuff here too. With his uncanny foreknowledge, Anthony has already flagged Tuesday and Wednesday as puzzles to possess.)

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Riddledom Rave

If you missed my riddle chat with Richard Fidler, then feel free to slurp the podcast at http://ab.co/1I9t1x5

Text-speak is creeping into Scrabble. Where do you sit?
OBVS I'm fine with it
Entrenched stuff - like LOL and OMG - but no more.
Words With Friends, maybe. Scrabble, no
Let the 'real' dictionaries decide first
Just the handy stuff, like FAQ and EUW
I mean, WTF?! No way
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