Crossword editor's desk: should puzzles avoid Americanisms?
How can you tell if a phrase is American English, as opposed to the kinds spoken in the UK and elsewhere? I spent some pleasurable time searching theguardian.com to see who has used the phrase 'no way, no how'. An American cadence, but since it had appeared in an editorial about George Osborne, I gave it a clean bill of health.
Some solvers are wary of an excess of Americanisms, and with reason: once a term is used widely enough to count as reasonable crossword fodder, it's unlikely to still be called an Americanism (or Australianism or whatever): the once-US BRASSIERE being a case in point.
It becomes possible, though, to hear a word in an American accent when it need not be. Another recent quick crossword had 'They restore order in schools' for JANITORS. Transatlantic janitors spring readily to mind: I immediately thought of Corky and the Juice Pigs' Neil Young parody Janitor while conceding that Good Will Hunting will be on more solvers' minds. But as any Scottish solver will tell you, 'the janny' is the one who restores order in schools where highers are taken.
Meanwhile Rory Cellan-Jones has written to the Financial Times to congratulate the paper for 'hiding cryptic crossword clues in the headlines', giving the example:
Boutique lenders power post-Covid upswing in blank cheque Spac deals
As we did with Victor Meldrew's 'Bag eggnog but get a tad bugged (4)', I'd be delighted if anyone could work this one out, with complete flexibility over letter count.
Entries are now closed for Tramp's letters-latent Genius, which celebrated the Dorothy Parker poem Inventory and its couplet 'Four be the things I'd been better without: Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.' Solution above and a new Genius from Pangakupu awaits.
In our cluing conference for RELENTLESS, the audacity award is JasCanis's for the near-article-length 'Fierce race ends with fast time and the French sprinters taking first and last place'; the runners-up are Harlobarlo's startling 'Nestlé's regularly alerted about being ruthless' and Rakali's boffinesque 'Relative space-time without being constant'; the winner is the impressively efficient 'Ongoing without diminishing'.
Kludos to HighNoonAngel and please leave entries for JANITOR below, along with any favourite clues or puzzles you have spotted.
188 Words for Rain by Alan Connor is published by Ebury (£16.99). To support the Guardian and the Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
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