SHORTLINE'S CRYPTIC CROSSWORD

[RAPT0R CHRIST]

$5 to whomever has the most answers by the end of the week. $20 to anyone who completes it, ever.

You can work in teams, and split the monies.



ACROSS
1. A wizard's after Dad? Wrong (6)
4. Questionable pictures involving a promissory note appear after suspension (10)
9. Setting fires around Virginia (6)
10. Horrible mobile ban a failure (10)
11. Stand for break after the beginning (4)
12. Lets out air amidst hot sun (7)
13. Lead actor has unfinished look (4)
14. Our teacher's strangely menacing (11)
16. We hear cleaner was created (4)
18. Our love rallied, recovering on the whole (7)
19. Set aside organ for first of musicians on boat (7)
22. Short jump to store (4)
24. Customers not hot about hard process; employment relations begin to suffer (11)
27. Bloc is after a cross (4)
28. Poor man was kind, leaving behind head of lettuce (7)
29. From a distance! (4)
31. Sweet pouch to enrich bananas with carrot vitamin (10)
32. Wild, crazy hat (6)
33. Entire term spins to an end (10)
34. Investor in Sprint again, but going in the wrong direction? (6)

DOWN
1. Garnish speech given after final month (10)
2. Reversing the negative aspect contained in an abnormality is something typically associated with wealth (7)
3. Happy to accept Democrats' short greeting? (4)
4. Loyal supporter to begin with a large welcome inside (8)
5. Just a little cylinder contains insane fun (8)
6. One competes for best colleges (5)
7. Spun around, I was accosted by angry debtor (7)
8. Impales first of some fruit (6)
15. Victor Hugo originally lived in Auschwitz (5)
16. Man receives verbal lesson (5)
17. Ask reps, cry out for something that is well-storied? (10)
20. Mother to look around in publication (8)
21. Next to little money after advertisement gains German approval (8)
23. Grooming to expose discharge after an hour (7)
25. Wiped off face directly after turning over iron (7)
26. Leader runs a race with ecstasy (6)
28. State in bad shape (5)
30. Light tariff is reported (4)

[RAPT0R CHRIST]

Please submit all answers via PM, not IM. Although, you can IM me to let me know PM has been sent.

[amplify]

who?

[ScottHoward v3.1]

if somebody could tell me like just one answer so i know wtf im suposed to do, ill work on this

[Zurvan]

Done. PM sent. Ship the $20, don't bother checking the answers.

[amplify]

[ QUOTE ]
if somebody could tell me like just one answer so i know wtf im suposed to do, ill work on this

[/ QUOTE ]
What doctors scrambled to save. (11)

[kokiri]

alicia's finest work? I dunno. (8)

[ScottHoward v3.1]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
if somebody could tell me like just one answer so i know wtf im suposed to do, ill work on this

[/ QUOTE ]
What doctors scrambled to save. (11)

[/ QUOTE ]
if youre trying to help, its not working

[mute]

I think my English vocabulary falls short for these things.

I have figured out one of them, though, so maybe I'll give it a try.

[durron597]

stolen from wikipedia
<h2>How cryptic clues work</h2>In essence, a cryptic clue describes its answer accurately but only when the clue is read in a very devious way. What the clue appears to say when read normally (the surface reading) is almost never anything to do with the answer and is there as a distraction. The challenge is to find a way of reading the clue that leads to the solution.

In a typical clue, the answer is described in two ways, either of which can come first. One part of the clue is a definition, which must exactly match the part of speech and tense of the answer. The second half (the subsidiary indication) describes the answer in terms of wordplay. (The subsidiary indication can be a second definition in the case of double definition clues.) One of the tasks of the solver is to work out where this boundary occurs and insert a mental pause there when reading the clue cryptically. (Sometimes the two parts are joined with a link word or phrase such as "from" or "could be".)

Because a typical cryptic clue describes its answer in detail and often more than once, the solver can usually have a great deal of confidence in the answer once it has been determined. This is in contrast to non-cryptic crossword clues which often have several possible answers and force the solver to use the crossing letters to distinguish which was intended.

Here is an example (taken from The Guardian crossword of Aug 6 2002, set by "Shed").

15D Very sad unfinished story about rising smoke (8)

is a clue for TRAGICAL. This breaks down as follows.

<ul type="square">[*]15D indicates the location and direction (down) of the solution in the grid[*]"Very sad" is the definition[*]"unfinished story" gives "tal" ("tale" with one letter missing, i.e. "unfinished")[*]"rising smoke" gives "ragic" (a "cigar" is a smoke and this is a down clue so "rising" indicates that "cigar" should be written up the page, i.e. backwards)[*]"about" means that the letters of "tal" should be put either side of "ragic", giving "tragical"[*]"(8)" says that the answer is a single word of eight letters.[/list]
There are many "code words" or "indicators" that have a special meaning in the cryptic crossword context. (In the example above, "about", "unfinished" and "rising" all fall into this category). Learning these, or being able to spot them, is a useful and necessary part of becoming a skilled cryptic crossword solver.