Obiter dicta by Professor Gavin Brown AO

Manipulating minds

2 December 1999

When Rupert Murdoch acquired The Times he conferred a great gift upon the Australian people, because the London newspaper’s traditional crossword now appears daily in our national newspaper. Occasionally, clues along the lines of ‘Feckless type who wants to take the chair’ (academic), convey a social message, but, for the most part, innocent misdirection is the name of the game.

It is remarkable that the clue ‘national flag displayed by Hungary’s capital’ can evoke the response of its five-letter solution. That word could also be summoned forth by ‘To be fair I should be inclusive of Celts’, ‘Describing Joyce as the butt of jokes, perhaps’ or ‘I risk a late change of whiskey’. The answers are, variously, Iris(H), fa(IR I SH)ould, Irish and Iris(k)h.

Even more surprising is the fact that the crossword is an American invention. Admittedly it was quickly seized upon and transformed by the English into the cryptic version perfected by Torquemada and Ximenes, who consciously adopted the names of Spanish inquisitors.

The Times crossword is more gentle, and many, like T.S. Eliot, have admitted to an addiction but not to a sense of compulsion in ever completing the grid. Others claim to use the completion to time their breakfast eggs. ‘Hollow in China where soldiers dip’ (egg cup).

‘Boxer variation for orchestra’ (carthorse) shows the power of both the anagram and the literary allusion. ‘Antediluvian crocodile’ suggests dinosaurs, demands a singular response, then yields to the answer ‘animals’. How else does one describe a 2 by 2 chain of schoolgirls?

For a time the most extreme of the cryptic crosswords appeared in The Listener, guide and analysis to the BBC programs. I can claim that my first publication as a research student, employing the resources of others, was a cryptic crossword in that weekly. Part of the challenge for the solver was to find the title, which, in turn, helped explain how the diagram should be completed. Fundamental to the entire enterprise were Ringo, John, Paul and the other one. ‘Scrambled egg roe for pilot’ (George).

As in any art form the admirer must work but the composer must work harder still and that requires self-denial. Once-clever manoeuvres, ‘flower’ for river, ‘X’ as a sign of the times (or Times) or ‘es’ as in French art, should never be repeated lazily as parts of clues. ‘Try French art for example’ (essay).

This essay shows that the holiday season is creeping up on us. Despite the prevailing external conditions, the people who make up the University have done exceptionally well this year. I congratulate you all.

‘Ignores sages sent out to deliver message’ (7,9).