"Whips in Congress" (Cryptic Mini #000000101)

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• JWords 🤓6:20 · 2024-08-08T10:44:41.222Z

  Very fun! For 5A, shouldn’t it be [Anita’s hit]? Maria’s not in that scene! Love 3D, any time you can use an anagrind as the fodder is always great fun.
  Question RE 2D: letter banks/reverse letter banks are very much new to me as they’re not really a thing in UK cryptics. Is there no requirement for an anagrind here? My reading of the wordplay would be to take get rid of duplicates in “Dee Dee Ramone”, which would lead to DERAMON—is rearrangement of the letters an unwritten assumption?

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  • bob weisz constructor · 2024-08-08T15:25:15.935Z

    Oh wow thank you for the fact-checking! I've updated the grid. I should've remembered that, I played Doc in an 8th grade production :) As for the reverse letter banks: My intuition is to include an anagram for that exact reason, but I've heard (American) solvers say it's "implied". Since I couldn't think of a good way to squeeze one in here, I left it as an experiment... but actually I just thought of one! Amending the grid now :) Thanks for your feedback!

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• Aaron Riccio 🤓6:27 · 2024-08-08T14:30:10.290Z

  Pretty much in agreement with @JWords on 2D; I was expecting something like [destroying all copies and remixing].

  As for the rest, 1A is phenomenal (oh that capitalized C is doing work), love to see it cross [Screwed] in 1D, and 6A is exactly the level of pun I like to see. As for 4D, I think it's perfectly valid, but for some reason, the tense of the anagrind is bugging me.

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  • bob weisz constructor · 2024-08-08T15:38:17.638Z

    Oh wait you said tense! Yeah, you're right... It should be "crushed"... fixing that now!

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  • bob weisz constructor · 2024-08-08T15:37:36.614Z

    I fixed the Dee Dee clue! I was having trouble with the anagrind last night, so I left it, against my better judgment (but with the support of others). But with fresh eyes this morning I thought of a way to do it! The 4D anagrind never sat great with me either. I tinkered with it for awhile, until the words started to lose their meaning, so I just went with this. Maybe "smashing" is better?

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  • SporcleMirror 🤓2:36 · 2024-08-08T18:04:27.329Z

    OH, I just saw what that meant. I thought that just [People with whips] was the definition, and Congress was somehow involved in the wordplay. It was my last fill and I got it from just the definition and the letters I had. During the solve, my brain was constantly flip-flopping between wanting some variation of DOMS to fit in there and "it's just bakers or something, right?". Very different kinds of whips.

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  • lukadisgre 🤓3:33 · 2024-08-25T19:13:31.703Z

    Sorry, but can you explain 1A? I'm new to cryptics lol, I'd love some help!

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    • Aaron Riccio 🤓6:27 · 2024-08-25T23:06:57.350Z

      Sure:

      People with whips in Congress: "Sorry, is this not welcome?"

      [People with whips in Congress] = Definition ("Congress" meaning "sex") [Sorry] = SAD [is] = IS [this not welcome] = T[-hi]S (a deletion of "hi," as it is "not welcome")

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      • lukadisgre 🤓3:33 · 2024-08-26T03:34:15.800Z

        Oh wow, I was 100% sure Congress was one of those cryptic words that meant something, thanks for the explanation!

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• snag 🤓7:57 · 2024-08-09T21:16:55.038Z

  nice puzz, sure would be a shame if someone were to..... solve it.

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