Cryptic Crosswords

[Josh Mandel]

If anyone's trying the magic-themed Cryptic Crosswords and has any questions, I'm here to help.

Similarly, if anyone's trying them and just wants to rant, complain, or verbally assault my ancestors and me, I'm here for that, too.

--Josh

[Joe M. Turner]

Josh, I enjoyed it a lot. I had to peek at the solution a couple of times until I got the hang of it but now that I "get it," I'm looking forward to the next puzzle!

[Josh Mandel]

Hey, Joe, nice to see you!

I'm so glad you liked it!

--Josh

[Ed Oschmann]

Thanks for the tutorial. Made the trip across the country more the enjoyable. I had to cheat on a few. The clue for Lovell was way beyond me.

[Josh Mandel]

Ed,

Once the Lovell solution was explained (granted, the explanations are minimal), did it make sense to you, or were you still left wondering how we'd arrived at Lovell?

Josh

[Matthew Field]

Josh -- this is very sweet for me. I'm a cryptics fanatic. I've won the Harper's puzzle competition twice and am in heaven in England where cryptics abound.

For those of you interested in non-magic themed cryptic crosswords, I recommend http://www.puzzlecrypt.com and http://www.lafn.org/~keglerron/kegler.html .

Matt Field

[Pete McCabe]

I really enjoyed the puzzle and look forward to the next one.

[Harry Lorayne]

Admittedly, I'm a lousy computer person. So, you all have seen the puzzle. I'll be d***ed if I know how to get to it. HL.

[AJM]

I'm with Harry - I've no idea what puzzle everyone else seems to be enjoying.

(And I do like cryptic crosswords - Matt, try The Scotsman newspaper).

And Harry - you're not a lousy computer person!

Cheers

Andrew

[Richard Kaufman]

The first magic-themed Cryptic Crossword appears on p.16 of our January issue.

[Josh Mandel]

Matthew,

Ah, I'm really glad to hear that there are already some Cryptic fans out there among the Genii readership...sometimes, at least here in the US, it feels a little lonely. I'm guessing you'll find the Genii cryptics a good deal easier than most of the UK ones. I've tried to keep the Magic-themed puzzles relatively simple. (Have you ever seen the ones in The Nation? They're NASTY.)

Pete, thank you, I'm glad you tried it -- and liked it.

--Josh

[Evan Shuster]

Great idea, and another great addition to Genii. Josh, thanks for the carefully outlined tutorial; without it I'd be lost. Come to think of it, even with it I'm still a little lost, but starting to get the hang of it. Good fun!

[AJM]

Thanks Richard - I'll have to be patient until I receive the January issue.

Cheers

Andrew