(no subject)

[prog]

After giving up on a book of Alfred Bester short stories (they were all less clever than his v. clever novels and equally as jaw-droppingly sexist (yes yes written in the 1950-60s, but seeing women consistently characterized as sexy bodies holding the minds of children, or perhaps very bright dogs, makes me sad)) I've started solving cryptics on my commute. Fun... I'm definitely getting better at them, knocking off a dozen clues during today's bus ride.

But I still quite frequently have no idea how a particular clue was supposed to work, after I backsolve it. Here are a couple. Enlighten me? (UPDATE Never mind, I can't spell.)

1. Sway unsteadily about, missing Bowe's leadoff jab

2. Pep up geezer in convertible

1. ELBOW. I get that it's clued by "jab", and "Bowe's leadoff" == BOW, but the rest of it it opaque to me. Oh wait I just figured it out never mind. (WOBBLE about-face and missing a B. Duh.)

2. ENERGIZE. Definition is "pep up"; no problem. But take out GEEZER and you have IE, or EI; how does that mean 'convertible'? "i.e."? That seems weak...

Comments

[queue.livejournal.com]

energize - geezer = in

[prog.livejournal.com]

.....oh. never mind. :b

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Cryptic etiquette note: the number of letters in the answer is important, so cryptic clues usually end in "(n)".

Also, "convertible" in #2 is an instruction to anagrammatize the phrase before it. Always be on the lookout for words that could possibly be synonyms for anagram: "broken", "crazy", "off", etc. Sometimes you have to squint.

[prog.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm getting better at spotting those keywords. On that note, though, there was a meanie in the same puzzle: "Order semi-zesty crackers (9)". OK, clearly I'm supposed to reorder SEMIZESTY to get something that means "crackers". But it anagrams to only one word, which doesn't make any sense... until you look at the clue again.