Tags
anagrams, crossword puzzles, cryptic clues, English for speakers of other languages, learning methodologies, words within words
Last week I left you this clue to solve:
Ford perhaps needs parking by hotel guest (9)
It looks as though the answer should be something to do with cars. However, you should know by now that cryptic crossword clues are rarely what they appear to be.
The solution is derived from P for parking (you often see signs saying P in towns and cities indicating parking areas or car parks) to which is added an 8 letter word meaning a hotel guest. That word is resident, so the answer is:
PRESIDENT
meaning ‘Ford perhaps’. Gerald Ford was the 38th President of the United States, who served in the mid-1970s immediately following the resignation of Richard Nixon.
Here are two more clues which relate to residents and Presidents, both from Daily Telegraph Puzzle No. 27,844 dated 3rd July 2015:
King Cole and Burl maybe as residents (7)
Angry boy grabbing one US President (7)
The first of these clues relies on having a knowledge of well-known people called King Cole and Burl. Both hail from (come from) the world of music, or I should say ‘hailed’ from since both have now passed away (died).
Nat King Cole was an American singer and jazz pianist who was popular for many years before dying at a young age in 1965, see the Wikipedia entry here.
Burl Ives was also an American singer, as well as a writer and actor, see the Wikipedia entry here.
if you put NAT (King Cole) together with (Burl) IVES you get the answer:
NATIVES
A native is a resident of a particular place or country (a local inhabitant) although there are other meanings, see here. It can also be used as an adjective – as in, for example: ‘he is a native New Yorker’.
The second clue above demonstrates how even a native English speaker can learn something new from a cryptic crossword puzzle.
We have already learnt that another word for ‘angry’ can be mad (see Never a cross word – 35). A boy can be a son. And if mad and son ‘grab’ (hold on to) ‘one’ (I) you form the word:
MAD I SON
Until I worked that out, and then checked the answer on Wikipedia, I did not know that James Madison was the fourth President of the USA in the early 1800s. Madison Avenue and Madison Square Garden in New York City are (I now realise) named after him. Not knowing the names of all the US Presidents may seem very ignorant of me, but I was taught to learn, parrot-fashion (see last week’s blog), the names of all the Kings and Queens of England instead!
Finally, it is some time since we have had a good anagram. See if you can solve this, from the same puzzle:
Making fun of giant, sir, is silly (10)
The answer will appear next week.
I hope, 40 posts on, that you are finding this unusual way of improving your English interesting and that you have come across new words to expand your vocabulary. If you have only just discovered this blog you may wish to check the About Patently English section. It explains why I believe ESL learners should find studying cryptic crossword clues helpful.