{"id":3720,"date":"2023-07-28T10:05:53","date_gmt":"2023-07-28T09:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clueclinic.com\/?p=3720"},"modified":"2023-07-28T10:48:25","modified_gmt":"2023-07-28T09:48:25","slug":"clinical-data-july-2023-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/28\/clinical-data-july-2023-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Clinical Data – July 2023 Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I come across cryptic indicators that I have not seen before, I make a note of them and once I’ve got a few on my list I check them first in Chambers and then, if they appear to have strong credentials, in the OED. This latter step results in quite a few being rejected on the basis that the ‘bald’ meaning given by Chambers simply doesn’t hold up in a cryptic context. For instance, Chambers gives ‘outset’ as ‘a beginning or start’, but I don’t consider it valid as a first letter selection indicator because OED makes it clear that the word only ever describes the beginning or start of a journey or other undertaking. Although the Listener<\/em> editors accept ‘during’ as an insertion indicator, with the possible supporting definition in Chambers being ‘in the course of’, OED shows clearly that it is only ever used in a temporal sense, so that word is not included.<\/p>\n

The indicators that pass the test are then added to the relevant table. I do occasionally remove indicators from the lists, normally when I am about to use them in puzzles and have cause to question their validity, but this is now a rare occurrence.<\/p>\n

When it comes to certain types of indicator, in particular anagram indicators (of which there are a great many), I generally exclude those which, although valid, I cannot imagine ever using in a puzzle. Something like ‘bladdered’ is perfectly serviceable to indicate an anagram, but I think there would always be a better alternative so I do not include it. That particular list is already long enough!<\/p>\n

I know that the lists are not comprehensive, given that I find myself regularly adding new entries, and I would ask readers to suggest any indicators that they feel should be considered for inclusion, or any that they feel should be removed. Not to mention any corrections to errors that may have crept in. I am also open to suggestions for new lists.<\/p>\n

Most of the latest additions fall into the ‘Advanced’ category (suitable primarily for barred puzzles), including ‘spongy’, ‘frippery’, ‘full’, ‘huddled’ and ‘littered’ as anagram indicators. Among the new ‘Standard’ entries are ‘inverse’ for reversal (across or down) and ‘spanning’\/’spans’ for containment. Plus ‘crowding\/crowds’ as an insertion indicator, at the recent suggestion of Monk.<\/p>\n

\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/span> Post Views:<\/span> 2,030<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An update, and a standing request for suggestions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3720"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3724,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3720\/revisions\/3724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clueclinic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}