Cryptic Christmas crossword

Getting to the real reason for a patient’s appointment or working out the correct underlying diagnosis can sometimes feel like solving a puzzle. If you’re missing that challenge over the festive period, a cryptic crossword may be for you!

More than recalling eponyms, synonyms, or acronyms to solve an American-style crossword, each clue in a cryptic crossword is a puzzle in and of itself, drawing on every word in the clue. To misquote William Osler: “Listen to the clue, for it is telling you the answer.”1 Each clue contains the definition of the answer word in addition to a wordplay element that—if solved correctly—leads you to the same answer.2 Frustratingly, it might not always be clear which is which.

A recent, festive clue in a New Yorker cryptic …