Can't have a language thread without posts about crossword puzzles, can we?
I love crossword puzzles, been solving them for years. Unfortunately that means that the huuuge majority of crossword puzzle magazines aren't fun anymore, they're all of the easy type.
Fortunately, we have in Norway a guy named "Rolf Hansen", who has been making puzzles for more than 30 years. And those puzzles are a challenge. Two things are typically for his crosswords:
1. Looong words, often quite "creative" (weird) - meaning there's significant lateral thinking involved. I'll give you a couple of examples, but first observe that in Norwegian we make compound words by sticking all the components together. For instance "chief justice of the supreme court" becomes in Norwegian "Høyesterettsjustitiarius". So, words like that can be fairly long (although not by Welsh standard). In today's crossword one of the keywords was "legevakt" ("ER" in English) and the solution was "hålkefallskademottakssted" ("falling on ice trauma reception place"). I told you his solutions can be weird. Another keyword was "grisefjøs" ("pig barn), and the solution was "purkeavkomoppvekstarena" ("sow offspring growing up arena"). Fortunately, you get used to it.
2. Relevant but quite uncommon words. For instance "author" (5 letters). The answer was "Llull" (yepp, this is the correct spelling), referring to the Spanish (Catalan) philosopher and writer Ramon Llull (1232-1315!!!). If some of you claim to have heard of him, you're either Spanish (Catalan) or lying. Or both. Or you're Nyx or Maylander, and has solved that particular crossword.
A few of the solutions are used again and again. "River", 6 letters? Very likely it's "Dnestr". City, 10 letters? It's "Srebrenica". And for eight letters "Srinagar" is always an option. He's also quite fond of the fish named "Isgalt" (Macrourus berglax). Knowing these things helps to some degree.
Sometimes (not very often) a solution is wrong (inaccurate) or the spelling is … uncommon. He doesn't seem to care, and when you've solved his crosswords for a while, you know about them (unfortunately I can't remember any of them now)
One peculiar fact: Hansen loves making crossword puzzles, but he doesn't like solving them. According to an article about him a couple of years ago he has solved only two in his lifetime (I'm not sure I believe him).
So, what about you, computer role playing internet forum members (8 letters)? Any of you spending time on crosswords?
pibbur (6 letters)="pibbur"