Puzzling

Time for another Gemini analysis. This is for the Gemini cryptic #7043, which was published in The Canberra Times  on 15 July 2014. A usual, the definition part of the clue is underlined, except for double definition and cryptic definition clues. ACROSS Photo By  Great British Chefs Team  via  http://imagefinder.co/ 1. Eggs it's nice to scramble (7) = INCITES The definition is a nice confusion here — it's a verb, as in egging on someone, not a noun! Anagram indicated by scramble  of it's nice. Ignore that apostrophe. 4. It's mean to the players (5) = MEZZO Cryptic definition. MEZZO is a musical term meaning 'middle'. Mean is an average, or the middle. So MEZZO is a term that means 'middle' to musicians ( players ). 7. A stake in a buoyant economy (4) = ANTE Hidden word clue, indicated by in. You can see it in buoy ant e conomy. 8. On the edge and somewhat alarming (8) = MARGINAL Anagram, indicated by somewhat , of alarming. ...

I'm very excited to announce my interview with Alan Connor, from The Guardian 's Crossword blog. You may recall that I indexed Alan's book, Two Girls, One on Each Knee , last year .  Alan raised the idea of interviewing me about my CrypticGuide app when I was writing his index — and it has finally come to fruition. CrypticGuide is an app that my husband and I developed over a year — it is a 'slender' cryptic dictionary, with around 7,000 cryptic definitions, abbreviations, indicator words, and homophones. It also includes an anagram solver and wildcard search. It is very much a work in progress, with new cryptic definitions being added to the app over time. If you come across any cryptic terms in your puzzle solving, which aren't in the app, please let me know, so we can include them in future releases! CrypticGuide is available on the App Store . It works on iPhones, iPods, and iPads. Unfortunately, at the moment it is only available for iOS, as ...

On 4th June this year, Chester Nez (93) died . He was the last of the Navaho code talkers. In all the reading I've done on cryptography, codes, and ciphers, the story of the American Indian code talkers is my favourite. Before we delve into their fascinating story, I need to be explain the difference between a code and a cipher. Codes A code is a mapping of a word, a short phrase, or even a whole sentence, to a single collection of symbols (words, numbers, or other symbols). They are almost impossible to break through analysis. However, unless it's a very brief code (which can be memorised), a code requires a codebook. There is simply no way to remember all of the substitutions accurately (unless you have a photographic memory!). The existence of this codebook is a security hazard, though. If the enemy gets a copy, you've had it. Some examples of codes are: @! = the contract has been signed pancake = come at once, bring syrup 169 = the plan is proceeding ...