A quarter hour of really, really good fun. I was impressed by a great number of the clues: some lovely cryptic and double definitions and I loved the Cockney homophone, the SLIM SLAM, and the … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1514: Show Me First Your PDM”
Author: Verlaine
Times 28,079: He Who Controls The Spice
No complaints about insufficient Fridayness today – lots of chewy stuff to think one’s way through here. “Mela” seemed a bit hard but then again “Kumbh Mela” does ring a bell, now I think about … Read more “Times 28,079: He Who Controls The Spice”
Times 28,073: Strictly For The Local Birds
I found this medium-tricky, but perhaps for the wrong reasons: the parsings are almost universally simple (by and large, “put X in Y”), but the grid is quite ungenerously laid out, with numerous double unches, … Read more “Times 28,073: Strictly For The Local Birds”
Monthly Club Special 20,251: Slubberdegullions Need Not Apply
I found this quite a beast to solve, but a very enjoyable one, full of literally incredible words from all around the globe. 18ac looks like a basic cluing error to me, unless anyone can … Read more “Monthly Club Special 20,251: Slubberdegullions Need Not Apply”
Times 28,067: Who’s Been Cluing My Porridge?
No real hard vocab this Friday – unless you want to count OVIFORM – and mostly uncomplicated cluing, but a fair challenge nonetheless. I mostly liked seeing GCHQ as wordplay fodder, “cryptically relaxed” for DIAL … Read more “Times 28,067: Who’s Been Cluing My Porridge?”
Times 28,061: Gone In 60*5 Seconds
This took under 5 minutes: I’m going to put my foot down and say that’s too gentle for a Friday! I like Esperanto and I like tigons but my favourite clue was probably just 24dn … Read more “Times 28,061: Gone In 60*5 Seconds”
Times 28,055: An Overly Familiar Way To Refer To Edmund
I’ve definitely seen harder Fridays than this. I liked some of the namechecks, Pergolesi and Catullus and Waugh rubbing shoulders with Eddy Blackadder, but overall not much to say about this. LEKS was a bold … Read more “Times 28,055: An Overly Familiar Way To Refer To Edmund”
Times Cryptic Jumbo 1509: Espress Permission
A collection of very straightforward clues, that I managed to pink-square by going onto autopilot and toss in CITRIC ACID, which is a lot less corrosive than NITRIC, probably fortunately for fructivores. I mostly liked … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1509: Espress Permission”
Times 28,049: A cannon-ball took off his legs, so he laid down his arms
I didn’t post a “video solve” last week, to massive outcry (one person), so here it is this time. Starting at about 7m15: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1109369557 I started off quickly enough on this one, but got well … Read more “Times 28,049: A cannon-ball took off his legs, so he laid down his arms”
Monthly Club Special 20,250: Beam Me Up
The vocab is great (WOD 14dn, in the face of stiff competition) and the cluing delightful – I obviously liked the Trekker meta-spoonerism at 29ac, but COD to 23ac for its inspired marriage of Corrie … Read more “Monthly Club Special 20,250: Beam Me Up”