The Jankword No. 1
Cryptic crosswords are one of my favourite things in this entire world. They are also, I accept, total bullshit. Each clue is not merely a riddle, but (usually) a series of coded instructions on how to assemble the answer from fragments of words within the clue itself, synonyms, anagrams or abbreviations—much of which cannot be intuited, but only known, often drawing on conventions established in previous centuries, by vicars or retired sergeant majors, sometimes about things that no longer exist. Cricketing abbreviations feature very heavily. Allusions to political figures who died in 1967. Military and ecumenical shorthand. To the uninitiated, this is extraordinarily annoying. You are right to be annoyed.
However! Imbibe enough of these awful things, and you begin to speak the language, reading multiple layers of meaning into the clues and holding alternative interpretations in a superposition until some combination of them unlocks the entirety, and an answer emerges. The pleasure is immense.
Are they PC games? Sure, if you're reading this on your PC. To whit, here is the first Jank cryptic crossword, or Jankword, that I am optimistically calling "No. 1". Advice on how to solve such a thing follows below.
