The Stickler Weekly 81 Solution

I imagine most people at one stage have said “I wish I had a dollar for every time…”. There’s no doubt that I would be a rich man if the sentence ended with “…someone expressed the desire to learn how to solve cryptic crosswords”. It’s rare that someone shows no interest at all in what I used to do for a living. Some say they want to learn, while others confess that they simply don’t understand how cryptics work. With so much supposed interest, how is it that desire doesn’t get turned into action? I think in some ways cryptics suffer from having a relatively simple cousin, the “straight” crossword, that is designed for everyone to solve with minimal instruction. There’s no extended learning period or mental adjustment needed, just a fundamental knowledge of the English language, which is developed enough by the end of high school. Give a straight crossword to almost anyone and they would know what to do even if they can’t or don’t want to solve it. It’s not the same with cryptics, although, on the surface, it may appear to be the same. It’s reasonable to look at the clues of a crossword and expect to be able to find the answers, since that’s how straight crosswords work, but we know, without instruction and guidance, it’s almost impossible for an uninitiated solver to solve good cryptic clues. How frustrating it must be for regular (good) straight solvers to be thwarted by an unknown code, and more so when they find out it’s not just a rule, instructional, or “how to” thing – it’s a completely different world with a long road ahead.
I can’t think of any game, interest or pastime that has branches so different but based on one fundamental concept. Can you?