Awkward Constructions

Avoiding Awkward Constructions

Often a clue seems to work well except the verb tense or number does not. Sometimes using the infinitive or gerund will fix the problem.

Sometimes a difficult construction can be fixed by changing the placement of the cryptic part - first to last or last to first.

School administrators declared rules

Seems like a good clue but the problem is that the answer 'principles' differs from 'principals' by only a single crossing letter so the solver may have to wait until getting some crossing word to sort out the actual answer. Not good.

Rules school administrators declared

Changing the order fixes the problem. Now it is obvious which homonym is required.

The reason to restrict the consumption of beer

Not great. Lots of extra useless words. My bad. One of my 'Greatest Mis-hits'. By starting with 'The reason', the verb following couldn't be 'restricts', 'restricted' or even 'restricting'. So, I used 'to restrict' which is not a particularly good synonym of 'ration' in any case. Then, I guess I felt I needed 'the consumption of' for a better synonym of 'ration'. With the dictionary definition of 'rationale' coming first, I could not use 'The reason for ...' because 'for' would mean 'produces' but 'rationale' doesn't produce 'ration+ale'. And of course, 'from' is no good.

Allot beer for reason given

Easy-peazy once you've thought about it for a year or so. The order change allows 'for' to be used properly. 'reason given' is a good synonym for 'rationale', and 'allot' works well for 'ration'

Yearn for a tree

This is a double-definition clue so it looks like 'for' does not belong there. However, if 'yearn for' is the definition, it's fine. Also, 'a' seems like an added extra but here 'a tree' means 'a type of tree'.

A tree to yearn for

No. Here 'to' is used as a connector. In a double-definition, only 'and' or 'or', or no connector works.

Advisor to trick Arab potentate with a bit of treasure

The word 'con' is wanted here. But the verb would have to be 'cons' for 'Advisor' which should probably be 'Adviser'. This is kind of shifty. I used 'to trick' but really 'to con' should be the result. You could kid yourself (as I must have) that 'to' is just a connector between the dictionary definition and the cryptic part. 'to' is a bi-directional connector.

So, a year after publication, you can still find things to obsess over. But, it's worth it. In every puzzle, there will be a clue that will make you smile even a year later. Good luck. I will give whatever help I can to novice setters. I won't, however, edit entire books - a puzzle or two, maybe.⁴

4 Contact me by email: plaldridgester@gmail.com