HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: asimov@wk223.nas.nasa.gov (Daniel A. Asimov)
Subject: Wanted: Joint Solving of Cryptic Crosswords in the Palo Alto Area
Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 01:54:01 GMT


As I mentioned in a previous article, the loose-knit "ABC River Cluists" have 
been assembling informally for at least 8 years in Smokey Joe's Cafe in Berkeley 
to cooperatively solve cryptic crosswords over breakfast, either Saturday or Sunday 
morning in any given week.  (Traditionally they begin at 8 am, even on Sundays!)

Now I have moved to Palo Alto and would like to continue to enjoy past puzzling
pleasures without having to wake up at 6:30 am and drive for an hour to Berkeley.

So, are there any mid-Peninsula puzzlers out there who might like to assemble, say 
on a one-shot trial basis, for joint solving?   The cafe at Printer's Inc. Bookstore 
in Palo Alto is one possible site.  And it doesn't need to be at 8 am.

--Daz  (Daniel Asimov)
asimov@nas.nasa.gov

Mail Stop T045-1
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
(415) 604-4799


Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov (John Hutchinson)
Subject: Electronic CW dictionaries
Reply-To: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 15:10:45 GMT


Does anyone know if any of the specialized crossword dictionaries are available
on computer disk?

Thanks,

___________________________ John "HUTCH" Hutchinson _________________________
_________________ Fair Dinkum Technologies     Member - IAAD  _______________
________________ "No worries, mate... it's from Fair Dinkum!" _______________
____________ email: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov   GEnie: FAIR-DINKUM _____________


Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: asimov@wk223.nas.nasa.gov (Daniel A. Asimov)
Subject: Re: CWC Poll
Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 92 18:56:51 GMT

In article <1992Aug26.234652.2762@dvorak.amd.com> tomd@bali.amd.com (Tom Deneau) writes:
>I was wondering >how folks felt about keeping a theme 
for the clues >but at the same time giving a wider but still
>limited choice of words rather than fully specifying 
>the words.  For example, the word could be D.....T  
>i.e., any seven-letter word starting with D and ending 
>in T.  Or do people prefer that the judge continue to fully
>specify the words?
>
>	-- Tom

I would like to see the contest continue as it was originally
defined: two words to clue, one perhaps more common, one perhaps
less common, with no theme.  

In addition I would like to comment about the recent choice of two
mildly uncommon words to clue.  I think these were interesting words,
and thoroughly enjoyed trying to write clues for them (and reminding 
myself what they mean).  Personally, I would like to encourage, rather 
than discourage, the occasional slightly uncommon word to clue.

--Daz
From: steiner@andy.bgsu.edu (Ray Steiner)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Subject: Re: Here is a clue to solve
Date: 23 Aug 92 20:14:52 GMT
Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh.


Is the answer NOVOCAINE? I figured out the O+C+A+I+N+E but the
first 11 made no sense. By the way, whatever happened to
ACC7? I've been waiting for it for over a week now!
Ray Steiner
-- 
steiner@andy.bgsu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: turney@cs.cornell.edu (Jenn Turney)
Subject: Re: Scrabble Dictionary
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 15:19:46 GMT
Expires: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 04:00:00 GMT

Levin Magruder writes:
  I've never heard of an "OSPD-compatible" dictionary on electric media
  which is available in a form directly usable to the buyer.  (The products
  I mention all have the dictionaries stored in some indexed format.  I 
  suppose a comp sci person might be able to get the list out; I can't.)

I have an on-line copy of the OSPD word list.  It's available by
anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.cornell.edu, directory pub, filename
OSPD.shar.Z.  Uncompress it, run the shar file through "sh" and you'll
end up with a directory OSPD containing files for words of lengths
from 2 to 21.

Have fun!

Jenn
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| turney@cs.cornell.edu | Dept of Computer Science | Cornell University |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| She winced at his response of such a gratuitous "Wow": it said little |
| for his seizure of her meaning and even less for his lexicon.         |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: ross@bryson.demon.co.uk (Ross Beresford)
Subject: Re: Scrabble Dictionary
Organization: Bryson Limited, Reading, UK
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 17:40:27 GMT

Jenn Turney (turney@cs.cornell.edu) wrote:
: 
: I have an on-line copy of the OSPD word list.

Thanks a lot, that looks to be very useful!

: end up with a directory OSPD containing files for words of lengths
: from 2 to 21.

Which begs the question: how do you actually put down a word of
21 letters in Scrabble? You must be playing to some very strange
rules :-)

-- 
Ross Beresford
Email: ross@bryson.demon.co.uk           Voice: +44 734 344153
Bryson Limited, 10 Wagtail Close, Twyford, Reading, RG10 9ED, UK
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: jholden@netcom.com (Jeremy Holden)
Subject: Re: Where do you find cryptics?
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 92 02:11:17 GMT
Organization: Windward Group
Distribution: usa

>which British papers ... crosswords ... ?

Some probably out of date comments since I haven't actually
spent any substantial time there for 15 years.

The best cryptics (all white) were in the Sunday Observer
and Sunday Times colour sections (AZED and Mephisto resp.)
Although you can buy these papers in the USA (at great 
expense), at least in my neighbourhood they do NOT contain
the colour section, so crossword enthusiasts are fresh out
of luck.  These are usually straight cryptics with some
very tough words, although there are occasionally very good
variety cryptics at Xmas and other random times.

In the daily papers, the Times, Telegraph, and Guardian
all have black and white type cryptics of comparable
difficulty.  To my mind the Guardian had a more interesting
variety of setters than the other two.  The Times sometimes
has questions of a literary nature which stump me.  All of
these publish collections of crosswords in paperback.  A
problem with these is that they may have been in print for
a year or two, and can contain the occasional topical
reference to British politicians or soccer players.

One other source I remember is the Listener magazine (not
sure if this still exists).  This contained variety cryptics
of mind-boggling complexity.  I got a collection of these
Listener puzzles (Penguin paperback) and still occasionally
struggle manfully with them to little avail

  Jeremy
From: roger@quantime.co.uk (Roger Phillips)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Subject: ACC7 Winner
Date: 3 Sep 92 01:57:01 GMT
Reply-To: roger@quantime.co.uk (Roger Phillips)
Organization: Quantime Ltd, London (software for market research)

The winning clue for ACC7 is:

Trick balls in Test are subject to argument (13)

by Richard Chamberlain <richard@SSD.intel.com>.
(I'm waiting to hear whether Richard can run ACC8.)
I'll post a full list of submitted clues later.
-- 
Roger Phillips                            roger@quantime.co.uk
"*poot* (Scot.) v.i. to shoot at young partridges or young grouse"
-- Chambers English Dictionary (1988)
From: tomd@bali.amd.com (Tom Deneau)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Subject: CWC16 announcement
Date: 27 Aug 92 22:22:08 GMT
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Austin TX


     CLUE WRITING COMPETITION NUMBER 16

The few responses I got to my CWC poll were unanimous in keeping the
original format for the CWCs, so...

Welcome to Clue Writing Competition No. 16 (devised by Ian Gent).  The
rules, and this article, are much the same as used in earlier rounds.

The dates for CWC 16 are:

  Thursday    3 Sept 23:59 EDT   Deadline for CWC16 entries
  Friday      4 Sept             I'll post the CWC16 winners
  Friday      4 Sept             I'll post an annotated list of entries.

The rules:

Later on in this posting you'll find two words.  The first word is
chosen to be fairly easy to write a clue for; the second is intended to
be more awkward.

You may submit clues for either or both words.  I will accept only one
clue per person for each word; If you send more than one for a word, I
will accept the first one I receive.  E-mail the clues, along with your
name and e-mail address, explanations of how your clues work, and
whether or not you could run the next contest, to me at the following
address:

    tom.deneau@amd.com

After the deadline, I'll pick my favourite clue for each word.  Thus
there will be two winning clues.  I'll pick my favourite of these two as
the overall winner, inviting its writer to set the next round of this
competition.  I'll post separately a list of runner-up clues, and all
the remaining clues, with as much commentary as I see fit.

IMPORTANT: Please DO NOT post your own clues, or anything else that
might give away the answer words!  Some readers of this group want to
try solving the winning clues; please don't spoil it for them.

The words for CWC16 follow, "rot13" encoded for extra security,
after a ^L and 35 blank lines




































JRNGURERQ

RKRZCG


As for my taste in clues, I have pretty much agreed with
the judges choices in the other contests.  I don't like
indirect anagrams.

 Tom Deneau                    {uunet, cs.utexas.edu!ames}!amdcad!cayman!tomd
 Advanced Micro Devices, Austin TX     +1 512 462 4952     tom.deneau@AMD.COM
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: jholden@netcom.com (Jeremy Holden)
Subject: Re: Where do you find cryptics?
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 92 20:12:43 GMT
Organization: Windward Group
Distribution: usa


>Is Tough Cryptics worth the money?  Are they truly tough?  How 
>do they compare to the Atlantic and Harper puzzles?
There are a lot of the same people, Cox, Rathvon, Maltby, Galli, Hook
so the standard is the same (no easier, no tougher).
Is it worth the money?  Well you get 7 crosswords for less than the 
price of two Atlantics, and you don't have to wade through all that
other verbiage to find them :-).  It seems to be a very small scale
operation run by enthusiasts, and given the somewhat marginal level
of interest in cryptics here I think they are worth supporting.

>>Any other ideas, short of taking out a subscription to the Grauniad?
>The Grauniad?
A little joke.  The Guardian is a British daily newspaper with a good
daily cryptic.  It is also renowned for its poor proofreading and
the fact that it has more typos per square inch than any other
publication (except in the crossword).

Jeremy
From: M.Kossa@frec.bull.fr (Marc Kossa)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Subject: Crosswords in French ?
Date: 27 Aug 1992 10:15:34 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

I'd be VERY interested by crosswords in French.
Can somene give me a ftp site or even send me
some by mail ?
Thanks !
-- 
          /| /|             |  /                        
         / |/ |  _  ._   _  |_/  _ < <   _              
        /     |_(_(_/ |_(_  | \_(_)_>_>_(_(_      $B9,:n!!??5W(J
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Bull SA, BP 208        | E-mail    : M.Kossa@frec.bull.fr          |
| 1 Rue de Provence      | Phone (W) : 33 76397500 ext 7421          |
| 38432 Echirolles CEDEX |       (H) : Are you kidding ?             |
| FRANCE                 | Office    : FREC B1-163                   |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
"Soyez sage les enfants"                        - Robocop in "Robocop"
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: prking@silver.cs.umanitoba.ca (Peter King)
Subject: Re: CWC Poll
Organization: Computer Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 17:36:39 GMT


I agree with both Roger's and Fletcher's stated preference for us to
continue CWCn in its present format. In addition to their reasons, and
the point that 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' I have two other
points to make:

1. Part of the fun for me is to compare others' clues with my own.
I enjoy comparing both those based on the same idea that I had, but
also seeing what other ideas there are that never entered my
feeble brain. This aspect would be lost if we were not all clueing the
same word.

2. As a previous CWCn judge, I feel that it is quite difficult enough to
determine a winner -- or even a ranking -- without the extra variable
that different words would imply. In fact, the aforementioned feeble
brain boggles at the thought of determining whether x is a better
clue for a than y is for b. What weight would one give to the choice
of a and b?

On another matter, I have never seen it stated what the difference
between ACC and CWC is. And I came in at CWC4 I think. Perhaps
somebody could clarify this for newcomers -- and me!

Peter King
<prking@cs.UManitoba.ca>
--
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: ivan@erich.triumf.ca (Ivan D. Reid)
Subject: Re: PuzzlePack word game software
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: TRIUMF: Tri-University Meson Facility
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 07:09:00 GMT

In article <1992Sep1.234945.9926@newshost.lanl.gov>, hutch@bellman.lanl.gov writes...
>In article 10514@waikato.ac.nz, bill@waikato.ac.nz () writes:
> 
>>Does anybody know how the program stores its dictionary to enable such
>>fast lookup? I'm also interested if anyone knows of any other dictionary
>>storage method that is useful for crossword-style searching.
> 
>I too would be interested in how this program, and any others, store the
>dictionary data.  It would be very interesting to find out how this is done.

	Well, I reverse-engineered a Scrabble game I picked up in Tottenham
Court Rd a few years ago and got a listing of its dictionary.  It used too
many words that I thought were illegal or couldn't find in my dictionaries.
Unfortunately you have no way to challenge the prog. or alter the dictionary
so I made the listing in self-defense!  I've probably still got the extraction
programmes somewhere; e-mail me if you want me to look for them.

	I also started working on my own prog sometime before that and looked
at several ways of storing words internally (on a Mega4 ST so memory was not
much of a problem :-), including hash-tables and anagrammising.  Look up some
of the classic Jon Bentley columns in CACM.
> 
Ivan Reid, Paul Scherrer Institute, CH.     			ivan@cvax.psi.ch
"noematical -- a. Obs. rare;  Originating, or existing, in thought, or in the
 mind alone."	-- Compact Oxford Dictionary
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: sjm@bcrki65.bnr.ca (Stuart MacMartin)
Subject: Re: Scrabble Dictionary
Reply-To: sjm@bcrki65.bnr.ca (Stuart MacMartin)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 17:53:25 GMT

Wonderful!  I've wanted this for years!  In 1981 I entered almost all of the
5 letter words by hand into my Apple ][+, but my disk drive went bad, and I
was missing some words anyway (like "giant" and "maids").  Now I can write
the simple games that I wrote for myself on the Apple.

One question though:  is this copyrighted material?  Can a list of words be
copyrighted?

Stuart

: Stuart MacMartin                                    email: sjm@bnr.ca      :
: Bell-Northern Research                              phone: (613) 763-5625  :
: PO Box 3511, Stn C, Ottawa, K1Y-4H7, CANADA    Standard disclaimers apply. :
From: roger@quantime.co.uk (Roger Phillips)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Subject: Re: CWC Poll
Date: 27 Aug 92 09:49:51 GMT
Reply-To: roger@quantime.co.uk (Roger Phillips)
Organization: Quantime Ltd, London (software for market research)

In article <1992Aug26.234652.2762@dvorak.amd.com>,
tomd@bali.amd.com (Tom Deneau) writes:
> I was wondering
> how folks felt about keeping a theme for the clues

I feel that part of the role of the CWC (and ACC)
is to encourage newcomers.
Putting constraints on the surface meaning of the clue
will probably discourage them.

> but at the same time giving a wider but still
> limited choice of words rather than fully specifying 
> the words.  For example, the word could be
> 	D.....T

I find this makes *more* work,
since one is constantly wondering
if one might be missing a brilliant clue
through having chosen the wrong word.

> Or do people prefer that the judge continue to fully
> specify the words?

I'd prefer "vanilla" competitions, in the main.

Perhaps every few weeks a gimmick could be used;
but the judge should be aware that
some gimmicks make clue writing easier,
while others make it more difficult.
-- 
Roger Phillips                            roger@quantime.co.uk
"dick, (slang) n. fine words (for *dictionary*):  also for *declaration*,
as _to take one's dick_, and prob. _up to dick_, excellent (up to
declared value)." -- Chambers English Dictionary (1988)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: ross@bryson.demon.co.uk (Ross Beresford)
Subject: Re: PuzzlePack word game software
Organization: Bryson Limited, Reading, UK
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 92 17:19:23 GMT

Levin F Magruder (levin@world.std.com) wrote:
: 
: I just saw some software I thought readers of this group might be interested
: in. The program is called Puzzlepack.  It costs $20, runs on msdos only.

Sounds to be similar to my TEA program, which is "freeware", and available
on SIMTEL:

pd1:<msdos.txtutl>
TEA100.ZIP      TEA word search program for crosswords v1.00
TEABD100.ZIP    Dictionary database encoder for TEA v1.00

: The dictionary is based on The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, so
: there are a lot of odd words...

That's very interesting: does anyone know what the "Official" means in
this context ... who owns the copyright to the collection of words in
the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary?

-- 
Ross Beresford
Email: ross@bryson.demon.co.uk           Voice: +44 734 344153
Bryson Limited, 10 Wagtail Close, Twyford, Reading, RG10 9ED, UK
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: steiner@andy.bgsu.edu (Ray Steiner)
Subject: Re: CWC Poll
Summary: An alternate idea from CROSSWORD
Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh.
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 19:37:58 GMT


But here is an alternate idea that CROSSWORD actually ran
some time ago which ACC or CWC setters may want to consider:
Picture yourself actually setting a puzzle. You have constructed
most of the grid and letters and have GU_T_R left to set. There
are several words that could fit the blank spaces. Which do you
clue? The idea was to write the best clue for any of the possible
words that could fit the spaces. What do any of you think of
this idea for one of the future ACC or CWC competitions? This
is far better than having the contestants just pick words IMHO!
Ray Steiner
-- 
steiner@andy.bgsu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov (John Hutchinson)
Subject: Re: Scrabble Dictionary
Reply-To: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 21:40:45 GMT

In article 1311@bryson.demon.co.uk, ross@bryson.demon.co.uk (Ross Beresford) writes:

>Which begs the question: how do you actually put down a word of
>21 letters in Scrabble? You must be playing to some very strange
>rules :-)

That's the "Professional Scrabble" version they are talking about.  And did they
tell you it's also in 3-dimensions?  :)

---

___________________________ John "HUTCH" Hutchinson _________________________
_________________ Fair Dinkum Technologies     Member - IAAD  _______________
________________ "No worries, mate... it's from Fair Dinkum!" _______________
____________ email: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov   GEnie: FAIR-DINKUM _____________
From: tomd@bali.amd.com (Tom Deneau)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Subject: CWC Poll
Date: 26 Aug 92 23:46:52 GMT
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Austin TX

I have learned from Guy Jacobson that I
have been chosen to judge CWC16.  I was wondering
how folks felt about keeping a theme for the clues
but at the same time giving a wider but still
limited choice of words rather than fully specifying 
the words.  For example, the word could be

	D.....T

ie, any seven-letter word starting with D and ending in T.

Or do people prefer that the judge continue to fully
specify the words?

	-- Tom



 Tom Deneau                    {uunet, cs.utexas.edu!ames}!amdcad!cayman!tomd
 Advanced Micro Devices, Austin TX     +1 512 462 4952     tom.deneau@AMD.COM
From: tomd@bali.amd.com (Tom Deneau)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Subject: Sixes and Eights
Date: 3 Sep 92 21:32:22 GMT
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Austin TX


In his recent Sixes and Sevens puzzle, Roy Thearle (rt@ukc.ac.uk)
had a group of clues with the instructions:

  "Clues I) to XIII) consist of a definition of a six-letter 
  word plus an anagram of the word together with two extra
  letters (either may come first)."
										
So that one can't tell which part is which, the definition
part is always eight letters, the same length as the 6+2 anagram part,
for example,

	Deathbed argument	(debate)
	Wood rake did tasks.	(worked)


Can anyone come up with such a clue which is "two-way",
ie, part A is the definition of a six-letter word which is anagrammed
among the eight letters of part B and similarly, part B is the
definition of a six-letter word anagrammed amongst the eight letters
of part A.

Here are a few admittedly feeble attempts:

	Ambulate roll fast.   (stroll/tumble)
	Not huger appetite.   (petite/hunger)


I suppose one could also try the above problem with
lengths for the defn/answer other than 8/6 although 
as they get further apart, it probably gets too easy.













 Tom Deneau                    {uunet, cs.utexas.edu!ames}!amdcad!cayman!tomd
 Advanced Micro Devices, Austin TX     +1 512 462 4952     tom.deneau@AMD.COM
From: elkies@ramanujan.harvard.edu (Noam Elkies)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Subject: Re: Scrabble Dictionary
Date: 2 Sep 92 16:57:21 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc3.1992Sep2.125722.15311
Organization: Harvard Math Department

In article <1992Sep2.151946.20674@cs.cornell.edu>
turney@cs.cornell.edu (Jenn Turney) writes:
>I have an on-line copy of the OSPD word list.  It's available by
>anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.cornell.edu, directory pub, filename
>OSPD.shar.Z.  Uncompress it, run the shar file through "sh" and you'll
>end up with a directory OSPD containing files for words of lengths
>from 2 to 21.

Thanks.  Now I wonder why an official Scrabble dictionary contains
any words longer than 15 letters when a Scrabble board is a 15x15 square.

--Noam D. Elkies (elkies@zariski.harvard.edu)
  Dept. of Mathematics, Harvard University
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
From: yoo@netcom.com (Young-Kyu Yoo)
Subject: Re: Where do you find cryptics?
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 92 21:38:25 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Distribution: usa

Which of the British dailies have the best puzzles?

Re sources of cryptics in the States, some Dell crossword magazines publish
a few, by the likes of Cox, Rathvon, and Hook.  However, very few variety
puzzles from Dell and everything tends to be on the simple side.

Simon & Schuster has published a couple of collections of cryptics.  
The _Hooked on Cryptics_ series features the puzzles of Henry Hook.
Maleska edits Simon & Schuster's _Cryptic Crossword Treasury_.  

You can find old puzzles from The Nation in collections published by
Times Books (a division of Random House).  These are more challenging 
than any of the stuff you'll come across in the sources listed above.
The books, though, are a little hard to find, and I've only seen the first
two volumes at the bookstores though there are apparently four additional 
ones.  

Young-Kyu Yoo
NeXT Software Developer