Sometimes I LOVE being a geek.

[willowroot]

This one's rather extreme, but it crosses a few of my interests (biology--evolution, history of science, crossword puzzles... at which most folks go "hunh?"):

A cryptic crossword in honor of Darwin's birthday (February 13th).

*evil chuckle*

Uh, anyone have any ideas about 24 across?

Comments

[jhitchin.livejournal.com]

24. Dinosaur casually swallows city! Don't panic! (5)

The clue divides as "Dinosaur casually swallows city! / Don't panic!" Dinosaur casually would be REX (as in Tyrannosaurus, but "causually" refers to a nickname or shortening of the name), and city would be Los Angeles, or LA. "Swallows" refers to putting LA into REX giving you RE-LA-X or RELAX which is defined as "Don't panic!"

Does that help?

*laugh*

[flinx.livejournal.com]

I was just waiting for you to reply, my friend. I've worked over cryptics before, and I already had five answers before I posted. (1A, 10A, 19A, 9D, 18D.. the easier ones)

However, thanks for the help. Some of these I just look at and go "How the heck do I parse THAT one?" ;-)

Re: *laugh*

[jhitchin.livejournal.com]

That's the problem with cryptics. Depending on the constructor, the clues can be completely unfair or unsolvable unless you have specialized knowledge and that cuts down on the fun of doing a cryptic. The dividing line between wordplay and clue can be too difficult to find and once in a while, punctuation is used wrong. Question marks are deadly if not used properly.

Re: *laugh*

[(Anonymous)]

As the originator of the crossword, can I assure you that very few of the clues require specialist knowledge, and those that do should be fairly easy to work out from the cryptic part of the clue, assisted by a Google search. Richard Carter, FCD www.gruts.com/darwin/