Each Saturday, the Globe & Mail publishes Fraser Simpson’s Cryptic Crossword.

Fraser Simpson is or was a math teacher at the University of Toronto Schools, a private high school, the graduates of which must, by definition, have taken classes such as Latin and the Romance of Antiquity. UTS, as the school is known, has produced 20 Rhodes Scholars and two Nobel Prize winners.

It has also produced a fleet of cryptic crossword fans, or so it would seem to a blogger who befriended some former UTS students while attending McGill University at around the turn of the millenium.

On most Saturdays from 1997 to 2001, a cadre of Canada’s best young minds could be found plastered to a table at one of Montreal’s many well-loved breakfast spots–perhaps the frugally-priced Place Milton, or Leonard Cohen’s preferred establishment, Bagel Etc., known for its savory blintzes–wielding pens and scrutinizing a folded up quarter of the back page of the Globe’s Review section. This page was the then-home of Fraser Simpson’s Cryptic Crossword, and his erstwhile students, whether Simpson knew it or not, were locked in a weekly battle, intent on completing the squares and succeeding at the challenges Simpson continued to supply them, though his days as their teacher were long past.

What makes Simpson’s Cryptic Crossword so compelling is that each clue is perfect. Like a mathematical equation, every character has significance. There is no tolerance for superfluity or flab in Simpson’s clues. Each contains a riddle and a definition. (The latter is, ultimately, the word to be entered into the grid).

Because there are two ways to arrive at the solution, its accuracy has been tested. Thus, unlike a typical New York Times crossword, Simpson’s puzzle can be completed in pen.

Look again at the clue at the top of this entry. The solution is most certainly “idyl”. The definition is “pastoral poem,” and the riddle follows. It can be “found in tidy ledger.” Do you see it? The letters of the word “idyl” are disguised inside of other words. This is what we call a hidden clue.

To learn more about cryptic crosswords, read this read this. Here are some other clues for you to try: