Author: Zabadak

How about if I say I found this slightly easier than my average, clocking in at 17.53? It does contain a few community pet peeves, with race and nation regarded as equivalents (though it does … Read more “27922 Thursday, 11 March 2021 In which Eve gets the blame (again).”

This looks like a not-too-taxing puzzle, which I thought I was doing even better at than my time of 15.44 indicates. No real holdups along the way, although I only worked out the Chinese biscuity … Read more “27910 Thursday, 25 February 2021 I still remember money!”

I wonder if the setter knew it was my turn, and deliberately included Arsenal and Chelsea, Spurs’ London rivals, and Everton who beat us by the odd goal in nine last night to dump us … Read more “27898 Thursday, 11 February 2021 The Rivals”

I worked steadily through this in very nearly 18 minutes, some of the time thinking there’d be struggles in some quarters, what with TLS qualified authors and non-Python philosophers, a bizarre plant or two, and … Read more “27886 Thursday, 28 January 2021 In which resistance isn’t futile”

I found this rather easy and whizzed through in 11.31 scarcely pausing for breath and (truthfully) making sure the wordplay worked. Unusually, there is no “hidden” answer, and no every-other-letter clue, and only two anagrams … Read more “27874 Thursday, 14 January 2021 Unimpeachable”

I went to 18.27 with this one, hampered at the last by a misplaced letter in a crossing clue which made the author at 10 cross impossible to work out. Once sorted, the guy was … Read more “27862 Thursday, 31 December 2020 And so, the end is near…”

A pretty whizzy solve today after yesterday’s championship swine, which occupied me more or less straight through for a second or so under 13 minutes. Even the plant at 16 was familiar enough for me … Read more “27850 Thursday, 17 December 2020 Say no more.”

I felt I made heavier weather of this than it warranted, taking a neat 23 minutes, but since that’s less than three Vs it may be more taxing that that. There are also an appreciable … Read more “27838 Thursday, 3 December 2020 Pink lemonade”

So. There’s some clever stuff in here which had me casting around long after I’d submitted with a quiet (and, as it turns out, effective) prayer to the gods of greenness. There’s some GK which … Read more “27826 Thursday, 19 November 2020 Hasty to its close ebbs out life’s little day”

I rather enjoyed this quirky number over 18.44, as a break from the drawn-our tension fest that is the American election process. At the time of writing, the BBC is still rather coy about predicting … Read more “27814 Thursday, 5 November 2020 Yum Yum”