Minuscule timing (6)

August 19, 2024 6:01 PM

Maybe you're the sort of person who likes to start the day with the New York Times Mini Crossword, but perhaps you're looking for a new sort of challenge. Minute Cryptic is a new website that features one UK-style cryptic crossword clue to solve each day, with hints available. New to cryptic crosswords? Here's an explainer video from the New Yorker that covers the way they work, with plenty of examples. It takes a while to get used to them, but it's incredibly satisfying to find yourself learning to speak their wordplay language over time.
posted by DoctorFedora (21 comments total)

This rules. Cryptics are so so fun, and between the NY times and the New Yorker both ditching their online cryptic puzzles in the last few years, I've been having a hard time getting my fix. Thanks so much for posting this!!!
posted by saladin at 6:17 PM on August 19 [2 favorites]

In fairness the NYT has actually been increasing their frequency of cryptic crosswords, but they still aren't very common (maybe once every six to eight weeks in the magazine?) and they don't put them up on the games site, which is a bummer.

But I definitely need to put this one into the rotation! I love cryptics but just have never had enough practice to really get comfortable with them.
posted by thecaddy at 6:23 PM on August 19

I've been doing these every morning for a while and I think I am developing a cryptic crossword habit now. It's the first time I've made any headway understanding their logic.
posted by erolls at 6:34 PM on August 19

We just started getting into Minute Cryptic a little over a week ago. I think today's is a pretty good exemplar.

My wife finds the channel's explanation of the solutions relaxing.
posted by justkevin at 6:39 PM on August 19

I hate hate hate HATE cryptic crosswords because fuck off with that bullshit. But maybe if I work through a bunch of these and have them explained to me, I will be able to understand the stupid things.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:55 PM on August 19 [3 favorites]

Yeah this is a perfectly reasonable reaction to cryptic crosswords, which all seem to have clues that read like "son of Christmas ham?" and "thricely bedeviled Robin Hood," but once you start to get a feel for the sorts of indicator words that represent things like anagrams or "answer is hidden within this word" or "use or remove the first/last letters" then it becomes really satisfying to start solving them on your own. The explainer videos the guy makes each day are really useful breakdowns of how, exactly, the answer is supposed to work, and those help a lot with developing the puzzle-solving vocabulary you need to start getting them without any hints.
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:27 PM on August 19 [1 favorite]

Over the last couple of years, I went from barely being able to do cryptics to rocking the Guardian every day. An important intermediate step was ponying up for Out of Left Field and working through their back catalog.
posted by doubtfulpalace at 9:33 PM on August 19 [1 favorite]

I found cryptics much more enjoyable once I understood them as math equations. This app is a great tutorial on solving them!
posted by creatrixtiara at 9:59 PM on August 19

Oh, I just got the post title! Nice!

The Guardian recently started a Quick Cryptic which is easier than their regular cryptic.

Fifteensquared is also a useful site that publishes the answers to UK crosswords, with explanations of they solved each clue.
posted by alfhild at 10:05 PM on August 19 [3 favorites]

This is excellent, thank you for pointing it out.

Help on cryptics from Stephen Sondheim
posted by chavenet at 1:06 AM on August 20 [1 favorite]

Yes! I came across that site a month or so ago and it's my go to for "first thing to do in the morning when I get to my desk". While I do love them some of the solutions are utterly rage inducing and yet totally obvious at the same time.
posted by Captain_Science at 4:35 AM on August 20

This feels like something for people who like math AND puns a lot. Insufferable.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:53 AM on August 20

Hey, it's me, the guy who likes math and puns! This game is proving to be an excellent way to finally get into cryptics, something which has previously seemed overwhelming.
posted by dbx at 4:55 AM on August 20

Lovatts Free Cryptics
posted by SemiSalt at 5:00 AM on August 20

Oh, excellent! Thank you for sharing – this made my day!
posted by notquitejane at 5:53 AM on August 20

Lovatts Free Cryptics

Came to post this. If you're USian, you do sometimes need to read clues or think of answers in an Australian accent to understand the homonym clues. Once you get in the swing of it, the puzzles are definitely not as wickedly hard or reliant on local context as many UK cryptic sources tend to be. And it also has a pretty good tutorial!
posted by solotoro at 6:31 AM on August 20

Lovatts also has a daily Code Cracker puzzle that I sometimes enjoy.
posted by box at 7:11 AM on August 20

I have done crosswords since I was a kid here in the US. When I did my junior college year abroad in England, I read the Guardian and had a tough time with the cryptics at first. Luckily I had been getting GAMES magazine, which had 2 cryptics per month and a little explainer, but it still took me a few weeks to get the hang of it. My OCD need to do puzzles won out over the challenging UK puzzle form .

Lately I’ve started doing American crosswords again because I found a book of NYT Friday/Saturday puzzles (those are the hardest) someone had given me but that I hadn’t done. Unfortunately they are puzzles that ran around 1998. As you can imagine, some of the zeitgeist clues about recent movies, sports rookies, etc. are now WAY harder. Still doing well though, esp. with help from Mrs. C.
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:03 AM on August 20 [2 favorites]

I love a good cryptic. I have a couple of subscriptions that honestly give me more puzzles than I have time to solve, but if you're looking for more, Daily Crossword Links collects crosswords of all types posted to newspaper sites, creators' blogs, etc.
posted by ectabo at 9:56 AM on August 20 [1 favorite]

For what it's worth, for anyone stumped by the post title: the solution is MINUTE, with both words being separate definition clues
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:48 PM on August 22 [1 favorite]

arrrrgh, of course!
posted by rifflesby at 10:02 PM on August 22