Denise Sutherland's Blog, page 3

Centennial Winners

Happy New Year all!
I'm pleased to announce the winners of the last cryptic clue writing competition, for the word CENTENNIAL.

First prize: For the hundredth time Len, nice tan job (GrizNHeph) — A lovely concise clue, with LEN NICE TAN as the anagram fodder, and job as the anagram indicator.

Second prize: Celebrate one hundred years by shaking 50 Romans in canteen (sandbox74)— an anagram of 50 Romans (L) with IN CANTEEN, indicated by shaking.

Third prize: CNN late in e-broadcast, spoil 100th year anniversary (Asuquo) — an anagram of CNN LATE IN E. Broadcast and spoil could be the anagram indicators (although only one is needed).

I know that sandbox74 and Asuquo are both outside of the regions where I can gift apps, sorry people ... but you can have that peaceful inner glow and smugness of knowing you did good  ;)

GrizNHeph, drop me an email to let me know where you live, and hopefully I can send an app to you!

Crossword Centenary!

Today's the day! 

One hundred years ago, on 21 December 1913, Arthur Wynne published the first crossword. He called it 'Wordcross' ... But a few weeks later, a typesetter made a mistake and wrote Crossword ... And we've called them that ever since! This puzzle has grown in that time to be one of the most popular puzzles around, worldwide.


To celebrate this special occasion, here is a new cryptic clue competition for you all to enter!
Rule Thingies

1) Write an anagram clue for the word CENTENNIAL. Your clue has to contain a definition for CENTENNIAL, an anagram indictor, and the anagram fodder (an exact anagram of CENTENNIAL). See below for more information.

2) Submit your clue as a comment on this post. Please sign your clue with your first name or alias (especially important for those of you posting Anonymously!).

3) Submissions are limited to one clue per person.

4) Entries close in a week, on Saturday 28th December, at 12 pm (local Canberra time, +11 GMT).

5) The judges' decision is final.

Prizes!

1st, 2nd, and 3rd winners will win their choice of one of my apps ... There are limited countries I can gift these from (Apple has region restrictions on App store gifting), so I can send prizes to people in Australia, USA, and the UK. 

If you live outside these areas, you are of course welcome to enter, but I can't award prizes (apart from the everlasting fame and glory, naturally), sorry.

Help for writing your anagram clue

Your cryptic clue will need:

1) A definition for CENTENNIAL — this can be as simple, as oblique, or as silly as you like. The definition needs to be at the start or end of the clue (not stuck in the middle). 

2) An anagram (fodder) — this needs to be an exact anagram of the word CENTENNIAL — for example, 'ace lent inn' or 'nil canteen'. There are a fair few of possibilities, and it can run over 2 or 3 or even 4 words. You can use up to one abbreviation for one or two letters (so 'north' or 'noon' could = N, for example). This is called the anagram fodder.

3) An anagram indicator — this is a word that tells the reader to mix up the letters of the fodder. This can be a word like doctored, edited, nervous, or weaving. There are thousands of possibilities! Look for a word (or two or three) that matches well, and makes sense, with your fodder.

NB: The anagram indicator isn't allowed to do 'double duty' - so you must not use your definition for centennial as the anagram indicator. 

Your clue needs to read well, like a mini phrase or sentence (not just a random assortment of words stuck together). It can be funny, surreal, or serious, whatever you like. Creativity and clue accuracy are what I will be looking for.

Remember that the basic anatomy of a cryptic clue is:

Wordplay + Definition = Answer

or

Definition + Wordplay = Answer

So, the definition can't be stuck in the middle of the wordplay. The definition has to sit at the start or end of the clue, and not be interrupted by the wordplay.

In an anagram clue, the Wordplay = the fodder + the anagram indicator  (or indicator + fodder, or some fodder + indicator + rest of the fodder).
More help:
You can 

Murdoch is Evil Puzzle

If you live in Australia, you may have noticed a bit of a media flurry in the last week about the message MURDOCH IS EVIL running backwards through a word search puzzle for kids. It appeared in the Sunday Telegraph — a Murdoch-owned paper! Oh my!

Image source: Gawker.comThis caused rather a storm on Twitter and online.

So — this is the big question : is this one of those accidentally created messages, like the faux pas we saw with the Woolies word search a few months ago?

The short answer: NO.

The long answer:

This hidden message was put there intentionally by the setter (and personally, I'd give them a medal). Yes, it's possible for words to be accidentally created in any grid of random letters — but these are almost exclusively 3, 4, and 5 letter words (and the 5 letter words are rare, at that). This is why swear words — those infamously 'four letter words' – can easily be accidentally created in a word search grid.

For a short phrase like MURDOCH IS EVIL to occur by accident, the chances are roughly 26 (number of letters in the alphabet) to the power of 13 (how many letters are in the phrase).

So:

1 in 2613 = 1 in 2,481,152,873,203,736,576

That's one chance in roughly 2.5 QUINTILLION (or TRILLION, depending on where you live).

(This is a rough calculation, I've not taken into account things like the higher distribution of vowels etc, but regardless, it's basically impossible that this message would have occurred by chance.)

So no. This message was not created accidentally! It harkens back to the crossword lashing of Rebekah Brooks by the News of the World setter.

Subversive puzzle setters of the world unite! Well done, mate.

Nixie Clues #3

A new set of cryptic clues for you to try out.

Dithering about narration topics (15)Wound’s nasty to the German editor (9)Frond cut short for meadow (3)Shallots regularly stuffed with seasoning (4)One who escapes north in ripped brocades (9)
Let me know if you got them!

Husky Holidays

I don't have much to write about puzzle-wise today, but I'm just back from a very enjoyable week's holiday with my husband at Huskisson, a little town in Jervis Bay. We stayed at our favourite B&B, run by our friends Kate and Steve.


Shark Net Beach at Huskisson is delightful, good rock pools and a great place to swim. Fossils, too!

Moona Moona Creek is one of my favourite places, wonderful padding place for kids and ridiculously timid people who don't like snorkelling in deep water (me)!

The only reason I could get this photo was the crab was dead. Zoooombieeee Crraaaaab!

There were, of course, many noms.

We highly recommend the Huskisson Bakery ...

One day we went out on a Dolphin Watch cruise on the bay, and saw dolphins, funnily enough! This one was riding the bow wave with the boat, fabulous to see so close up.

And the mangrove boardwalk at the Lady Denman Maritime Museum was a pleasant place to wander, looking for little red-clawed crabs, and watching the birds.

And I didn't write or solve a single cryptic clue, the whole week! Although there is still some mystery surrounding the disappearance of some Kangaroo Valley fudge ...

Puzzle Comp

My buddy Catherine over at The Clue Detective Puzzle Agency runs a weekly puzzle competition via her free weekly newsletter. The prize is an annual membership, so it's well worth your while heading over there and subscribing. No strings attached — you've got nothing to lose!

The Clue Detective site is the only place in the world where you can access my latest Nixie cryptics regularly.
I'm heading off on a week's holiday at the coast, so will catch you all when I get back  :)

Answers to Nixie Clues #2

Answers to that last lot of clues ...

1) Following Albert to the side (7) = LATERAL
Following = LATER + Albert = AL

2) Romeo left weird herbalists’ institute (9)  = ESTABLISH
Romeo= R. Remove R from herbalists, and jumble up these letters (indicated by weird). Institute, the definition, is a verb, not a noun.

3) Greek character is against red Italian wine (7) = CHIANTI
Greek character = CHI + is against = ANTI

4) Flower occurs randomly (6) = CROCUS
Anagram of occurs

5) Beyond a minor role (5) = EXTRA
Double definition clue, beyond what you need is extra, and an extra is someone who plays a minor role in a drama.

6) Clever and dynamic mediator heads off (6) = ADROIT
Anagram with a deletion. Take the heads off the word mediator = DIATOR. Jumbled them up (in a dynamic) way, to get the answer!

How did you get on?

Nixie Clues #2

Some new clues for you to try!

1) Following Albert to the side (7)

2) Romeo left weird herbalists’ institute (9)

3) Greek character is against red Italian wine (7)

4) Flower occurs randomly (6)

5) Beyond a minor role (5)

6) Clever and dynamic mediator heads off (6)

If you'd like to get my Nixie cryptics on a regular basis, I publish a new cryptic every fortnight (2 weeks) over at the Clue Detective Puzzle Agency. There's a special deal on at the moment, use the code NIXIE in checkout to get a 10% discount on membership.
 

Announcing the Winners to Comp #2

Well, I gotta say guys, I'm impressed! Those were a good bunch of clue entries, and it was tricky to select the three prize winners. But with the help of my friend the Puzzle Wizard (thanks Greg!), I've settled on three winners for this clue competition.

Griff's impressed too ...


As you'll all recall, the competition was for an anagram clue for the word INTERCHANGE.

1st Prize: Tech grannie flipped switch (Mike Weepie)
Switch is the definition in this clue, and the wordplay is an anagram (indicated by flipped) of tech grannie. Great mental image, too! I wonder if she works as a DJ ... or an electrical engineer perhaps?

2nd Prize: Bizarre etching near confluence of highway (Norm H)
Confluence of highways is the definition, the anagram indicator is bizarre, and the anagram fodder is  etching near. I wonder if the etching is evidence of aliens?!

3rd Prize: Cloverleaf in modified gene chart (Len Elliott — who was a prize winner in my first clue comp!)
Cloverleaf is the definition, and modified is the anagram indicator, working on in gene chart.  I just just imagine the surprise on the geneticist's face when seeing their test results!

Honourable mentions to Peter Pond, who submitted a great deal of good entries, Golem for his 'Switch gear with ten-inch shift' clue, and the anonymous entry 'Chart engine off switch'.

Mike, Norm, and Len, please email me on denise@sutherland-studios.com.au to discuss prizes!

Thank you everyone who entered, I hope you enjoyed the writing process — I certainly enjoyed seeing the fruits of your labours!

CrypticGuide

My marketing and promotions department (me) told me that I should do a little plug for our CrypticGuide app. Plug plug plug ...



This is an app that took us over a year to develop — my husband had to do vast amounts of tricky iOS database programming, and I had to write the vast database of info!

So, what is it? It's a handy little cryptic dictionary — so you can enter a word from a cryptic clue, and if it's in our database, CrypticGuide can tell you that there's an abbreviation arising from that word, or maybe it's an anagram indicator, or has some funny cryptic meaning, or is a homophone.

So, in the example here (which shows the iPad version), if you type in the word 'about', you'll see that the word 'about', found in a cryptic clue, could lead to a few cryptic synonyms (circa, on, a fight), a range of abbreviations (A, C, CA, RE), and a bunch of cryptic indicators (anagram indicator, container indicator etc).

Unlike other cryptic dictionaries, we include brief explanations for why some words lead to certain abbreviations, as they're not always obvious! French art = ES isn't clear, until you know that French art refers to 'I am, thou art' translated to 'Je suis, tu es' — so 'art' (archaic form of are) is 'es' in French.

While CrypticGuide is not as comprehensive as a full cryptic dictionary like Bradford's, of course, we still have nearly 7,000 entries in the cryptic database, and hopefully can help you find a way into most cryptic clues.

If you know of entries that have been missed, you're very welcome to contact us with your suggestions, and we will update the database in new versions of the app.

CrypticGuide also has an anagram solver (handy for writing clues as well as solving them), and a wildcard solver, for finding all words that fit into a particular letter pattern, for those times when you're really stumped.

OK, shameless self-promotion all done, I hope that keeps the dicks over in marketing happy for a while ... as you were  ;)