I managed to solve this one readily enough, spread out over several sessions. The second long answer is not used in the USA, and I had to get a number of crossers before concluding what the answer must be.
Author: vinyl1
Times Cryptic 29419 – Just a bit tricky
This puzzle should not have been hard, but I was left with four unsolved at 15 minutes, and I struggled mightily with those.
Mephisto 3406 – At the Edinburgh rave!
Robert Teuton’s puzzle is a bit more difficult than usual, with a number of interesting words. It took me a long time to finish, and I went on many wild-goose chases without catching any wild geese.
Times 29407 – Yes, catching some flak
I did not find this as easy as a typical Monday. I did start quickly, but I was left at the end with a series of interconnected missing answers across the middle of my printout.
A Special Crossword for a Special Day
What special day, you may ask? Well, you’ll have to solve the puzzle to find out. You can find the interactive version here, and a PDF to print out here.
This puzzle was created to celebrate this special day by some of the administrators and bloggers here at Times for the Times. We hope you have as much fun solving it as we did creating it.
If you open this post, you will find the standard puzzle blog, only the answers are initially not given and the clue parsings are not yet supplied. When you have completed the puzzle, and are writing your comment, you are invited pick one or two clues that have not yet been discussed, and blog them in the style of your favourite blogger. I will copy your blog entries into the blog until it is complete.
Mephisto 3404 – “Picasso leans out the window…”
A Mephisto from John Grimshaw that was not that difficult, and for once many of the answer words were words I knew.
Times 29395 – “Woke up this morning with light in my eyes….”
This was pretty much an ordinary Monday puzzle, with a few clever constructions that are starting to creep in, along with one or two rather loose constructions.
Mephisto 3402 – Have some coffee!
More fun from Paul McKenna, with quite a few introductory-level clues. In fact, the infamous top line was almost a write-in.
Times 29384 – Still missing!
This puzzle was an odd mixture of very easy clues, and a few that leave the solver scratching his head – did he really mean that?
Times 29383 – Cryptic creep?
Some solvers have said that the difficulty of these puzzles has increased of late, and I have found that true even of the Monday offerings. As you can see from my time, it was not really hard, but there are some tricks here that require a little thought, particularly some of the literals.