Shall we check in with the Guardian’s setters? How are they doing, and how is the lockdown affecting their puzzles?
Looking at the first question first, you will be happy to hear that, on the whole, everyone seems largely well. As with the nation at large, we see the Great Time Availability Disparity. Some setters, with day jobs or volunteering cancelled, have far more time than usual to ponder crosswords. And many of the younger ones are having to schedule slots for setting where allowed by their new jobs as home-based teaching assistants.
Maskarade, for example, had a very busy 2019 doing double the usual amount of work in his other capacity as proof-reader for puzzle magazines in an effort to have six months’ worth of crosswords ready for Brexit (“where is that now, news-wise!?”, he adds) and now has “a lovely hiatus” offering puzzle time. Not so, though, for Picaroon:
With a seven-year-old to look after and educate full-time while simultaneously keeping up the day job from home, I’m definitely not one of those people who suddenly have more time on their hands – quite the opposite!
What about the puzzles themselves? A big national event usually appears in puzzle form, if not in full-on themed crosswords, then via amusing references in clues. But it’s a long time since we wryly noted that coronavirus is an anagram of carnivorous (a fact that, Paul tells us, his vegan neighbour is keen on).
At any rate, many papers avoid references to illness in their puzzles whether there’s a pandemic or not; for some it’s a “must not” and for others a “should not”, a mixture a little like government advice. Nutmeg recently reworked a grid to remove an unfortunate “endemic” in a corner: an example of a word which can have a completely non-medical meaning but which nobody wants to come across when trying to relax with a crossword during a lockdown. As Puck says:
I was toying with a related theme just recently, but decided that solvers probably need cheering up rather than being reminded of the very thing that crossword solving might provide some relief from.
On which subject, you’ll be pleased to hear that Tramp is getting into a Columbo box set and keeping an eye on whether it offers up any themes. But, apart from the time factor, is setting more difficult?
The answer seems to be that it’s not as easy – but still possible – to get into an playful frame of mind. Here’s Boatman …
While I’m busy with the mechanics, I can forget about the situation for a while, and I can find my way into whatever part of my brain it is that creates the fun.
… Puck …
Creativity and, in my case, Puckishness are essential to the process in order to stay fresh and witty, and those are inevitably a little harder to come by at present.
… and Pasquale:
I set to entertain, whatever people’s circumstances.
So the supply keeps coming: trickier challenges for those who want a crossword to take up a chunk of their day and more straightforward puzzles for brand-new solvers (if you’re one, we prepared a starter pack last month). The links above, by the way, are to the interviews we’ve done with setters from all the broadsheets. We’ll sign off with a message from Paul:
Sending love and virtual hugs to all solvers.
