Comments on: Inquisitor 136 – Availability by Phi

By: Peter Biddlecombe

Peter Biddlecombe — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:30:45 +0000

Their rule says “Please do not discuss (or even mention) current puzzles until after the solution is published”. But my understanding is that the puzzle to which this really applies is the Listener. I have got away with mentioning Times puzzles on the day of publication, possibly even prize ones. I don’t know any puzzle editor (or solver come to that) outside the trappist community of the Listener who would object to public discussion of prize puzzles between the closing date and publication of the solution.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:00:16 +0000

I enjoyed this despite my usual habit of getting the odd misprint wrong, leaving me looking at …PARKIYON… for a wee while.

I was going to mention this puzzle over on the Crossword Centre message board as a comment to Raich’s puzzle but I suspect it is against their rules despite the solution being given here.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:27:20 +0000

It is no coincidence that Raich used the same theme in Listener 4044 (25/7/2009). Cyril Northcote Parkinson was born on July 30, 1909 so the two puzzles were commemorating his centenary.

The Listener puzzle left several blanks in the middle of the grid which needed to be filled in by ‘expanding’ the letters present to give:

WWWW
OOOO
RRRR
KKKK

This block was surrounded by ‘time available for its completion’.