Guardian 28,343 / Crucible

86 comments on “Guardian 28,343 / Crucible”

1. Thanks, Eileen, I needed your explanation for 8a!
   Glad to hear you’ve had your first dose of the vaccine. Things can only get better!

2. Congratulations on the COVID vaccination! One more person safe in this world – phew.

   Found this rather tough going with quite a lot of Googling and revealing (only one letter though so that doesn’t exactly count).

   However, today is the first day since I’ve been doing these thing (gosh, that’s 11 months!) that I’ve… SPOTTED THE THEME BEFORE I FINISHED!!! (Or even at-all).

   Given the theme, there is only one place we can go… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVJOof96nVE

   Thanks to Crucible and Eileen!

3. Have started to do Guardian crosswords again after a long break of many years. This is the first one I have managed to finish with very little help so very pleased indeed! FOI was 7d and I liked that clue. Loved the theme – thank you Crucible.

4. A fairly easy puzzle on the whole. One or two quibbles, though.

   I’m not too happy with the definitons of ENROBES or OOMPH or with the ‘push’ part of PUBLISH.

   FORAGE CAP and NECTARY were new to me, but easily obtained from the crossers and wordplay.

   Ticks for INN SIGN and RACONTEUR, though can we expect people to know (and spell) coeur?

   Thanks to Crucible and to Eileen.

   (Pleased to hear about your vaccination. In some ways the UK is doing better than Finland).

5. Yes, congratulations Eileen, on the vaccination. A tricky but enjoyable crossword.

   In 11A, I had IN + a reversal of GIS in (visiting) N N, otherwise the visiting is in the wrong place. An amusing surface, indeed.

6. I really enjoyed this, thank you crucible, as I usually find you very hard! Maybe I am slowly improving, And like crosser I also needed the parsing for 8a, thanks, and also glad you have been vaccinated.

   I just want to add, for everyone, that my American scientist friend tells me the vaccine works by adapting our own immune system which takes several weeks so it is actually better to have a longer gap between doses to allow the second dose to do a proper boost. Lots of vaccines need a booster, including tetanus. So a gap of three months would still be beneficial.

7. Thanks Crucible and Eileen.
   At this time when you have to get small pleasures where you can, one of mine is to complete the crossword before the blog is posted. I’m going to pretend Eileen wasn’t delayed today!!

8. I too sat up after midnight to complete this and glad I did, as this was very enjoyable. The long perimeter clues were relatively easy and very rewarding. I was amused by NEFERTITI but I thought ‘once’ was unnecessary and ruined the surface of a clever clue. Also good to see Ulster appear again 🙂 along with the DUP in END UP. My favourites were OOMPH, ASSEGAI and the three French interlinked clues CHAGRIN (love that word), RANCOUR and PRANCES. New were PELAGIC and ALMA ATA, which were clued fairly. Thanks for parsing ENROBES Eileen and glad to hear of your shot in the arm and to Crucible who is also one of my favourite setters. Another super week of puzzles and comments. Nice weekend all.

9. Thanks Crucible and Eileen!

   This puzzle seemed daunting at first, with a lot of rather long clues, but it yielded steadily. I failed to parse DISUSED because I read ‘stopped’ as the envelope indicator. Duh!

   ALMA ATA is ‘former capital’ not because of the spelling change but because the Kazakh capital is now the city of Astana.

10. I’ve somehow made it this far in life mistakenly believing the cockney hat was a TIFTER which makes no sense at all given the rhyming slang origins!
    Ticks for RACONTEUR, NECTARY and LEXICOGRAPHY (for HMHB reasons)
    Cheers & congratulations on the vaccination – if you have been implanted with a Microsoft device you can be pretty sure it will shortly crash 🙂

11. Lovely crossword with several unknowns for me, NECTARY, FORAGE CAP & ALMA ATA, but all solved from wordplay.

    When I see ASSONANCE, I can’t resist putting in a link to the following poem by Tolkien

    My first go with the new link facility, so may have messed it up.

12. Larry @5 – thanks: you’re right, of course. I’ll amend the blog.

    Thanks for the clip, MaidenBartok @2. 😉

13. Oops RACONTEUR of course. Anna @4, I too wondered about PUBLISH, but using merchandise as a verb works fine I think.

14. Good news about the vaccine. I could only do this with the help of a word finder. Liked INN SIGN and the May and Johnson misdirection. I could see the TITFER in NEFERTITI, but back to front looked like REFTIT, so thanks for the explanation.

15. bodycheetah @10 – thanks, you’ve reminded me that I meant to give the rhyming slang derivation: titfer – tit for tat – hat.

16. Thanks Crucible and Eileen (congrats)
    Nice crossword. I got 7d from the other thematics rather than the clue, so the theme helped for once! Same favourites as Anna.
    I wondered about PUSH for “merchandise” too.
    I’ve made this type of point (unsuccessfully) before – I don’t like “school” as the definition for GRAMMAR; a Grammar School, is a school, but “grammar” by itself isn’t, despite its frequent misuse as such!

17. Forgot to say that I’d never heard of ALMA ATA, but the crossers and the precise clue made it easily gettable.

18. Anna, Richard Coeur de Lion? And yes, wondered whether coats verb could really mean enrobes verb. Didn’t know a nectary was a thing, and thought 6d might’ve been better without ‘his’. Some fun random associations though..oomph as sexy allure reminds me of Mastroianni seeing Ekberg in LDV and saying “Ma che bistecca!”, and titfer reminds me of dear old Rumpole. And otherwise, nothing too scorching from the Crucible, thanks to him and to Eileen (and well done, our lot are still arguing over which vax to use, hey ho).

19. Anna@4: In the manufacture of confectionary, the process of covering items in chocolate is termed ‘enrobing’. This is the only usage I have come across of what would otherwise be an archaism.

20. …oh yes and ditto muffin, dnk either the current or previous versions of Kazakhstan’s capital…

21. …and well done Gervase…so enrobes can technically, if obscurely, mean coats, who else knew…

22. Many thanks, Crucible, for this enjoyable workout and to Eileen for ever-helpful blog – delighted to know you’ve had the vaccine 🙂

23. [SinCam @6: Tim Harford discussed exactly this on “How to Vaccinate the World” (R4, 11.30, Monday) this week with a panel of experts. Frankly, I find this programme far more engaging and informative than any of our so-called “leaders.” Short answer – same response.

    Bodycheetah @10: My parents are not particularly IT literate and I was talking them through a particular installation which instructed them to “Press Any Key.” Yes, you guessed it – they called me asking where the “Any” key was.

    No matter – keep it calm and carry on. Couple of months later, their PC did what Windoze does – froze. Text exchange “Press CTRL ALT DEL.” 45 mintues later… “We can’t find that button anywhere.”]

24. Found this difficult. Was not on setter’s wavelength, so it took me way too long to solve this puzzle.
    Needed to google Johnson and discovered Samuel.

    Favourites: ENCYCLOPEDIA, SPAWN, RACONTEUR
    New: ALAM-ATA (thanks, google), NIMBY, ASSEGAI, FORAGE CAP
    Did not parse NEFERTITI – I never would have imagined that a word such as titfer exists!

    Thanks, Crucible and Eileen

25. Grantinfreo @ 18
    I never thought of Richard. But, yes. Do children learn about him in school today or is it (yet another) taboo subject?

    Gervase @ 19
    Thanks for that. I had no idea.
    Clearly I must undertake some thorough investigation into chocolates!

26. Found it hard but got there in the end with a fair bit of use of the dictionaries and check button.

    Got Dictionaries from the crosses and then got the parsing. So went back to 7d and realised I’d been thinking of the wrong Johnson. To my shame the only reason I know about Samual Johnson is because of the episode of Blackadder where Baldrick burns the only original newly completed dictionary.

    Thanks to Crucible and Eileen

27. Now I see how ENROBES works I’m not at all surprised I couldn’t parse it. Doesn’t posh food (and posh chocolates) often get described as being “enrobed” in its fancy sauce or choccy coating?

    Very enjoyable crossword and for once I was on Crucible’s wavelength and didn’t find anything too chewy. Liked the swinger.

    Glad to hear you’ve had your vaccination, Eileen. I only got two days notice for mine (had it yesterday). I think the supply is a bit patchy, so when a batch arrives they summon everyone quickly.

28. Thanks to Crucible for an entertaining puzzle. Eileen’s blogs are always a shot in the arm.

    I liked the ‘swinger outside bar’ for INN SIGN, the heart of Paris in RACONTEUR and the titfer in NEFERTITI.

    Like Anna @4, FORAGE CAP and NECTARY were new to me and like bodycheetah @10 I enjoyed the vagaries of LEXICOGRAPHY.

29. I walked past this little fella last week, in Gough Square where Dr Johnson had a house, just behind Ye Old Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hodge_(cat)

30. After I’d sussed the four long clues round the perimeter I guessed many of these from the definitions in the clues, then did the parsing afterwards. I’m afraid I’m not a great fan of Crucible’s rather clumsily worded cluing.

31. Anna@25, no way school history goes back that far…our kids (now 45-55 yos) started at about the French Rev (I remember correcting their essays, eg the spelling of pesant…Mrs ginf and I were appalled, but they got firsts eventually).

32. grantinfreo

    Oh dear!
    (Is the ‘freo’ bit a place?)

33. Brilliant crossword. Thanks Crucible. I even saw the theme.

    LOI was ENROBES but as soon as I saw it I reckoned it for opne of my favourites. Butn there were so many joys: the backward TITFER in NEFERTITI, PRANCES and the spartan SPAWN. Much joy.

    And thanks to Eileen for explaining ASSEGAI. I was seeking ‘issa’ as an African chieftain name.

34. Deliciously precise stuff as usual from Crucible. The four gettable themed clues round the boundary were a nice offset for some of the trickier references. ENROBES was a particularly nice bit of intricacy.

35. Like Ronald @30 I solved a lot of this from the definitions, or a couple of times from the crossers without even looking at the clues! Didn’t bother to parse quite a few, but for ENROBES I required Eileen’s help, so very glad that she has survived the needle!

    I’m afraid I have to disagree with muffin @16: “I’ve made this type of point (unsuccessfully) before – I don’t like “school” as the definition for GRAMMAR.” I can see this as an allusion, or it would work in a conversation like this: “What type of school did you go to?” “I went to a grammar.”

    Enjoyed some of the definitions here; ‘swinger outside bar” being a particular favourite. And a couple of beautiful words: PELAGIC and CHAGRIN. It would be quite a feat to work them into a conversation, though.

36. Good roasting on the Crucible.

    Once I got a couple of the long ‘uns, it made the other two a lot easier. I ticked DISUSED, NEFERTITI and PRANCES.

    [Congrats Eileen for the vaccination – I assume everyone knows that even a month post-vaccination or more, it is still possible to catch COVID (hopefully then just a mild disease) and pass it on to others. Thus, until all the ‘oldies’ get done, there is still a risk to individuals and the NHS.]

    Thanks Crucible and Eileen, especially for the parsing of ENROBES, which I failed to see.

37. [Anna: in case Grant doesn’t return, Freo is the “vernacular diminutive” of Fremantle in Western Australia.]

38. [Thanks, hatter in Sheffield].

39. SH@35
    But “school” is implied, as it was in the question. “Where did you study?” “Grammar” wouldn’t work.

40. I immediately thought of McColtrane when doing this but was also reminded of Costello’s “This is hell”
    where the middle has the lines
    My Favourite Things are playing again and again
    But its by Julie Andrews
    and not by John Coltrane

    Nice one Aardvark,sorry Crucible

    and thanks Eileen for another excellent blog

41. Hasn’t been too tricky a week, though (so?) I’ve enjoyed it, and again the theme helped a bit – indeed I was on the lookout for it as soon as I saw the Johnson. Oh if only Crucible could have squeezed in HARMLESS and DRUDGE, his definition of a lexicographer.

    [Congrats Eileen. I’m guessing that the rational community of 15sq will not harbour many vaccine refuseniks. A big birthday this Easter will hopefully tip me over the priority line, a little-known positive side effect of the ageing process.]

42. Finished this early but a busy morning at work so late to post and much has already been said. This is the second Crucible in a row that I’ve really enjoyed and everything fell nicely into place.

    MaidenBartok @2: I wondered if your ‘must see’, given the context, might have been this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIarMy-Q58o

    Hovis @11: and I wondered if your relevant Tolkien poem might have been this one: https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Errantry

    And nice to see my second ASSEGAI of the year.

    Thanks Crucible and newly-Vaxed Eileen

43. Trailman @41- see here: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/10/09/guardian-cryptic-28260-by-crucible/

44. PostMark @11. Thanks for the link. Great poem and much longer than the cat poem I was referencing. The link I put @11 worked for me but maybe there is an issue with it. Googling “cat by Tolkien” shows an excellent example of assonance. I particularly like the description for the lion.

45. Whoops! PostMark @42 obviously.

46. Thanks Eileen for the link @43 – I thought I had a sense of déjà vu!

    [I’m sure I learnt about Richard I at school, but the thing which sticks in my mind is the 1066 and All That version:

    RICHARD I was a hairy King with a Lion’s Heart; he went roaring about the Desert making ferocious attacks on the Saladins and the Paladins, and was thus a very romantic King. Whenever he returned to England he always set out again immediately for the Mediterranean and was therefore known as Richard Gare de Lyon. ]

47. Thanks Eileen @43, I see I missed the theme that time! Maybe I recalled that puzzle from deep in my memory, it’s not so far in the past by crossword standards.

48. [Thanks essexboy @46. Had a good chuckle at Gare de Lyon.]

49. [Ta Copmus @40 that’s a great song and very underrated album]

50. Like many others I enjoyed this a lot. With 23a and the expected MM it contained I was racking my brains for a Muslim teaching school, which I now remember as a Madrassa. Favourites were NEFERTITI for the split titfer, ALPHABETICAL which I thought was clever, and ENROBES. Many thanks to Crucible and congrats to the newly-vaxed Eileen. I hope to follow your example soon, but haven’t quite reached 70 yet . . .

51. [PostMark @6×9: Fabulous! Haven’t seen that for a VERY long time… You’ve cheered up what is otherwise a rather bleak and afternoon.]

52. Great puzzle, not too difficult given the perimeter.
    Some may not have twigged that PELAGIC has the same root as archipelago.
    I noticed that Crucible was in a repetitive mood. A couple of references to France, a dope and an ass, NY and LA. Neither helped nor hurt, though.

53. This was great fun. I got everything last night except ENROBED, where I was hung up on “Eurobus” (Is that a thing? Apparently FORAGE CAP is, though that’s news to me.) Thanks, Eileen, for unraveling my fuddled brain.

    Eileen, your Hamlet theme phrase also comes from My Fair Lady, where Eliza says, “Words, words, words! I’m so sick of words!”

    Anna @25 Your research should be very enjoyable!

    Eileen — I followed your lead to the Oct 9 cryptic and thought “Why don’t I remember such a wonderful theme?” Well, Oct 9 is in a run of puzzled from a time when I had to stop doing them for a bit, and I’ve been saving them for Sundays and other times when I just need another puzzle, so that one’s waiting for me.

54. [My memories go back to several years ago when in our home we had all the books mentioned in the lovely crossword. I followed Eileen’s link at 43 and , sure enough, we had larousse and Brewer as well. Not to forget the English Duden. “Infinite riches in a little room”?jI miss atlas in the puzzle. But I can understand, you can’t have everything!
    Some of them are in my possession now (like the coatstand that I mentioned yesterday.
    BTW, my father was not an academic; he was an officer in RIAF/IAF.
    Please excuse me if this is considered an interruption in this nice blog by Eileen.]

55. [MaidenBartok @2 & PostMark @42…just got around to viewing both your links. Priceless comedy] Thanks

56. [I wished to post a Comment but the site is rejecting it thinking I am posting a duplicate Comment – when none has been published. I may have made some mistake that the site doesn’t like. But if it thinks my Comment is a duplicate, surely, it must also give me the option to overrule it.]

57. bodycheetah @10 I’m another who thought it was ‘Tifter’. Thanks Eileen @15 for a reminder of the rhyming slang. No excuse for getting it wrong in future!

    I wonder what sort of titfer Nefertiti favoured when she wasn’t wearing her crown?

58. Valentine @53 – sorry for the spoiler. 😉

    I was reminded of Eliza’s song, too.

    Dr WhatsOn @52 – yes, indeed. My son still teases his Danish wife for her pronunciation (Archie Pelahgo), of archipelago, the first time she saw it. (I always pronounce it that way in my head now.)

59. Eileen — don’t worry about the spoiler, I’d probably have worked it out anyway and now I have an incentive to get back to my “on the shelf” list.

60. This was enjoyable, even if NECTARY has a slight feel of “I’ve nearly finished this grid – for goodness’ sake can I find a word to fit in here”.
    Some delightfully constructed clues, especial favourites being DISUSED, INN SIGN, PELAGIC, INSULAR. Yes, I suppose the “once” in 14ac is redundant but perhaps not everyone’s school shared the curious sense of priorities exhibited by mine – we spent half a year learning lots about the Ancient Egyptians, but in terms of modern British history never got past the Great Reform Act. Which, of course, we dutifully learned, bequeathed the country a simply wonderful democratic system…
    And the repetition of “dope” in 26ac is perhaps a blemish.
    Thanks to Crucible and to Eileen (whom God preserve, and if God won’t, the vaccine now will).
    And almost as enjoyable is some of the discussion (to which I come late in the day, having found the blog wasn’t available when I had completed the crossword and gone off to do something else).
    I don’t have a problem with “grammar”, but then I’m of an age where a lot of my contemporaries went to “a secondary modern”, and the school I attended was commonly referred to as “King Edward’s” with the “School” implied.
    Anna @4 – “Oomph” as a synonym for “It” has been around for quite a long time. Years ago I encountered a case from the 1940s where some footwear manufacturer had been attempting to register the trademark “Oomphies”. The judges in the Court of Appeal were quite remarkably prissy about it; as I recall, they were almost as unhappy about the violence being done to the English language, but the actual reason for refusing registration was that by implication the word was indecent!
    Gervase @19 – thank you for reassuring me that when, some time ago, I read the insert to a box of chocs which informed me that a hazelnut had been enrobed in chocolate, it was the writer being technically precise rather than the writer being insufferably pretentious. Or possibly technically precise as well as insufferably pretentious.
    Essexboy @46 – A much funnier, and much kinder, assessment of Richard I than the one I saw recently – “A bad husband, a bad general and a bad king. (His wife, the long-suffering and by many accounts rather admirable Berengaria of Navarre, is remembered as “the only Queen of England never to set foot in England”).

61. Rishi @56
    For some unknown reason, your initial comment was intercepted by Akismet, the spam filter. Subsequent attempts to post it will have generated the ‘duplicate comment’ response and these also ended up in the spam folder. I have retrieved and approved your initial comment and it appears at #54 above.

62. There are often remarks about not being on the setter’s wavelength and for once the reverse applied to me so happy Friday!
    Pretty clean finish though I did guess and then google “ALMA-ATA”
    I only paused on ENROBES because it seemed awkward for the clue to contain the word “sea” which was part of the answer.
    As with some others my first introduction to Johnson came from Blackadder 😉

63. [Eileen @58
    My daughter, son-in-law, and I did an online pub quiz last Wednesday. One question the quizmaster asked was “What is an archiepelahgo a group of?” – and he was from Burnley!]

64. Lovely crossword. Clever, witty, challenging – a great combination.

65. Great crossword — it had the perfect degree of challenge for me — not a write-in and certainly not a humourless slog. Favourites included ALPHABETICAL, OOMPH, RACONTEUR, YARDAGE, SEABIRD, and the simple SPELL. Thanks to both. [If there ever was a valid reason for a late blog, getting a COVID vaccine would be it. Stay well Eileen.]

66. As a US solver, I’ve trained myself to remember to use British spellings, so I confidently started to write in ENCYCLOPAEDIA for 26a without checking that the anagram and enumeration were wrong. I wish all my mistakes were so easily mended.

    I didn’t know TITFER or FORAGE CAP, but the clues were quite gettable anyway.

67. On the +…a completed grid
    On the -…too many unparsed bung-ins
    The obvious theme actually helped me get 26a, a first.

    Thanks Eileen for too many explanations.

68. Thank you Eileen as I guessed FORAGE to fit the crossers and googled to check it was a thing, but couldn’t see the why. ALMA ATA was a 50/50 lucky guess & check vs ATMA ALA and SEABIRD had me flummoxed for a long time as I always forget to move up from species to more general terms, and had fixated on MI for the main road. I liked lots of these and would have struggled a lot more had the long perimeter entries not been so friendly. Hard to pick a clear favourite but I’ll plump for ASSONANCE, thank you Crucible, and thanks for the many cultural contributions from various of you above.

69. [The last four words of Clue 7d reminded me of Masters and Johnson’s work, which examined the subject of human sexuality in great detail.]

70. I can only hope that all setters and bloggers get vaccinated as a priority – that being said it’s nice to have one down.
    Another Goldilocks so a pleasant end to, for me, a somewhat mixed week. I particularly liked ACRONYM not least because it helped unlock the NW corner.
    I’ve never understood why they are called GRAMMAR schools – a relic of former times perhaps?
    MaidenBartok@2: I can’t see how to reveal “only one letter though so that doesn’t exactly count”. My bad?
    PostMark@42: Spookily, in my YouTuberly meanderings last night I lighted on precisely that Two Ronnies sketch which I had never seen before.
    Eileen thanks for parsing ENROBES and (slaps forehead) FORAGE CAP – both of which were “woods for trees” fails.
    Is is just me or is there a plethora of alphabets turning up these days?
    Thanks Crucible – I like your cluing.

71. Loved this.Great crossword and blog.Had to Google forage cap as LOI though by that stage it seemed the only possibility.My only tiny quibble is that the Guardian is a UK publication and so 21ac is a little anglocentric sitting as I am in a chilly South Wales.France is by no definition our neighbour.
    Delighted you got the vaccine Eileen.Let us hope this is the beginning of easier times for all of us.

72. Alphalpha @70: re GRAMMAR schools, one of my pet hates when reading the CV’s of (executive level!) job applicants was the appearance, under educational history, of the Molesworthian “Grammer school”. I was often tempted to query whether they would have been better served by going to a Spelling school!

73. [Alphaalpha @70: The Guardian Puzzles app allows you to reveal one letter rather than the whole word.

    PostMark @ 72: Someone from round these parts of Sussex where we don’t have such schools asked me what type of school I went to. Without a hint of hesitation he said “how lovely both you and your Grandma went to the same school…”]

74. Dick Johns @71. A neighbour doesn’t have to live next door! In the context of nations, I reckon France is one of your neighbours. In the next street rather than next door, but still neighbours.

75. Thanks, all, for your indulgence re the late blog.

    I’ve enjoyed reading all your comments (many thanks for the tips and caveats) but I’m rather embarrassed by the ‘congratulations’: I did nothing – just went for it at the first opportunity and I’d urge you all to do the same when you can. Stay safe.

76. Eileen@75
    Lucky old (but not quite as old as me) you! I’m waiting with sleeve rolled up.
    Thanks for the blog and thanks to Crucible for an enjoyable puzzle.

77. Hi Pino @76

    ‘(but not quite as old as me)’ – I might dispute that. 😉

78. Crucible: Superb! Many thanks. And Eileen: Many thanks to you, too – and good health as a (permissible neologism? Might be useful:) vaccinee.

    muffin@16/sheffield hatter@35: My instinct, too, was to jib at “Grammar” for “school”. “I went to a grammar” doesn’t – pace sheffield hatter – sound a natural usage. Then in my mind’s ear I heard: “So where did you go to school?” “Thetford Grammar” – and it seemed allowable, as an abbreviation (often heard in the old days) specifically for the name of a particular school.

    Happy 2021, everyone.

79. Finished this on the same day – once we start on Crucible, we seem to be able to keep going. Liked the clues round the edge & new word pelagic. Now I need to find a way to use it….Thanks Crucible and Eileen. Pleased to hear you’ve had your first vaccination. It’s reassuring to hear that vaccine are happening all over the country.

80. Thanks to Eileen and Crucible, and congratulations Eileen on Geithner your first “shot.”. Did anyone else remember seeing photographs of the “last king”, GR, wearing a FORAGE CAP with his RAF uniform rather than s peaked cap ?

81. Late contribution. Thanks Eileen and great to hear you have had your first dose. Did not know titfer, so parsing of NEFERTITI was a mystery; thanks for also giving the rhyming slang
    Enjoyed this a lot, including spotting the theme. Had similar reservations as others re push for merchandise but a minor quibble. Fav was INN SIGN. Thanks to Crucible.

82. Eileen@77
    Arachne set a puzzle celebrating your 80th a few months after mine and you blogged it. That’s why I was so sure!

83. My apologies, Pino @ 82. 😉

84. [Good news. That’s one of my covid concerns covered; I will be able to enjoy your blogs for years (and years) to come. One of life’s little pleasures of which no selfish viral lowlife can deprive us…. ?]

85. [The ? was meant to be a 🙂 emoji]

86. Thank you, William. 😉

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