Second, Michelle, the fact that you manage to finish these things one way or another is all that matters. You might think of yourself as a “beginner” but your language skills are obviously far beyond that label. I typically invest HOURS on most of these. The Grauniad offerings are right at my comfort level of difficulty, in general – I have to work hard, but I “often” get all the lights filled in, even if in pencil with Rufus.

Third, I put DOLL in at 12 and I stand by it. It’s a perfectly good solution to “dish of wood”.

Finally thanks for the blog, PeterO, and a puzzle I found quite interesting and challenging, Chifonie! Sure, some of the clues I got late on seemed like “write ins” once I solved them, they weren’t on first read.

Peace out, and please don’t bite the noobs!

Usually, “getting the wrong end of the stick” implies that the fault is the receiver’s rather than the giver’s. Collins gives examples. In this case I think the fault was yours, not Michelle’s.

Straightforward enough and must agree with previous posters about the 3 “Mondays” in a row!

Recently it appears that the choice of daily crossword is becoming random! (Except of course for the RufusMonday If you’re reading Hugh please prove me wrong.)

Thanks to PeterO and Chifonie

P.S. Michelle. If you haven’t already noticed, everybody who posts on here annoys everyone else as we’re mainly grumpy old men! So please carry on posting but try to be a little less polite

And for anyone who does these crosswords online, or prints them off to tackkle on paper, you can access them directly by using the URL
http://static.guim.co.uk/crosswords/pdfs/gdn.cryptic.20130xxx.pdf
where 20130xxx = yyyymmdd, so today’s entry would be 20130213, for instance.
Sometimes this doesn’t work so you can try
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/cryptic/nnnnn where today’s was 25870

The date entry often works for the Saturday prize, but if it doesn’t, then, similar to the daily
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/prize/nnnnn is worth a bash

Of course, if the pdf hasn’t been uploaded yet, you’re scuppered…

Similar principles work for the everyman on Sundays
http://static.guim.co.uk/crosswords/pdfs/obs.everyman.20130xxx.pdf
or
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/everyman/nnnn

hth

Simon ô¿ô

Michelle, as I said yesterday, you are doing very well. We need your comments and questions!

Hope you are encouraged by all the support today.

Giovanna xx

This variety is a good thing, but I agree wholeheartedly with Dave H @20 and others thereafter. Three days in a row on the green slopes is too much for me.

Was another who was not originally going to post today either, but a couple of points. Firstly with both Chifonie (with envelopes and use of one letter) and Rufus (with usually only cd and dd type clues), I find them more one-dimensional than easy. I can usually complete Gordius (looseness that some find irritating), Qaos (fresh and original devices), Brendan (his thematic approach) and Puck (hidden themes and crisp clueing style) relatively quick to solve but but still give you a higher sense of satisfaction when you complete their puzzles. And then there are the more challenging ones that tend to require a lot more lateral thinking to do.
I’m with DaveH@20 when he says that three of the more ‘straightforward’ puzzles in a row is certainly going to provoke discussion as we can see here and hopefully Hugh does visit and note .

As for local British knowledge – keep it coming I say from down here – that and what I have noticed is the use of a lot of slang or informal words is just another dimension to me and another source if learning – probably now know more about UK politicians and TV personalities than Aussie ones these days!

I find that the learning that can be derived and the itch to learn more from what some compilers (esp Araucaria) include in their work, is one of the reasons I for one keep coming back for more.