juff

A digital drawing of one of those drawing tutorials that says 'don't do this, do this.' The drawing is of an almost naked middle-aged man doing a flying kick. The 'Don't do this' one has a bunch of areas circled and a cross under it. The 'Do this' one is exactly the same but without the circles and a tick instead of a cross. The text reads 'Needlessly adding red circles will ruin your art' and a smaller bit of text at the bottom reads 'Bonus tip! Add a tick under all your art so people think you did it right.'

#3157 A helpful tutorial

Very happy to see explanations though, which many dictionaries don't offer.

I absolutely don't want to tell you how to live your life, but to me as a constructor, the thing that would be valuable is a notated distinction between "This is in Chambers" and "This is in *these* other dictionaries" and "this has been observed in usage post-2000 CE."

The Independent's Cryptic Crossword | Play Online for Free | Independent Play The Independent's Cryptic Crossword instantly online. The Independent's Cryptic Crossword is a fun and engaging Online game from The Independent. Play it and other games from The Independent.

I'm in the Independent again! (Bluejacket #5, 12199, Thu 13th Nov 25)

5a: Pawn captures are the safe play against white's openings (4-3)

6d: Linking sci-fi movie up with horror movie (9)
puzzles.independent.co.uk/games/crypti...

If you’re open to variety cryptics, I run a site gnomoncryptics.com

We made a puzzle on stream!
juffscryptics.blogspot.com/2025/11/them...

Okay, got a test and learned I shouldn't release it tonight. Will stream last rewrites in the morning though.

I just turned it on, but the puzzle should be going up later tonight if you wanted to solve first

Interesting final panel for cryptics writers who don’t like using just “morning” for AM

juffo__wup - Twitch Cryptic construction - a thematic four-some.

Continuing to make this cryptic ...
twitch.tv/juffo__wup

This photograph is weirdly beautiful

Saying water-deprived to delete HOH from some fodder would be fine. Saying water-deprived to delete HOH which is mixed into the fodder is an indirect anagram. We do not do indirect anagrams (unless they're doing something much funner than this.)

Gonna make a cryptic on stream. Maybe.
twitch.tv/juffo__wup

https://mycrossword.co.uk/cryptic/1720
Oh and here’s another

https://mycrossword.co.uk/cryptic/1213#15-across
Here’s one. I think I’ll have another collab that does it in Unch v2

A passage from Ximenes' "Art of the Crossword" with the following quote highlighted: "… because it leads towards what I want to make the first principle of crossword diagram composition, that at least half the letters of every word should be checked. I consider that a five-letter word with only its second and fourth letters checked is unfair to the solver, …"

I get a lot of scolding about my clues from people who say they're Ximeneans, but then I look at their grids and shake my head …

(I said once but meant once or twice. Don't come at me.)

I vote that both are fine, but I know they annoy some so do it max once per puzzle.
"Noun-part" is a standard part of the language! A car door is the door of a car! A car door handle is the handle of a car door! These are not exceptions, they are the rule!

Sears tower at night

good night, sweet prince (still there)

Damn this photograph makes me miss being in a city

It's too long for Bluesky & I refuse to compromise. So here's a screenshot with the words in the alt-text.

Oh hm that's in interesting argument. Is there anything else that gets a pass for similar language-independence reasons?

Oh! Yes, I've seen gas for NE and similar. They don't feel fair to me for the same reasons as above.

Wait, do people indicate AG as silver indirectly? I don't think I would like that. Or is there an AG I'm missing? (Over here, AG could be Attorney General which I think I do hear people say out loud as "AG" so would be fair to synonym.)

It's like a bunch RFK Jr.s are loose.

I know I posted this on Twitter ages ago, but I came across it again last night and thought some may not have seen it yet.
(From the Not the Nine O'Clock News spin-off book, 1980.)

I can't comment on U, but if I understand the L magnet idea, it seems fairly correct to say the L indicates a student driver, so "L=student" seems fair to me?
Likewise, in a US cryptic, DA="prosecutor" is totally fair because people say "DA" out loud as a unit.

It's the exact same two-steps-ism that makes most of us frown on I=A.

I don't think the DR/medic thing is about being direct, but that there's not place in normal english where "Dr." and "medic" are interchangeable. Doctor is only ever DR when it precedes someone's name, and it is not "medic" in that situation. Similarly for "way" for ST, or "boat" for SS, etc.

If I am less than 1/3 of the way through cluing a grid, it is COMPLETELY unreasonable for the world to expect me to complete any other tasks this is SO urgent.
When I have <3 clues left to do I MUST mop the bathroom it is so gross in there and then I really haven't gone for a walk in too long.