Author: Zabadak

  I rather struggled through this, my flow being glacial rather than the pyroclastic referred to in the puzzle. Only that mountain appeared out of the nowhere of my forgettery/never’eardery, and with the crossers even … Read more “29206 Turns out it really is a mountain”

  I’d like to think that the high proportion (so far) of single error entries indicates that we have a clue that is capable of sustaining more than one answer, the sort where if you … Read more “29194 The Maddening Crowd”

  With blogger’s caution, I took a leisurely 16.41 for this, though early results suggest it might be another quick solve for many regulars. There’s some discrete advertising across the upper middle which Nestlé presumably … Read more “29182 Smile, troubles duly packed up.”

  I made it through this in 18.45, which suggests a puzzle of moderate challenge, though I expect many to have queries about the naming of that delicious scent that fresh rainfall produces on contact … Read more “29170 If you like….gettin’ caught in the rain”

  I’ve generally been running slow this week, and today provided no let-up in the lethargy, though I completed in 24.24 with no clue in particular causing extended puzzling, apart from struggling with the parsing … Read more “29158 Two all-beef patios…”

  I’m not particularly enthusiastic about my 21.12 time – I couldn’t get a foothold in the NW and went around the grid from the NE quarter, sometimes with only bit of answers entered. It … Read more “29146 Twinned with the New York Times?”

  I found a lot to like in the puzzle, not least a comfortable time of 17.02. Pretty well all through our setter has paid attention to the surface readings of the clues, and there … Read more “29134 Hold very tight please! Ting ting!”

  I’m not quite sure what to say about this. Early indications, and my careful, blog aware, time of 13.46 suggests that it’s not in the Tricky Thursday category. A large number of the clues … Read more “29122 Roll out the 1/4 barrel.”

  I rather think I should have been quicker than my 25.21, but I was held up by some of the cute misdirections, such as the Spooner clue and the one with the artful use … Read more “29110 Noel? Actually, there’s 15 of them.”

  What fun! A fine set of clues with some very slippery definitions and a broad range of languages, not just the normal French and occasional German. I can’t say I whizzed through: the whole … Read more “29098 Polyglot”