Author: Guy du Sable

It was pleasant looking back over this puzzle, which I recall as a(n) 13ing outing, after a week. In the first edition of this blog, I thought that the one clue where I detected a … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4819, by David McLean — Comma chameleon”

Pretty easy, this one. I filled in most of the acrosses, in order, in record time, and most of the rest came fairly quickly. Four anagrams, and three in a row! I even biffed a … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4817, by Jeff Pearce — Like a result in the night”

And it isn’t even the entire clue. My goodness, has this ever happened before? (nagarams)* like this ACROSS  1 Indian dish served in food halls (4) DHAL — Hidden in food halls  4 Boss with … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic No. 4815, by Dean Mayer — Yon lone nagaram…!”

Rather a mundane vocabulary for this one. I pick as my COD the clever, though quite easy, 7, which is also probably the most interesting word here. But 6 also stands out, as &lit.s have … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4813, by David McLean — Not the end of the world”

I put in about half of the answers, starting with the extremely easy FLEET, in a desultory manner while watching the last half-hour of a too-long and somewhat preposterous movie (which had a nice twist … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic No. 4811, by Jeff Pearce — talking Turkey”

A few weeks ago, French citoyen Christophe Février acquired, for €8,000, a mid-nineteenth-century edition (for which Lady Gaga had once made a bid) of Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin’s humane invention. For a month or so now there has … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4809, by Dean Mayer — I’m Telling You”

Shall we count the UKisms? The idiom that answers 2 down (my FOI), as well as MCC in the clue; the two “T”s in ACTUATE (which are why this was my LOI); BISH for “mistake”; … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4807, by David McLean—Idiomatic for the People”

I enoyed this a lot more than the last Pearce entry it was my duty to blog. No complaints this time about any of the double definitions (or anything else). Nothing too far out, but … Read more “Sunday Times 4805, by Jeff Pearce — He lives!”

In this batch of succinct, often witty clues, we have four excellent examples of double definitions, two that use disparate senses of the same word (23a and 6d) and two that involve homonyms (17 and … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4803, by Dean Mayer — No escheating!”

I have every expectation that some of the infallible wits here will come up with some clever remarks about some of these clues, where I have utterly failed. But honestly, it all seems a bit … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4801, by David McLean — Getchyer marketing cream here”