The mystery of Edwin Drood was Dickens unfinished novel when he died. It was eventually published, but not sure if it was published incomplete or if a ghost writer completed it.
This took me 35 minutes to solve... I had never heard about this dreidel game, I didn't know the seasonal song... I think I had heard the word dreidel somewhere, but I didn't know its meaning. So I was completely lost for a while. In my country, Jewish traditions rarely come up in any context - I guess it's very different in America and especially in New York. Fun to learn something new, once again. From the point of crossword puzzles, one of the most notable things in this one might the letter Y in the word CLAY. It's what we would in Finnish puzzles call "a hidden letter", meaning, it's a part of only one word. If I have understood correctly, in English puzzles it's a very strict rule that every letter must be a part of both an across word and a down word. But in this puzzle, the theme obviously gives you a chance to make an exception, so that you can have the dreidel shape. When I saw the infamous country leader in the circled words, I started wondering, was this puzzle really going to be political in some way... Turns out it wasn't. 😁
@@anttiviitamaki6999 hi, in British crosswords (not like these David plays from the US) the grid often looks like a game of Scrabble so only a few letters cross in a down and across solution. The other thing that differs between British and US puzzles is that if an answer is multiple words, you are given the breakdown. So the clue would be “GEGS (9,4)” for the answer “scrambled eggs”.
I should add, I prefer the “block” version of crosswords like these that David does, because if a clue is completely unsolvable, at least you can solve all the words that go through it to reveal the answer.
@@radar1974 Yeah, sorry, I shouldn't have generalised that much, just declaring "in English crosswords"... I'm sure there are all kinds of puzzles in Britain AND America. I was referring to the ones in NYT, WP and many other US newspapers. In Finland, we also have a large variety of puzzles. We have puzzles like these, too, though we seldom put sentences or any parts of sentences in "as a one long word", when constructing them. We don't really need to, because our language is rather long-worded and the structures of the words can vary a lot. It's fairly easy to "weave" words together, if you practise a few years. Indeed, I wasn't really aware that the British puzzles are generally more Scrabble-like. I just did some googling, and it seems you also have certain kind of symmetrical puzzles, but in them, often every other letter is hidden. Are those the ones with fairly cryptic clues? Anagrams and mirrored words and such? We have those in Finland, too. Funny, actually... I've been to England many times, but I have never bought a newspaper and tried to solve a puzzle. I'll have to remember to do that the next time! 🙂
@ in England we have both cryptic and standard crosswords (very often newspapers will have one of each), but both usually have the “Scrabble style” grid. I am slowly getting used to the cryptic ones. Very hard but so satisfying when you solve one. And I think I know what you mean about the Finnish language. Similar to German and Welsh language. Do you tend to make a word by putting existing words together to make a new word?
“scamp” is a very British word for a naughty child, quite Victorian really. You’d use it to describe a child who was cheeky whilst being naughty.
Love the clue “what you might call a tipsy friend”. One of those delicious clues that initially sends you in the wrong direction
The mystery of Edwin Drood was Dickens unfinished novel when he died. It was eventually published, but not sure if it was published incomplete or if a ghost writer completed it.
I also got caught on snob vs. snot (they should have used a different clue imo). Other than that, it was a fun solve. Good job!
Happy New Year! Good solve to start the year!
Thanks for the help today David 🙏 happy new years !
Good solve Happy New Year
This took me 35 minutes to solve... I had never heard about this dreidel game, I didn't know the seasonal song... I think I had heard the word dreidel somewhere, but I didn't know its meaning. So I was completely lost for a while. In my country, Jewish traditions rarely come up in any context - I guess it's very different in America and especially in New York. Fun to learn something new, once again.
From the point of crossword puzzles, one of the most notable things in this one might the letter Y in the word CLAY. It's what we would in Finnish puzzles call "a hidden letter", meaning, it's a part of only one word. If I have understood correctly, in English puzzles it's a very strict rule that every letter must be a part of both an across word and a down word. But in this puzzle, the theme obviously gives you a chance to make an exception, so that you can have the dreidel shape.
When I saw the infamous country leader in the circled words, I started wondering, was this puzzle really going to be political in some way... Turns out it wasn't. 😁
@@anttiviitamaki6999 hi, in British crosswords (not like these David plays from the US) the grid often looks like a game of Scrabble so only a few letters cross in a down and across solution. The other thing that differs between British and US puzzles is that if an answer is multiple words, you are given the breakdown. So the clue would be “GEGS (9,4)” for the answer “scrambled eggs”.
I should add, I prefer the “block” version of crosswords like these that David does, because if a clue is completely unsolvable, at least you can solve all the words that go through it to reveal the answer.
@@radar1974 Yeah, sorry, I shouldn't have generalised that much, just declaring "in English crosswords"... I'm sure there are all kinds of puzzles in Britain AND America. I was referring to the ones in NYT, WP and many other US newspapers.
In Finland, we also have a large variety of puzzles. We have puzzles like these, too, though we seldom put sentences or any parts of sentences in "as a one long word", when constructing them. We don't really need to, because our language is rather long-worded and the structures of the words can vary a lot. It's fairly easy to "weave" words together, if you practise a few years.
Indeed, I wasn't really aware that the British puzzles are generally more Scrabble-like. I just did some googling, and it seems you also have certain kind of symmetrical puzzles, but in them, often every other letter is hidden. Are those the ones with fairly cryptic clues? Anagrams and mirrored words and such? We have those in Finland, too.
Funny, actually... I've been to England many times, but I have never bought a newspaper and tried to solve a puzzle. I'll have to remember to do that the next time! 🙂
@ in England we have both cryptic and standard crosswords (very often newspapers will have one of each), but both usually have the “Scrabble style” grid. I am slowly getting used to the cryptic ones. Very hard but so satisfying when you solve one.
And I think I know what you mean about the Finnish language. Similar to German and Welsh language. Do you tend to make a word by putting existing words together to make a new word?
And should apologise to @daviddoescrosswords for hi-jacking his comment thread :)
I had the same issue with snob/snot. Also, looks like your computer can turn back time.