Solving time: 12:04 Less culture today, and – as ever – concentrated in the South-East, where there are two French authors (J-P Sartre & Anatole France) and “gangsta rap”. “Gangsta” has made it into Chambers … Read more “Times 24315”

Solving time: 8:43 A fairly straightforward puzzle – some novel words, but no clue really held me up. 27 and 7 assisted by a visit to Kew Gardens yesterday with a nephew. Jimbo will be … Read more “Times 24314”

Solving time : 25 minutes An enjoyable puzzle stuffed full of authors, poets, artists, old coins, ancient Rome, Greek literature, and so on. It contains what may be the longest homophone in history (of an … Read more “Times 24313 Arty Crafties 8 Scientists 0”

Solving time: 44 minutes Music: Schubert Piano Pieces, Wilhelm Kempff Well, I’d clamped the record to the turntable, poured myself an iced tea, selected a sharp pencil, and settled down….arrrrgh! This is a toughie! No … Read more “Times 24312 “Not worth a pitcher of warm…er…seepage…..”

Solving time: 11.48 This puzzle seemed to have a very high proportion of proper nouns among the answers. I hesitated for a quite a while at the end before writing in 5A and 5D, because … Read more “Times Crossword 24310”

I’m filling in for Richard today, but I have just gotten access to the puzzle, so going to work on it now, and will blog soon if I can get it in one shot, or … Read more “Times 24309 – surface tension”

Solving time: 9:55 This was a mildly tricky puzzle. I’ll be interested to see how overseas solvers get on with the Test ground at 15D.  I liked the various outrageous stuff – VEEP, VATABLE and … Read more “Times 24308”