Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Grunger, thanks. I thought of you and Jigjag when I entered 1 Across earlier today. The child in me still reads it (inwardly, not aloud) as Four ....

I was grumbling away to myself at the weekend as a few puzzles seemed to be clinging on to old, dated terms. Hip, with it, was there - it's always there, despite not being used for decades. There were others, but I can't remember them. I didn't want to mention them at the time as the puzzles were 'live' and I didn't want any spoilers. By Monday or Tuesday, my brain erased the niggles!

Malone Grunger

I entered it as fo'c's'le but I was a character short, so there must be an alternative spelling.

Malone

I have never heard 'hip' used in that sense, though it is always used in crosswords as you say. Not often heard "with it" either, though I hear it used in the 'I'm not with it today' sense.

Jigjag

Fo'c's'le's a lovely word but did it fit with the checkers?

Perhaps it's time for apostrophes to have their own square. You'd want it to be FO''C'S'LE (10) but of course one apostrophe of omission often represents two letters.

ONE'S often occurs in phrase solutions and somehow doesn't deserve its (4)

Paul

Sorry, I have been unable to solve your clue.

Oh dear, grunger@1355, I think I may have unintentionally wasted your time. My last paragraph @1354 is a comment not a clue.

It's my fault for using (4) when I was flippantly suggesting that ONE'S in a solution should count the apostrophe as a letter (e.g. RUB ONE'S NOSE IN IT would have (3, 5, 4, 2, 2) after its clue.

Now I've even got the post numbers wrong - I meant 2355 and 2354 of course.

Paul

No problem, I didnt spend that long on it. I like your idea though.

I get irritated when I have to count words and there is a dispute over e.g. "We'll" which to me is 2 words not one.

Grunger
Me too. "Can not" is clearly 2, but "can't" and "cant" should also be 2 not 1.

"Can not" should be "cannot".