From: guy@ulysses.att.com (Guy Jacobson)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles.crosswords
Subject: CWC15 entries (both words)
Date: 26 Aug 92 20:26:46 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories

Mea culpa.  Judging from the paucity of entries and the grousing on
rec.puzzles.crosswords, I conclude that this contest was too hard and
that this may have discouraged people from entering.  I apologize for
this, and will be more careful in the future.

It is certainly more challenging to write clues for more difficult
words than for easy ones, and we shouldn't expect the quality of the
clues to be quite as good.  You can't run the 100m hurdles as fast as
you can run 100m without the hurdles.  (Of course, if the hurdles are
2m high, you can't run at all :-)  The words that are hard to clue are
not necessarily the obscure words, but rather the inflexible words,
and words with odd letter combinations.

It is not a rewarding experience to try and solve a clue for a word
that you don't know, and therefore puzzle creators should try and
avoid obscure words.  A clueing contest is a different matter,
however.

People generally liked the idea of having a theme for clues (although
one person thought that "Shakespeare" was not very original).  I
should have chosen easier words to compensate for the added constraint
of thematic clues.

I've put all the entries for both words together in this post.  In
fairness to the high hurdlers, I chose the winners for each word from
among those with a Shakespearian theme.  I took a dim view of entries
whose Shakespearian reference was completely superfluous to the rest
of the clue.

'Nuf said; on to the entries, organized by clue type.


Word 1: PICARESQUE

CARES inside PIQUE:
-------------------

Irritation about concerns makes one like Falstaff (10)

    PIQUE around  CARES = PICARESQUE

    [a good charade, but is Fallstaff really picaresque?  Also, "one"
     is superfluous]


Tends, in fit of anger, to let Rogue intrude on real life (10)

    CARES inside PIQUE = PICARESQUE

    [I don't think the definition "let Rogue intrude on real life"
     quite matches the sense of picaresque.]


Keeping his worries inside, resentment became adventurous for Shakespeare (10)

    CARES inside PIQUE = PICARESQUE

    [The "for Shakespeare" here is a superfluous afterthought.]


Other treatments:
-----------------

Type cast queers as Romeo (10)

    PICA + anag QUEERS = PICARESQUE

    [Reads nicely, short and sweet.  But was Romeo picaresque?]


Like Puck, spare Quince translation - twin Bottom is superfluous (10)

    PICARESQUE = SPARE QUINCE anag - N ("twin bottom")

    [Lot's o' Shakespeare, but the surface meaning is a bit hard to
     fathom.  I think Puck is more of a rogue than Falstaff or Romeo.]


Like Don Quixote with tangled cape, squire (10)

    PICARESQUE = anag CAPE SQUIRE.

    [Decent anagram.  No sight of the Bard, though]


Constant square-dancing in church is roguish (10)

    PI + SQUARE anag. inside CE = PICARESQUE

    [A solid, straightforward clue, but where's Willy?]


A famous star captain?  The best part is that in Spain it's adventurous (10)

    PICAR(d) + ES QUE ("is that in Spain") = PICARESQUE

    [The "ES QUE" is creative here, but this clue has nothing to
     shape a spear at.]


Poor Romeo's love not required in priming Quixote's capers or
their description? (10)

    Anag. ("poor") of {"priming Quixote's" (letters in prime
    positions of "Quixote's") QUIOE - (Romeo's love") O} QUIE CAPERS =
    PICARESQUE ( the description of Quixote's capers]

    [I'm convinced this clue was submitted to punish me.  What role
     does Romeo play in the clue?  Also, 1 isn't a prime; follow-ups
     to sci.math]

Word 2: COLOPHON

Hidden and the like:
--------------------

Half of the colonies' phonetic inscription comes from Timon's Ionian
neighbor (8)

    COLO(nies') PHON(etic) = COLOPHON (inscription) = COLOPHON (place)

    [I don't particularly go for three-part clues unless they are
     particularly compelling.]


Mark, of publishing house, shows off playing piccolo, phonograph, polo (8)

    COLOPHON hidden inside picCOLO PHONograph

    [A creative way to hide the definition.  What function does "polo"
     serve here?]


The Bard also played music, leaving his literary trademark in his
self-coined "piccolo phonetics" (10)

    COLOPHON hidden inside picCOLO PHONetics

    [A lot of extra words here, and the Shakespeare reference plays no
     integral part in the clue]


The Hamlet copy was so bad the publisher's mark might as well
have been encircled by "Made in Colo.  Phony" (10)

    COLOPHON hidden inside COLO.  PHONy

    [Same comments as for the previous clue]


Other treatments
----------------

Mark (from the printer company) cut off performing after Henry the First (8)

    COLOPHON = CO + LOP + {ON after H(enry)}

    [Mark the printer is back.  This time he's in better company.]


Can one locate our publisher's home office, noting this at starts of
books? (8)

    First letters of "Can one ... noting" = COLOPHON & lit.

    [Although I really liked this clue, it has a few problems.
     First, a colophon usually comes at the end of a book or
     manuscript, not the start.  Also, "of books" has no role
     in the literal reading of the clue.  And lastly, the connection
     to Shakespeare is very thin.]


Pass over Ophelia after author's abandoned her on last page of play (8)

    COL+OPH(Elia)+ON = COLOPHON {Elia is pseudonym of author C.Lamb}

    [This clue is pretty good, although it uses a few obscurities
     like "pass" = COL, and "author" = ELIA.  A purist might object that
     in the literal reading, "her" isn't right for referring to the
     word "Ophelia"]


Company see drama get credit on comeback -- credit at last ! (8)

    CO + LO + {NO ("drama") + HP ("credit" = hire purchase)} rev.
    = COLOPHON

    [HP for "credit" is stretching my tolerance for abbreviations
     (living, as I do, on the side of the Atlantic where people get
     hired and things get rented).  Other than that the clue is OK.]


Use short, firm cut, luv, to make bookmark (8)

    CO + LOP + HON = COLOPHON

    [I think "bookmark" as a definition is clever.  The clue is short
     and reads fairly well.]


"Jump off in Panama City", says the bookmark (8)

    HOP anagram inside COLON = COLOPHON

    [The indirect anagram decreases my enjoyment of this clue]


Provenance of script revealed by cool performance in Ophelia's part
for Channel 4 production (8)

    COLOPHON = COOL (anag.) + {OPH(elia) + (cha)N(nel)} (anag.)

    [The definition "Provenance of script" is refreshing, but the
     rest of the clue is too complex.  How are we to know how much of
     "Ophelia" constitutes a "part"?]


-- 
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Guy Jacobson   (908) 582-6558              AT&T Bell Laboratories
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