Comments on Crossword Unclued: Interviews With Ace Solvers: Part VI

Great interview. It was a great read, thanks Colon...

2009-11-04T02:26:33.020+05:30

Great interview. It was a great read, thanks Colonel. I visit your blog everyday to check on answers that elude me (and they are many of them ;) Never commented, it is too late in the game because of the time difference.

And a big thanks to you, Shuchi.

Awesome Shuchi. Posts like this act as a reminder ...

2009-11-04T00:04:52.564+05:30

Awesome Shuchi.
Posts like this act as a reminder to people like me who have been neglecting crosswords for a while.
Very interesting series.
-Rajesh

I am glad that Col. Gopinath mentions that he star...

2009-11-03T18:54:57.955+05:30

I am glad that Col. Gopinath mentions that he started using annotations in his blog after he saw the practice in the Orkut community, The Hindu Crossword Solutions.
My mind goes back to 1961 when I, on a visit to Jamnagar, used to solve the cryptic crossword in the Times of India and had a notebook in which I wrote down the clues under different classifications and the annotations.
As I believed that annotations helped beginners to understand how the clues worked, I insisted on solvers adding annotations when I became a member of the now-defunct Yahoo group on THC. The Orkut group on THC have the annotations from its very start. I introduced some characters for homophones and the likes.
Where did I pick up this device of annotation? Well, in the 1970s, solutions in run-on paras at the back of books of crosswords used to carry annotations. They were rudimentary: stars for anagrams, daggers for reversal and double daggers for hidden. Components in the charades and container/contained clues were separated by hyphens.
Two collections of crosswords by Don Putnam had a lot of explanatory notes on the art itself and more elaborate annotations for the solutions.
With change of font rendered easy by computers, manuals on the crossword published later adopted even more sophisticated methods for annotations.

Thank you Colonel for the interview. Very interest...

2009-11-03T17:55:03.675+05:30

Thank you Colonel for the interview. Very interesting to know more about you and your method of solving.

It's always nice to see the camaraderie in the comments section of your blog. Best wishes for The Hindu Crossword Corner!