CRYPTIC CROSSWORD — I often say that I wish everyone would get into the variety puzzles for the surprise and delight they deliver. Anyone can get good at them, and if you look forward to the pun clues in regular crossword puzzles, then you owe it to yourself to try these when they come along every six weeks or so. The fact that not every letter is crossed raises the challenge level considerably, but that’s what Wordplay is here for.

There will almost certainly be anagrams. I don’t know if that’s an unwritten rule or not but I don’t remember ever encountering a cryptic puzzle without at least one, and I always cling to them when I find them, like sturdy branches on a steep trail. Team Cox/Rathvon shines here; their anagrams are beautifully clued, complex and lengthy, but not indecipherable. I started with STEPMOTHER, added OVULATE, then POSTMASTER and GYRATIONS.

There were others, including IN TOUCH, REED ORGAN, and AFTER HOURS (which made me think of this great movie, anyone else?).

After exhausting the anagram option, we get a whirlwind tour of different styles of cryptic clues.

Some aren’t terribly hard.