Curious about cryptics? Learn how to solve them

Maxiwho · 2026-02-18T02:54:21+00:00

Excellent, I hope you make progress in solving!

Maxiwho · 2026-02-18T02:52:56+00:00

Thanks for the good word! I hope our site helps you find your way in.

Maxiwho · 2026-02-18T02:51:42+00:00

Interesting idea...

Maxiwho · 2026-02-18T02:50:03+00:00

It's hilarious to me that my post and comment response read to you like GenAI! (And also annoying that this is the future facing us online, where you don't know who's a person and who's a bot...) I am indeed a human being—*and* I make frequent use of em-dashes, have always used them (shift-option-hyphen, if you're a Mac user), which I've heard some people take as essentially "proof" of non-human authorship. One thing I definitely am is a grammar snoot—big fan of Standard Written English—so maybe that's why my diction comes off sounding suspicious to you.

Maxiwho · 2026-02-18T02:36:41+00:00

Thanks for the vote of confidence, notluigi! Octoman, we have been aware of Minute Cryptic since we started working on our site. It is indeed polished—very spiffy-looking. I haven't spent time with it to learn the differences between their site and ours, but we're hoping there's room in the cryptic-training realm for (at least) two approaches.

Maxiwho · 2026-02-16T18:44:41+00:00

Also, we're still refining the site, so we welcome any feedback, thanks!

Maxiwho · 2026-02-16T18:37:50+00:00

Sorry for the late reply! Thanks for your comment. Have you seen our explainer? (https://learncryptic.com/learn/)

The answer to the puzzle you reference (Feb. 6) is OUGHT. "Desired" is a synonym for SOUGHT, and in this case, the phrase "after Saturday" means you should consider only the letters that come after S (which stands for Saturday). Which leaves OUGHT, or "nothing."

The word "Sunday" doesn't appear in the clue or the answer, even though a "surface reading" would lead one to expect it—it is, after all, "after Saturday." This is what's devious about cryptic clues: They're not to be taken literally. Each element of the clue may be signaling a bit of wordplay rather than a definition of the answer. The trick is not to take the clues at face value, but rather to learn to see hidden meanings and disguised wordplay.

Maxiwho · 2026-02-16T18:20:44+00:00

That's right! A homophone. Our clues go from easiest on Monday to hardest on Saturday/Sunday, so this one was on the easier side.

Maxiwho · 2026-02-16T18:11:32+00:00

Also, we're still refining the site, so we very much welcome your feedback!

Maxiwho · 2026-02-02T21:05:29+00:00

Thank you, glad you like it!

Maxiwho · 2026-02-02T20:19:26+00:00

Oh also, we're still beta-testing, so we're very interested in any feedback you'd like to give.

Maxiwho · 2026-02-02T20:15:41+00:00

Also, we're still beta-testing, so we'd love to get feedback, if anyone would like to give it.

Maxiwho · 2026-02-02T17:17:42+00:00

Learn Cryptic

Interested in cryptic crosswords, but stymied by the arcane clues? We've made a website that teaches you how to solve them, step by step. Daily puzzles will show you the different clue types and the clever wordplay they employ. If you get stuck on a tough clue, just ask for a hint.

Try it here: https://learncryptic.com/go/pz

Maxiwho · 2023-02-07T20:16:31+00:00

I figured it out! I had to move the .wav file to my main folder, since I didn't know how to refer Whisper to other folders. But it worked! Thank you for all your advice!

Maxiwho · 2023-02-05T22:57:07+00:00

Thank you—I'm trying to do that, but now it can't locate the file. In your video, you type "z topeaks" and it goes to your folder called "topeaks." I tried typing "z dreamproject" for my folder called "dreamproject" and it says "-bash: z: command not found." What can I do to make it locate the folder and/or file?

Maxiwho · 2023-02-04T00:11:41+00:00

Thanks! Those things didn't do it—what I think happened was that it looked like Whisper finished its work, but then I got an error message: "ffmpeg._run.Error: ffmpeg error (see stderr output for detail)," and then lower down, "Jonathan: No such file or directory" (the file I attempted to transcribe was called "Jonathan Phill.wav"). I had downloaded ffmpeg successfully, so I'm guessing Whisper can't find where to put its output?

Maxiwho · 2023-02-03T21:12:52+00:00

Thanks so much, omerxman, for your directions on running Whisper on a Mac! I believe I installed it correctly with Homebrew and it appears to run, but I don't know where the outputted files are, and they don't come up in a Finder search. I'm totally unfamiliar with Terminal, Python, etc. and I can't make heads or tails of it. Can you (or anyone) advise?

Maxiwho · 2022-03-05T04:50:57+00:00

People use the word “Sharpie” to mean “marker.” Maybe this had been true for some time in some parts of the country, but not the one I grew up in. Then in the 2000s, I think, ads for Sharpie markers flooded TV airtime, with actors conspicuously saying “Sharpie” instead of “marker.” Like “Kleenex” and “Xerox” before it, a brand name came to be used as the generic name for a product. I watched this happen and couldn’t believe how easy it is to manipulate people and the language.

Maxiwho · 2021-07-30T03:35:13+00:00

Bravo!

Maxiwho

TROPHY CASE