Printer’s Devilry

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• JWords constructor · 2024-04-17T11:00:09.239Z

  1A: A dying garden might see a debilitated ant and decrepit aphid trying to survive.
  7A: A scientist replenishes agar for use in the biology lab.
  8A: Many a Muslim believes truth lies within the holy books.
  9A: The Christian God does away with sinners in righteous flooding.
  10A: There’s a slow walker this morning: watch him plod east on early stroll.
  11A: Get apology in writing to show where the fault lies.
  13A: Sing a wee ditty on Highland glens.
  15A: Make a neat U-turn on slip road to gracefully avoid using motorway.
  16A: Good advice often becomes sagelike when fully understood.

  1D: To cure elves which are ill, use nymph’s medicine.
  2D: In Capri, mates are referred to as “amici.”
  3D: To gain back some relevancy, Russia desperately needs a notable tsar.
  4D: Look into pedagogy training to improve your teaching skills.
  5D: Careless laptop user gets trackpad dinged badly, making it difficult to use.
  6D: Flawless orchid earmarked as the best in the bunch.
  10D: In Hamlet, Ophelia may be considered quite mad.
  12D: Clever chimp uses a branch to reach a banana.
  14D: Don’t admit Oedipus and Jocasta into mother-son bonding group!

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• JWords constructor · 2024-04-17T11:00:09.239Z

  I expect this is an unfamiliar format to many, but I thought I’d have a crack at it. Hope you enjoyed! I wanted to bar the grid to make sure there were as many crossers as possible, but the side effect of that was having to write lots of clues, and 3-letter solutions don’t lend themselves especially well to this style. Not sure how solvable it is, but I certainly enjoyed making it, thanks for solving!

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• AuLeaf 🤓17:28 · 2024-04-17T20:26:16.045Z

  Thanks for the puzzle! Always love a PD. Got most of them, although I initially came up with IMPASSE for 10A. (I wonder if the east bit could be clued actually, as in "The man slowly walks into the sunset: watch has to nearly stroll"...) Also couldn't figure out 2D, although I figured it was something like that! Didn't know the meaning of "amici" and wasn't sure if it was Italian, although it was one of the possibilities in my head (my first thought was Latin). Last clue was 7A, couldn't figure out how a word was going to break up "replenisher" until at last I worked out it was just becoming "replenishes" (although somehow I still managed to interpret it wrong, thinking "why is a gar in a biology lab?" xD Nice work!

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  • JWords constructor · 2024-04-18T08:08:03.196Z

    Wow, thanks for solving and for the great feedback! I’ll definitely take your advice on 10A, although it’ll have to be sunrise if it’s early and in the east. I think googling is fair game for something like “amici,” and I like how simple that clue manages to be, but I’ll think about whether it’s worth spelling it out more. Congrats on the solve time btw, I’m much slower at solving PD myself!

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    • AuLeaf 🤓17:28 · 2024-04-18T19:51:06.837Z

      oh yes, I meant sunrise, I've just got that trope about walking off into the sunset burned into my brain.

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    • AuLeaf 🤓17:28 · 2024-04-18T19:57:05.367Z

      I probably should just google something like that, but I'm always reluctant. `^^ Guess that's another thing ingrained in my brain...

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      • JWords constructor · 2024-04-19T07:07:49.602Z

        I can be the same way! But if won’t spoil any of the actual puzzle then there’s no reason not to, I guess.

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• nate 🤓31:58 · 2024-04-17T23:14:20.489Z

  Wonderful puzzle! This was my first time trying this format, loved the challenge. I would love to see more!

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  • JWords constructor · 2024-04-18T08:09:50.791Z

    Glad you enjoyed! I only discovered PD recently but I find it really refreshing to solve and set, I’m sure I’ll do more at some point!

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• Account 🤓23:49 · 2024-04-18T15:00:55.870Z

  Great puzzle! I'm really impressed I solved it! The only hiccup I had was looking for a racing reference in 15A. (e.g. ...drag race, fully avoiding...)

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  • JWords constructor · 2024-04-18T18:55:37.124Z

    Ah yes, I wanted “gracefully” to justify the ”neat” in the answer, sorry if it was a bit of a mislead! If it’s any use, it’s a bit of a faux pas in PD setting to need to insert the new word into a space in a clue, so I’d never clue something that needed to go immediately before the “g” in “gracefully,” for example. This is so you wouldn’t have unsolvable rubbish like “I have a car (4)”->”I have a fast car.” Thanks and congrats for solving!

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    • Account 🤓23:49 · 2024-04-19T05:55:13.087Z

      Does this still apply to words that would span but not complete new words?

      e.g. Letters are inane... Erin? Ana? Gram?

      Letters are in a new order in anagram.

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      • JWords constructor · 2024-04-19T06:56:05.687Z

        It’s an interesting one, I think your example clue is interesting, fair and fun, but in general the thinking is that inserting between words is a weaker and less interesting form than breaking a word up. In general, PDs only ever get published in highly specialised puzzles like The Listener, Azed etc., where setters are generally more ‘hardline,’ so published clues tend towards the tougher and they deliberately avoid situations like this.

        With all that said, my take is that it’s totally fair game as long as other spaces and punctuation marks are changing around, so there will be enough going on cryptically for it to be an interesting clue. But in my setting I’ll continue to avoid it as I think consistency of convention helps solvers know what to look for. Sorry for the ramble, but it’s definitely an interesting topic!

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        • Account 🤓23:49 · 2024-04-19T10:08:34.049Z

          Nothing to apologize for! It's an interesting topic and if I didn't want to hear more, I wouldn't have asked! I do see what you're saying, I was just wondering more than anything. As a teacher once told me, you need to learn the rules in order to break them.

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