There are days when I’ll cup a mug of tea and deliberately go looking for crosswords with flourish, and my eye always lands on a predictable set of names. In the UK scene, the cryptic grids in The Guardian and The Telegraph are almost theatre: setters write clues with grandiose phrasing and flourish—long, dramatic surfaces that exaggerate mood or meaning purely to misdirect. That’s often the point: the surface story is big and melodramatic, and the wordplay underneath is the quiet, exacting machinery. My favourite moments are the ones where the clue reads like a tiny melodrama but collapses into a tidy, understated solution; it’s a delicious contrast. On the US side, 'The New York Times' and the LA Times occasionally flirt with the same approach, but American-style themers more often exaggerate by ballooning a revealer or stretching a gimmick across a whole grid. Specialty puzzle magazines, and even the satirical pages of outlets such as 'Private Eye' or 'The Onion' when they parody crosswords, will use exaggerated phrasing as a comedic device. If you want to study this style, look at older puzzle archives—setters used to pull out every rhetorical trick—and modern indie puzzle blogs where setters experiment with intentionally overblown surfaces. It’s a neat way to learn how deception and drama in language can be both playful and precise, which is why I keep diving back into those papers and mags for inspiration and fun.
Growing up with a pile of newspapers on the kitchen table taught me to spot the kinds of outlets that love theatrical, over-the-top crossword clues. British broadsheets—think the cryptic pages of The Guardian, The Times and The Daily Telegraph—are classic offenders in the best way: setters there often delight in flamboyant surface readings, theatrical definitions and clues that feel like tiny stageplays. I’d pick up a Saturday paper, glance at a clue like ‘Heroic, loud and a bit over the top (7)’ and grin when the answer unfolded into something gloriously showy. Those papers historically host a lively community of setters who enjoy wordplay that exaggerates for comic or dramatic effect, and the editorship often encourages thematic puzzles that let clues indulge in excess. Across the Atlantic, 'The new york Times' takes a different route but still slips into the same habit on occasion—especially in the weekday themed puzzles or the Saturday beast where compilers complicate things by stretching definitions or leaning on misdirection. Magazines centered on puzzles, such as Games Magazine, will sometimes Crank the dial up to Eleven for entertainment value: an intentionally outrageous clue can be part of the charm. Even satirical publications and puzzle columns in lifestyle mags sometimes use hyperbole as a wink to solvers. Bottom line: if you love clues that puff themselves up and make you chuckle when the reveal lands, hunt in those puzzle-rich pages; they’re where exaggerated clues are most likely to feel like a playful nudge rather than a cheat. I still get a kick from that small dramatic payoff when a clue over-promises and then delivers neatly.
I tend to be the impatient solver who skims for the most theatrical clues, and a short list of places keeps popping up in my rotations: the cryptic sections of British papers like The Guardian and The Times, themed stretches in 'The New York Times', and puzzle-focused magazines such as Games Magazine. These outlets either encourage setters to put on a show with extravagant wording or attract compilers who love that kind of overstatement, so you get clues that feel deliberately overblown as part of the entertainment. Beyond publications, online puzzle communities and setter blogs often republish or celebrate particularly flamboyant clues, which is how some of the most exaggerated examples spread. I also notice satire magazines and parody columns using absurdly hyperbolic clues to lampoon the crossword form, so if something reads like it’s trying too hard, it might be on purpose. Personally, I adore that theatrical moment when a clue’s surface reads like a soap opera but the solution is surgical—makes the whole solve feel like catching the punchline mid-performance.
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When I was being harassed by the Romano family’s consigliere, my fiancé, Don Luca of the Villani family, was busy kissing and drinking with Gianna at a party.
To secure the partnership, I had no choice but to drink the glass the consigliere pressed against my lips.
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Instead, he focused entirely on picking the lime slices out of Gianna’s drink, coaxing her gently into finishing it.
Once the party ended, Gianna casually mentioned she was bored, and Luca immediately made me get out of the car so he could take her bar-hopping afterward.
“She’s been helping me manage the accounts lately, so I’m taking her out to relax.
“You don’t even like bars, so don’t come along.
“And I’m staying with her tonight until she has fun. So we’ll postpone the wedding again, since I can’t make it to the church tomorrow.”
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Since he was always too busy, maybe this wedding didn’t need to happen.
My younger sister, Joey Crawford, and I have taken the exam 20 times in a row. Yet, our answer sheet shows the exact same answers every time.
No matter how fast I complete the exam, Joey is able to turn in her paper one second before me.
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Whenever my classmates see me, they say to me, "Hey, cheater! You got busted this time, huh?"
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"The female lead is the chosen one! It must feel amazing to have awakened the mind-reading ability and all!"
"She relies on reading the side character's mind just to obtain all the answers. So what if the side character excels in her studies? Her role is to become the female lead's stepping stone to success!"
It turns out that Joey has been stealing my answers by reading my mind this whole time.
As I flip the exam papers over, I start singing the alphabet song mentally.
"A-B-C-D-E-F-G…"
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I have always had an almost pathological sense of paranoia. Ever since I was a child, I was convinced that the people around me were out to get me.
Back in elementary school, when everyone was lining up for their student ID photos, I flatly refused to have mine taken. I insisted that the district office was going to use my picture for identity theft. The situation escalated so badly that the principal had to personally sit me down and spend half an hour trying to convince me otherwise.
Then, there was the fingerprint registration system in middle school. The school required every student to submit their fingerprints to access the campus buildings. I was so terrified that someone would steal my biometric data that I literally rubbed the skin off all ten fingertips to make them unreadable.
Even when my fingers were bleeding, I kept shouting that they were trying to steal my identity. I would rather climb over the school fence every day than cooperate.
Every relative I had called me crazy. My parents were so fed up that they seriously considered having me admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
I did not care.
I guarded my privacy with obsessive determination, gritting my teeth and holding my ground all the way up to the eve of the final exams.
Then came the day before the exam.
That afternoon, our homeroom teacher, Tracy Collins, walked into the classroom carrying a metal lockbox. A warm, motherly smile spread across her face as she set it down on the desk.
"Everyone," she said, "to make sure nobody forgets their documents tomorrow, I'd like you to hand over your IDs and exam admission slips for safekeeping tonight."
She patted the lockbox reassuringly. "Tomorrow morning, I'll personally return them to each of you outside the testing center. This way, there's absolutely nothing that can go wrong."
The class was deeply moved by her thoughtfulness. Some students even looked close to tears as they eagerly pulled out their documents and lined up to hand them over.
Everyone except me.
My hand clamped down over my pocket so tightly that my knuckles turned white. Cold sweat poured down my back. A sharp alarm bell was ringing in my head.
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"I believe a teacher at St. Alden High is working with an identity-fraud ring and is planning a large-scale operation tonight involving examination fraud and identity theft."
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Flynn Watson, the actual heir of the Watson family, reported me for cheating during the exams.
As I stared at both copies of the test papers with perfect grades and the same answers, I found it difficult to explain what happened.
Everyone took Flynn's side. Because of that, I was painted as a cheater, which resulted in my exile from the Watson family.
The Watsons went as far as to get me blacklisted from all industries just so they could appease Flynn.
I ended up on the streets as a homeless person, where I got tormented incessantly. In a daze, I got hit by a car.
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When I open my eyes again, I've gotten reborn on the day of the exams. This time, I choose to not write anything on the exam papers at all.
I'd like to see just how I can be branded as a cheater now that I'm not given any marks at all.