Pity the constructor of American crosswords. A name appears in the news and it is made of four especially useful letters. It appears more and more throughout the 2010s and previously you would have clued it by making reference to a not especially well known university in North Carolina.
But after a few good years, and assuming you want your puzzle to offer a refuge from the miseries in the rest of the paper, ELON becomes the last thing your solvers want to think about with their coffee. The ENEMA of the 2020s.
With cryptics, at least you can have some fun at the expense of the wretched man. Witness this paper’s Vlad:
26ac Joke – of kind – sees Trump getting irritated? (9,4)
[ wordplay: anagram (‘getting irritated’) of KINDSEESTRUMP ]
[ definition: a joke of just the kind Vlad describes ]
… and enjoy at least the irritation. Likewise, the FT’s Leonidas gives us …
28d Reform UK’s master? (4)
[ wordplay: anagram (‘reform’) of UKS & M (‘master’) ]
[ definition: whole clue ]
… MUSK as an entry but perhaps the most satisfying to imagine appearing on a desk in the White House is the sheer derision of Eccles’s Independent clue …
30ac Half of Elon Musk’s head is wood (3)
[ wordplay: first two letters (‘half’) of ELON & first letter (‘head’) of MUSK ]
[ definition: wood ]
… for ELM. And the scandal that will inevitably be tagged Elongate is taking longer than many of us predicted.
Meanwhile in our cluing conference for FRUIT, the runners-up are MannekenPis’s cheery “Benefit of healing union’s first rift” and Andyyy1’s world-weary “Initially feeling romantic until it’s time for a date, for example”. The winner is the not-unaudacious “Apple I found in back lawn?” to which I have added a question mark.
Kludos to Araucaria_fan and please leave entries for DOGE below, along with any favourite clues or puzzles you have spotted.
• 188 Words for Rain by Alan Connor is published by Ebury (£16.99). To support the Guardian and the Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
