Sunday 27 May 2012

Twitter gets a foothold in crosswords

Twitter-in-Crosswords My first sighting of the word Twitter in a cryptic crossword was in 2009. A neologism in those days, any mentions of Twitter and related terms in the grid or clues used to draw comments from solvers. The blogger would explain that Twitter was a "microblogging site", with the understanding that for the typical crossword solver Twitter would be an alien concept.

As the social network has grown in popularity, so has its reach in the crossword fraternity. Crossword setters who use twitter find a new audience for their crosswords, while solvers get to see interesting promos of forthcoming puzzles, interact with setters and listen in on candid thoughts on crossword matters.

With this shift, the increase in frequency of appearance of Twitter-related words in crosswords is but natural.

Here is a set of cryptic clues of which the surface meaning is based on Twitter. Enjoy solving!

Times 24559: Bachelor maybe admitted going on Twitter (9) S_______N

Guardian 25057 (Arachne): Nick phone to make tweet? (4,4) B___ ____

Telegraph Toughie 690: Some upset by extremist in Twitter thread (4) W___

Times Jumbo 961: After church, one bishop posted a tweet (7) C______

THC 10048 (Cryptonyte): Delay surrounding broadcast of tweet essentially about cattle class storage (7) L__R___

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9 comments

Jon said...

Greek character tweets provoking thoughts (7)

Shuchi said...

Thanks for the clue Jon. Is it your own?

A hint for readers: The word for 'Twitter' in clue#1 in the post and 'tweet' in Jon's clue are the same.

PK said...

Got it now, thanks for the hint.

Greek character tweets provoking thoughts (7) MU + SINGS

Times 24559: Bachelor maybe admitted going on Twitter (9) SING + LET ON

Times Jumbo 961: After church, one bishop posted a tweet (7) CH + I + RR + UP

*Still thinking about the other two*

Shuchi said...

Well solved PK.

Looks like the clues were tough this time, no answers yet for the remaining two.

Hints for definition and wordplay:

Telegraph Toughie 690: Some upset by extremist in Twitter thread (4) W___
Reversal + letter selection


THC 10048 (Cryptonyte): Delay surrounding broadcast of tweet essentially about cattle class storage (7) L__R___
Container + letter selection. 'of', 'about' are fillers in the clue. Not the best wordplay but I enjoyed the clue for its (then topical) surface.

Lakshmi Vaidyanathan said...

I thought that there is some twist in the word twitter. But after seeing some ans in the comment I tried 1 clue.(of course with the help of the hint given by you)

Telegraph Toughie 690: Some upset by extremist in Twitter thread (4) W___
Ans ; WEFT
Some - FEW (upset) =WEF + T (from "T"witter)

Venkatesh said...

Delay surrounding broadcast of tweet essentially about cattle class storage (7) {L(AIR)AG}{E} delay LAG about broadcast AIR + E(ssentially)

Shuchi said...

That's a wrap. Good cracks Lakshmi and Venkatesh.

Chaturvasi said...

In LAIRAGE, I think E comes from 'tweet essentially', E being the central letter in the word 'tweet'.

Shuchi said...

That's right CV sir. Thanks for pointing it out.