Give us a clue
The devil’s chessboard. The nonsense square. The nightmare grid. These are all names we just made up for that most reviled occupier of newsprint real estate: the cryptic crossword.
Unlike a conventional crossword clue, which is child’s play to parse even if the answer is elusive, the average cryptic clue sounds like the sort of mistranslated guide book phrase one cold war spy would whisper to another to verify their identity.
You know the sort of thing. “Two ants at sea, swimming (6)” or “Strange sort of luaus the United Nations leads (7)”. And those are…
