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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/26/thomas-keneally-guardian-crosswords
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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Why I love the Guardian’s crosswords | Why I love the Guardian’s crosswords |
| (4 months later) | |
| The crossword and cricket, along with a fairly passable language, are the chief British contributions to world culture. Try to do a New York Times crossword and it’s all current affairs quiz muck and acronyms. It’s not Bletchley Park and code-breaking. Of all the cryptic crosswords of all the newspapers on Earth my favourite is the Guardian’s, because I’ve got to understand the setters, from the amusing and lenient Rufus on Monday all the way to that stern test set by Auracaria, a nonagenarian clergyman who rightly names himself after the Latin tag for the monkey-puzzle tree. | The crossword and cricket, along with a fairly passable language, are the chief British contributions to world culture. Try to do a New York Times crossword and it’s all current affairs quiz muck and acronyms. It’s not Bletchley Park and code-breaking. Of all the cryptic crosswords of all the newspapers on Earth my favourite is the Guardian’s, because I’ve got to understand the setters, from the amusing and lenient Rufus on Monday all the way to that stern test set by Auracaria, a nonagenarian clergyman who rightly names himself after the Latin tag for the monkey-puzzle tree. |
| But I respect the Guardian crossword too because it demands a lot of me, and sometimes too much. Because I’m better rested and better able to do the early weekday puzzles than I am to face the Genius puzzle of Saturdays which have consistently proven one thing: that I’m no genius. The Guardian, you see, has a weekly scale of difficulty. I like the Everyman on Sunday, however, because it seems to take merciful account of the fact that you might have knocked out a few brain cells, and made the memory less alacritous and the sub-conscious less Eureka-moment ready, with the wine drunk on Saturday evening. | But I respect the Guardian crossword too because it demands a lot of me, and sometimes too much. Because I’m better rested and better able to do the early weekday puzzles than I am to face the Genius puzzle of Saturdays which have consistently proven one thing: that I’m no genius. The Guardian, you see, has a weekly scale of difficulty. I like the Everyman on Sunday, however, because it seems to take merciful account of the fact that you might have knocked out a few brain cells, and made the memory less alacritous and the sub-conscious less Eureka-moment ready, with the wine drunk on Saturday evening. |
| There’s one weekly crossword called the Quiptic which is just a romp, because it is pun-ish and as frangible as a nougat, and must be contemptibly easy for the people who do get out the entire Saturday Genius. As a bonus, Hugh Stephenson, the crossword editor, writes a weekly piece about the complaints, substantial and delusional, he gets from crossword fanatics throughout the world, and the English ones – I hope this doesn’t offend anyone – remind me affectionately of the world of Evelyn Waugh and Miss Marple and Cluedo. Mighty debates are engaged in on such subjects as the spelling of certain medieval liturgical vestments and whether Google words, not yet in Oxford English Dictionary, are valid for crossword use. | There’s one weekly crossword called the Quiptic which is just a romp, because it is pun-ish and as frangible as a nougat, and must be contemptibly easy for the people who do get out the entire Saturday Genius. As a bonus, Hugh Stephenson, the crossword editor, writes a weekly piece about the complaints, substantial and delusional, he gets from crossword fanatics throughout the world, and the English ones – I hope this doesn’t offend anyone – remind me affectionately of the world of Evelyn Waugh and Miss Marple and Cluedo. Mighty debates are engaged in on such subjects as the spelling of certain medieval liturgical vestments and whether Google words, not yet in Oxford English Dictionary, are valid for crossword use. |
| While such arguments prevail, it seems to me, the world remains sane and safe. The delightful combination of conscious and unconscious ratiocination that goes into solving even one clue is, for some reason, an enduring delight. | While such arguments prevail, it seems to me, the world remains sane and safe. The delightful combination of conscious and unconscious ratiocination that goes into solving even one clue is, for some reason, an enduring delight. |
| • To find all our crosswords, visit guardian.co.uk/crosswords | • To find all our crosswords, visit guardian.co.uk/crosswords |
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