PandA Guidelines

"Don't feed your puzzle too much bamboo."

An alert reader informed me that the New York Times does have a set of official guidelines for “Puns and Anagrams” submissions. Given that I’ve been discussing those kinds of puzzles lately, I thought I should share those here.

• Every clue should sound like a regular crossword clue, no matter how far-fetched. Avoid sentences in the style of cryptic clues.

• Include a healthy number of puns, but avoid ones that could work equally well in regular crosswords. P&A puns need to be wackier, like “Wery wenomous snake” for WIPER, or in a different form, like “___ model (what all buns are patterned after)” for ROLL.

• Anagrams do not need to be signaled. Hidden words do.

• Most clues contain straight definitions of their answers. Exceptions can be found bits of wordplay, like “Grand Central” for RAN; puns like “Things worn under ze blouses” for ZEBRAS; or elegant word breakdowns.

• A clue in the form of “Kind of ...” or “End of ...” may signal a word that precedes or follows what comes next in the clue. For example, “Kind of bling” could be RUM; “End of an era” could be SABLE (erasable).

• Numbers in clues may represent their Roman numeral equivalents in a clue’s wordplay (L = 50, C = 100, etc.).

• Words in clues that sound like letters can represent those letters in the wordplay (”see” for C, “envy” for NV, etc.). This cluing device is especially useful for anagrams.

• A puzzle should have at least a couple of letter rebuses among the clues. For example, “B + ON” could stand for ABANDON (a B and ON), and PILF could stand for BACK FLIP.

• Try to have at least a couple clues in which missing letters complete the clue, which then defines the answer. For example, “Stu_ge_n _ggs” for ROE, or “_ _ds dec_ _atio_ _” for ADORNS.

• Anagrams should comprise no more than 60% of the clues. Under half is even better.

• An especially elegant P&A clue accurately defines its answer in full and contains an anagram or other wordplay as well. For example, “Holds so dear” for ADORES (anagram), “Something to slip in a holster” for PISTOL (anagram), or “What you do with meat, mostly” for EAT (hidden).

• To the maximum extent possible, every P&A clue should be a little gem of wordplay of some sort.

P&A. P&A. P&A…

Sorry, the acronym “P&A” is a little surreal for me, because for a decade or so of my life, “P&A” stood for the name of one of my own projects.

But never mind that now.

A few of these styles I didn’t try myself in the earlier example (missing letters, “kind of,” “sounds like letters,” and letter rebuses). I’m not sure Mel Taub did all those in every puzzle, but they can be considered part of the more general “P&A style.” The approach to punning seen in the guidelines is closer to Taub’s than mine for sure. Between that and my other nitpicks, I might be giving this genre of puzzle one more whirl, just to see if I can do it better.

Let’s see if I have the results in time for tomorrow’s update!