Well, I got the Haile Selassie one. But I am lost on the other two.
I wish we had crossing links somehow like in a real cryptic puzzle. In a standard or variety cryptic I can get about a quarter of the answers if I am lucky, but then the rest is figured out with help of the crossing letters.
In this thread, we have the advantage of several solvers, but the major disadvantage of not having helpful crossing letters. I am stumped on your two cryptics so far.
FOOT (FOr OTtawa)
I remember hearing that on the radio and just letting out a huge groan. Good thing I wasn’t in the audience for that one.
Crossing letters are good, but just one or two doesn’t usually help me much. Either I grok the clue and I don’t need any letters, or I need enough crossing letters to just guess the word outright and then see if I can wrestle it into the clue somehow.
On the other hand, I’m still working my way back through the puzzles on the WSJ site. I like to print them out and take them with me when I go out to eat. Last night I started a new puzzle and got about 1/3 of the way through it just during one meal. I may actually be starting to figure these things out.
_ _ _ _ Z _ _ _ (it’s not a very common word)
_ _ O _
(On preview, I see you got it.)
First ban literature, music, and painting, then finish with a restriction for a movie featuring returning Rat Packer. (4,5)
One more letter please, preferably before the Z.
Another letter not necessary!
SAMIZDAT (Sammy’s dot)
Correct!
I was kinda proud of those two, actually.
Both were well constructed clues, in my opinion.
×××××××
Way of measuring poor opinion entirely misguided (7, 4)
Just found this thread, and saw this one was unsolved:
GOBSTOPPER (“gob’s topper”, and an Everlasting Gobstopper was a candy in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
xxxxxx
Strange recent creature (6)
TENREC*
And thanks for solving the “sailor’s hat” one. That particular cryptic kept me up a few nights… but I just could not get it.
Repeat after Delaware Republican, “This really blows.” (7)
DERECHO (de + r + echo)
Score high on the Fourth of July (5)
Wow. This looks like fun.
Here’s a link to an article “Jaw-Dropping Puzzles”. I have not read the actual article because I think it may give away answers to what look like some amazing printable variety cryptic crosswords, which are linked at the beginning. Thought I’d share the find.
TALLY (tall + y)
xxxxx
House? Yes, for Russian exclave in Africa! (7)
Just want to promote the first puzzle in the link at #214. The “Middle of the Road” cryptic variety puzzle by Patrick Berry is amazing. Print it out and try it. The puzzle took me a few days… but was so very worth the effort!
(This probably won’t make much sense to someone who hasn’t done the puzzle in question.)
Have you tried “A Deadly Game” yet? I’ve got it mostly done; got the Evidence words, and the replaced words. The instructions say the Evidence is linked to the guests by wordplay in two ways. I know one of the two ways; haven’t worked out the other, the links, the killer, or the fate of the killer. Not giving up on it yet.
Not sure how much I like it. There are a couple very obscure answers in the grid. And there are some answers, the ones replaced by Evidence, that have to be solved cold (no possibility to fill in any letters by solving crossing clues).
Just started “Middle of the Road”. Too soon to tell if I’ll make any headway on it.
Yes. That puzzle was great fun. I like when the lightbulb finally went off on the roles. Those “aha!” moments are what cryptics are all about.
But I cannot make heads nor tails of the final room in “Bluebeard’s Castle.” The puzzle was super tough and I got it almost all, except for that damned final room. I really enjoyed getting as far as I did with that one… but please please please let me know if you solve what is going on in the final room.
What’s worse is that I think the many days work I did on that BC puzzle got tossed in the recycling by mistake by my wife after I gave up on it. I can probably remember a lot of it though.
Here’s what I’ve got so far, biotop. I suspect that there might be two solutions, so I hope I’m not giving away one you haven’t found.
[spoiler]The evidence words correspond to the beginning of each secret. BULL and COW are ELEPHANTS, FLAN is a PUDDING, etc. (For NUTSO all I have is BEANS, which I’m not all that certain of.) If I leave HEYDAYS out of the lower grid, it spells CAUGHT RED HANDED in the shaded squares, so the FLANEUR is the killer.
Here’s what I think I’m missing. The instructions say each guest is linked to evidence via wordplay in two ways, and I only have one (the first part of each word). Five of the guests may also be found linked to their evidence in the completed grid, and I don’t see that at all. (a FLANEUR is an IDLER, but I can’t make a similar connection with any of the other secrets; and it seems that FLANEUR is the one who’s supposed to be the killer.) The killer is the guest who has fled the scene, whatever that means.
Is there more? Am I close?[/spoiler]
I do not have my copy anymore (recycled in the cleaning purge)… but you have figured out who the players are in the game, right?