Author: Verlaine

Little club board glory for bleary pre-coffee me this morning, but all done inside the quarter hour at least. My first one in was the easy 11ac, but progress was relatively slow thereafter, with the … Read more “Times 26,669: Beaten Like A Red-Headed…”

After one of the easier weeks in living crossword memory, finally a puzzle requiring a bit more mental elbow grease to polish off – this one took me over the 10 minute mark, and if … Read more “TImes 26,663: Early One Morning [painted steel and aluminium]”

A second puzzle in a row done by me, in defiance of human physiology and all else that is holy, first thing in the morning; but once more this left me with loads of change … Read more “Times 26,657: Down With The NHS”

I’m at the third day of PHP UK Conference 2017 tomorrow morning, hanging with my fellow nerds, so I won’t have time to wax lyrical about the puzzle tomorrow morning, boo! But as luck would … Read more “Times 26,651: Dive Bombers and Empire Down”

After flamethrowing the candle earlier in the week it seemed prudent to get an early night on Thursday and tackle this first thing in the a.m. My brain is rarely functioning at its most smoothly … Read more “Times 26,645: Martyred Slaves of Time”

I’ve not been at the top of my cryptic game recently – stressed and tired from having piled too many other things onto my plate over the last fortnight, but at least I’m being paid … Read more “Times 26,639: Bridge Over Troubled Waters”

A preponderance of double defs, whimsical defs, cryptic defs and even deaf composers made this something of a wavelengthy puzzle I suspect – I was glad to slide in just under the 7 minute mark, … Read more “Times 26,633: Def Con One”

It’s possible that not every word in a Times puzzle is carefully chosen in advance to be enormously topical on the date of publication, but I couldn’t help but see this one as a sly … Read more “Times 26,627: Inauguration Day”