Beyond Wordplay

Playing with words. Seriously. (Tweets by Eric Chaikin)

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

@MerriamWebster Also - 9 = N+egg?

Neuf = N+oeuf
Nueve = N+huevo

or maybe not.

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

“Big Mama” WILLIE MAE THORNTON, growled blues on "Hound Dog”. Her letter bank is MOTHER-IN-LAW (or WOMAN HITLER), which makes Oedipal Jim Morrison’s WALLOW IN THE MIRE and a stepmom's line: MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL.

Happy Mother’s Day, Moms & Big Mamas
https://t.co/vtegC3gpuB

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

By the way, feel free to Like if you've solved the cryptic. (Hint: Answer pictured)

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

Today’s Cryptic Picnic:

In “Aida”, Meryl Streep brazenly ignores each and every leading character, for her next Oscar-winning role, perhaps? (7, 8)

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

@babybeginner Not Gen X

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

What’s on your bookshelf?

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

Well, you’re certainly not gonna solve with *that* attitude.

[New York Magazine @NYMag]

Last weekend — for the first time in the puzzle’s 84-year history — ‘The New York Times Magazine’ printed an unsolvable crossword. Clues didn’t align with their corresponding answers or were missing altogether. The grid was correct online, but for print-magazine solvers, the damage to their weekends, and esteem, had already been done.

Some solvers who complete the Sunday puzzle in the print magazine (often with pen) complained on crossword forums and social media, saying they were “nearly in tears,” some with fears of “sudden onset dementia” or, worse yet, ineptitude.

When Mike McFadden, in New Jersey, couldn’t crack it, he thought, “something was wrong with me. I didn’t think that they would have an error.” It nagged at him all day. For others, the error triggered an existential crisis. “We trust that it’s always going to be something that at least somebody can figure out,” Irene Papoulis, a former writing instructor at Trinity College, said. “The world is making less and less sense. So it’s like, ‘The crossword puzzle? Not you, too!’”

Several people said they felt robbed of a sacred morning routine. “Maybe I’m overreacting,” McFadden said. “But it ruined the best hour of my week.”

Maggie Duffy reports on the crisis in the crossword community after an erroneous grid was published in the ‘Times’: https://t.co/Ax9hC2By6m

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

@GenTXer2 Klark Kent (10" green vinyl EP).
(Bonus when you discover his (not so) secret identity)
https://t.co/NfG6MILdmC

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

...Online sources add: kalasa, sanskara, antimeson, vedana, wonkery, & gooner.

Older variants include: illision, mannitose.

Of course this doesn't include proper nouns like Weardale, Mansonite, Siriusmo, Mantano, Sexta, & Irvingia.

Or phrases like "land army".
But we digress.

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

@TerribleMaps' state anagrams map shows how deceptively tricky even simple wordplay can be.

It boils down to acceptance criteria.

Solid, lower case state anagrams in Webster's 3rd Unabridged: anidian, amine, anime, nominates, antinomes, orgone, orogen, taxes, & nowanights...

[Terrible Maps @TerribleMaps]

Anagrammable US states
(Result = one word anagram)

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

@PeterRNeumann The .XV model is even cooler.

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

@aaaronson Topology is the unexplored dimension of crosswords.

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

There are actually two answers to this.

You may have noticed the STATE gets its share, & the rest goes to your ESTATE.

Did you also notice your HEIRS only get what they’re due after THE IRS gets *theirs*? Which is our 4/15 tie-in.

(h/t Stefan Fatsis @ustefanjil for the 1st)

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

In honor of the day.

Take a word that tells you WHO GETS YOUR MONEY WHEN YOU DIE (5 letters). Actually, they just wind up with *some* of it. Put a letter in front to see who gets the rest.

Happy 4/15.

(Like if you’ve got them both)

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

In honor of the day.

Take a word that tells you WHO GETS YOUR MONEY WHEN YOU DIE (5 letters). Actually, they just wind up with *some* of it. Put a letter in front to see who gets the rest.

Happy 4/15.

(Like if you’ve got them both)

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

@HiddenYorkshire You can add “Stephen Sondheim’s camp counselor” to that resume.

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

@Anthony_Etherin Fair enough

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

@Anthony_Etherin Only suggestion would be to use each of the letters in the letter bank at least once, eg

Rene Magritte - generate an image

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

@Anthony_Etherin Great form!

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

@ConfluxConflux @aaaronson Based a cryptic clue on it, but - I salute the find.

[Beyond Wordplay @beyondwordplay]

@aaaronson Interweaving parts of “A Train”, lento. (11)