Author: ulaca

What a few days it has been! While things unravel in Eastern Europe, the New York Times attends to really serious matters by imposing sanctions on the popular word game WORDLE, which it recently bought … Read more “Times 28225 – Hateable speech”

A gentle introduction to the week, which I completed in 19 minutes. Today, in memory of the good old days when you had to rely on your memory and wouldn’t by challenged by someone Googling … Read more “Times 28213 – All You Need is Love”

16:05, so a pretty straightforward Monday puzzle on my watch after one or two trickier ones. Quite a few anagrams, two relatively less obscure items of flora, accessible vocabulary and generous cluing makes this a … Read more “Times 28201 – Patriot Games”

Well, I was an epic fail in 40 minutes on what is not a particularly hard test. My major problem was 10a, in spite of having been one once. Too clever for me. I imagine … Read more “Times 28189 – Winds moderate, doing their thing from the north”

A wrong guess at the Malagasy native did for me, in what was otherwise a very nice way to get the week going. Onwards and upwards… ACROSS 1 Notice doctor cuddling new arrival (6)ADVENT – … Read more “Times 28177 – Start the way you mean to go on”

This was definitely a step-up from usual Monday fare, with some cunning misdirection, lots of multi-word definitional bits and one or two bits of obscure (for some) vocabulary. I came a bit of a cropper, … Read more “Times 28165 – Rider of waves, indeed!”

Writing the blog, it would appear that it was in the down clues that the setter really hit his/her stride. However, there was lots to enjoy too even as we were taken on a trip … Read more “Times 28153 – Petite Messe Solennelle pour vous?”

Mondays appear to have been ramped up a bit recently, with this one coming in at around my true NITCH. (The actual number is lower, but that’s mainly owing to the fact that submissions with … Read more “Times 28141 – Sunil Havaskar?”

With some relatively obscure vocab and some tricky wordplay – on one occasion coinciding in the same clue – this was definitely on the tricky side for a Monday. I was already struggling when I … Read more “Times 28129 – League of Nations?”

Thanks all for your patience. I’ve been travelling around within Hong Kong a fair bit over the weekend and have only just returned to our retirement nest on the beautiful island of Cheung Chau. Crossword-wise, … Read more “Times 28117 – no caparison”