![]() ![]() "It's a highly pleasurable kick which rewards the solver," says Friedlander. She calls this the Penny Drop Moment, from the old English expression for that 'Aha!' instant when you suddenly understand something that has been racking your brain. "Solvers experience a powerful insight moment when they realise how the clue should actually be interpreted," says Friedlander. "The solver has to work out which are relevant to any clue before actually solving it."Īnd three-quarters of solvers in her studies describe cryptic crosswords as a uniquely satisfying puzzle form. "Cryptic crosswords comprise a compendium of different types of brain teaser, so you get a lot of variety within each puzzle – anagram clues, acronym, puns and riddles," says Kathryn Friedlander, who does research in cryptics at the University of Buckingham's School of Psychology. In a TED talk at London's Royal Albert Hall in 2013, Halpern described them as a celebration of "the hidden magic within language". ![]() I see wordplay patterns in the street, on the bus, at parties."Ĭryptic crosswords uniquely combine creativity, knowledge and logic, with a plentiful dash of style and wit. Instead, my first thought was 'It's the word 'men' inside the word 'aria'. Most normal people would immediately think: 'Interesting – tell me something about Armenia'. "Instead I asked where the name came from. "When she told me her name, the first thing I thought was it's an anagram of 'entail' – though I didn't tell her that!" he reveals. ![]() Halpern tells me about the day he met his wife. Let's begin a playful language journey with a dip into the mind of John Halpern, whose brain-teasing puzzles grace the UK's top newspapers under various pseudonyms. ![]()
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