Author: vinyl1

Time: 27 minutesMusic: Mingus at Antibes Greetings, all.   I am acting tonight as a last-minute substitute for Ulaca, who is otherwise engaged.  Usually, when you get a puzzle you are not normally scheduled to blog, … Read more “Times 26989 – One of the fifty ways?”

Time: 41 minutesMusic: Stan Getz, Sweet Rain Well, I thought this was going to be a quick one.   I started off at a gallop so to speak, and put in the whole NW corner with … Read more “Times 26983 – “Trains it down on the quarter past…..”

Time: 21 minutesMusic: Handel, Water Music, Hogwood/Academy of Ancient Music An easy puzzle, but one on which I was not quite on the wavelength.   I did manage to biff ‘advowson’ and ‘ostia’, only to get … Read more “Times 26;971 – We like sheep…..”

Time: 20 MinutesMusic: George Lloyd, Symphony #8 I suppose easy Monday is back, provided you are thoroughly familiar with butterflies, Indian religions, and cookery.   If not, you may have to rely on relatively straightforward cryptics … Read more “Times 26959 – A new Olympic sport?”

Time: 43 minutesMusic: Beethoven, Symphony #6, Reiner/Chicago Symphony Well, my time was not that good, and I fumbled over simple clues.   There were some difficult ones, but those were handled with aplomb.  I think I … Read more “Times 26947 – They want to lose?”

Time: 47 MinutesMusic: Mahler, Symphony #9, Levine/Philadelphia Orchestra When I started at 1 across, I thought this was going to be very easy indeed.   I did go at blazing speed for a while, only to … Read more “Times 26935”

Time:  40 minsMusic:  Dvorak, New World Symphony, Horenstein/RPO I found this a very fine puzzle indeed, equal to some of the competition finals that we have recently been treated to.   Deceptive literals and clever word … Read more “Times 26923 – That you, Steve?”

Time: 45 minutesMusic: Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Backhaus. Well, owing to various problems, my blog will be a little terse tonight.   The puzzle itself was not that difficult but circumstances definitely conspired against the blog.   However, … Read more “Times 26911 – And to all a good night!”

Music: Love, RevisitedTime: 50 minutes I found this one really tough, mainly due to several answers I simply did  not know.  As in Mephisto or the Club Monthly, it is possible to laboriously construct unknowns from the … Read more “Times 26899 – What a fool conceives?”

Time: 42 minutesMusic: Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherezade, Kondrashin/LSO At first I thought this was going to be another impossible Monday, but once I started following the cryptics I began to make a little progress and get the … Read more “Times 26887 – Pictures of Matchstick Men”