Author: Verlaine

Happy birthday to me! This one marks the last year that I can pretend to be still in my twenties via the medium of hexadecimal, so by God I’m going to make the most of … Read more “Times 26,225: Secret Birthday Message @ 9ac, 10ac?”

Running a bit behind this morning, so I’m going to try to keep this unprecedentedly brief, and perhaps make up for it in the comments. I think it’s fair to say I loved this one, … Read more “Times 26,129: The Chanel Islands”

Is it possible to not be on the proverbial wavelength at all, but still post a decent time? I finished this one slap bang in the middle of the 12-14 minute range I’m usually quite … Read more “Times 26,213: I Crimethink Therefore I Am”

Hello friends! I’m continuing to be well off the boil solving-time wise – nothing probably that a good night’s sleep wouldn’t fix, but who has time to sleep when there are crosswords to do? – … Read more “Times 26,027: Griththini”

This was a pretty tough puzzle if the current state of the Club Leaderboard is anything to go by – can’t say I didn’t make heavy weather of it myself, sailing past the 20 minute … Read more “Times 26,201: Sipping Napoleon Brandy With The Jet Set”

With its strong classical references at 18ac and 21dn you’d have thought this one would be right up my stoa, but I found it a bit middle-of-the-road in practice, perhaps due to struggling with some … Read more “Times 26,195: The Devil’s Helmet”

Ashamed to say that I submitted this with one error – I’d done this basically back-to-back with yesterday’s puzzle, after a day returning from Wales on the train with two tired and fractious tots, and … Read more “Times 26,189: Clarence Drowns Again”

After a short visit to the land of personal bests yesterday, I toiled my way through this one, clocking off inside the quarter hour at least but certainly not distinguishing myself. Probably because I did … Read more “Times 26,183: You Can’t Wash Your Hands In A Hetero”

Well I think I enjoyed this one a lot – but I did it on paper again, and it felt as though there were various traps in there for the unwary (e.g. -NCE v -NSE … Read more “Times 26,177: Little Old Lady Who?”

A really very straightforward crossword today to round off a not especially strenuous week. I did this the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper – got to remember how those elegant weapons for a more … Read more “Times 26,171: Oil That Is, Black Gold, Texas Tea”