Crossword confusion - abbreviations

The Game Room
1

I have recently started doing crossword puzzles through an ap on my iphone. I have had very little experience with crosswords before this, so I would like to know if this situation is typical.

I have currently finished the Boston Globe’s 6/13 puzzle and am still perplexed by a few of the clues. I ended up figuring them out only by solving the intersecting clues. All 4 of them use abbreviations that are not in common use.

7d. Non-Darwinian Theory (13) - Answer: InigentDesign
IntelligentDesign was my first thought, but after seeing it didn’t fit I discarded it as a choice.

11d. Eyed skeptically (12) - Answer: LookedAnceAt
Looked Askance At was my first thought, but again this didn’t fit. I have never heard of Ance being used as an abbreviation for askance.

54d. “Buck Privates” Duo (13) - Answer: AbbottAndCoso
I knew right away this should be AbbottandCostello, but this didn’t fit. When I did a google search for “Abbott and Coso”, there were no search results, which leads me to believe this is not a common abbreviation.

111a. ConAgra’s hometown (10) - Answer: OmahaNebra
Again, a non-standard (as far as I know) abbreviation.

What is the deal here? Is it common in crossword puzzles to use non-standard abbreviations? Or is this just lazy puzzle writing? It seems to me that if you allow non-standard abbreviations you could end up fitting any clue into almost any space regardless of the number of letter.

2

Seems to me it’s one of those puzzles with a gimmick, or extra layer of puzzliness. Notice that you are omitting TELL from InTELLigent Design and Abbot and CosTELLo, and SKA from the other two. Why “tell” and “ska”, I can only imagine.

3

Was the title of this particular puzzle, “Don’t ASK, Don’t TELL”?

4

I was going to say that you aren’t missing “SKA” you are missing “ASK”. nebrASKa and looked AKAance at

5

That must be it, the title of the puzzle is “Don’t ask, Don’t tell”

Thanks everyone.

6

In almost all crosswords, the title is a clue to the longest phrases in the puzzle. I just did one called “What it is”. The long answers were:

Crossbones
WordoftheDay
Puzzlebox

Then I did “Phunny Frases”. One of the clues, “Angler donator?”, had the answer “PhishingFilanthropist”. So in general, only long answers will have this format. The rest are normal.

One thing you should be aware of is that if the clue has an abbreviation, then the answer must also be abbreviated. If it’s spelled out, then abbreviations are off the table. So if you see something like “Member of the ADA”, the answer can’t be “Dentist” because ADA is an abbreviation. “Pens’ star center” wouldn’t be “Sidney Crosby”, but “Sid Crosby” because it says “Pens”, not “Penguins”.