Author Archives: RC

Were you unable to make it to the DA Trippers Tripleversary Powwow?    Is this week’s DA cryptic just too far away to bear? Do you have trouble getting through the day until Letters and Numbers starts?

A salve to these irritations might be looking at the short doco that a team from RMIT made about DA and his fans, featuring interviews with DA, AS, RC and scenes from the powwow!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4GurqnVAF4

Should a documentary about cryptic tragics be a “crocumentary”?

Spoiler warning: you may find out what we look like, leading to great disappointment.

As a few people noted in the previous posts, the crossword proletariat don’t seem to share our love of DA.  Monday to Wednesday’s Age letters were full of whining about DA puzzles. I think these people need to be shouted down and shown to be the dog turd on the shoe of the cryptic world that they are.  I particularly dislike their smarmy calls about “DA stands for ‘Dont Attempt’”.  Haha….ha….h…h…..

Imagine if these people had other hobbies, perhaps they would still write to The Age/SMH (and would probably still be published) …..

People shouldn’t be allowed to surf Bell’s Beach, the waves are far too big for me.  Barry Smith, Flemmington

Why do we keep funding the Australian Ballet?  All they do is stand on their toes and move more gracefully than I can.  Mary Jones, Camberwell

Last week’s Epicure section featured recipes that required separating egg whites.  Please publish easier dishes, as I always get shell in the whites.   Mohamed Al Abasi, Croydon

I’m sick of the constant reporting on the AFL and other high standard sports events – when will the media pay attention to the SE Asian Australian Football Championships?  RC, Kualur Lumpur (on the eve of his international sporting debut!)

DA fans know no borders, and when any of us are wronged, we must all fight until justice is delivered.  This post is to act as the nerve centre, the war room of the NSW fight against moving DA to Saturday.

Imagine having to wait until Saturday, and then having to juggle the demands of the working week with the words of DA in your mind.  Impossible!  I’m not sure exactly how to declare a fatwah, but here goes:

DAKHBAAAAAaaaaa!!  Attack!

Please discuss plans for militant action and diplomatic subversion below.

Wow, what a weekend it was.   With all that controversy, my original questions got a bit lost.  I thought I’d start a new post for ongoing discussion about “!”, “?” and “…”.

 ”!”

I, RC, think that this should be a judiciously used indicator of &lit clues, the Grange Hermitage of the cryptic.  I love cryptics because of the wild, no-rules mind games that can be played within the clues.  No rules, except for the two UNBREAKABLE rules – that there is a direct and an indirect clue, and that the direct clue must in some way touch the beginning or end of the clue.

Like all good unbreakable rules these do get broken, chiefly by &lit clues.  I think “!” needs to be used carefully, so that the solver knows when the usual rules will be bent.  I accept RB’s comment that DA does occasionally use the “!” for less-than-pure &lit clues, but they’re usually &lit-ish.

In short, I don’t mind it being used on clues other than the Grange, but other compilers tend to throw it at the Banrock Station cask (of which I am actually quite fond).

 ”?”

MF brought up problems with the “?”, but I tend to agree with DA and RB that it “is often used for pun clues, or oblique definitions.”  Having ranted about “!” above, I dont think you can use the “?” as an &lit indicator, and I don’t recall it being used without “!” to do so.

In a non-Age/SMH crossword I did a long time ago, I saw “?” used to indicate “Y”, I assume as in ?=why=Y.  I dont remember where I saw it though.

 ”…”

I know this is one of AS’s pet topics.  I tend to think of it as indicating where reading  on to the next clue might be amusing, but I think it can get used to indicate the need for the next clue’s answer.  I’m not sure about it, but I’d love to hear all your comments.