General Discussion

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This page is for the discussion of general crossword related matters and other topics of interest.

Comments posted before 28/2/2022 can be found here.

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225 comments on “General Discussion”

  1. Has anyone else experienced another change on the Indy app today? I was part way through the puzzle – on a laptop, not a phone/tablet, had to stop for a work commitment and, on returning to it and refreshing, I now see a portion of the grid and a single clue in a thick blue band running across the bottom. I can’t see rest of grid or any other clues. I’ve changed nothing in settings.

    I’ve looked under Help, Settings etc and see nothing connected to these settings. I’ve sent a message to Arkadium but was wondering if others have had a problem. I know many phone users have pretty much given up on the Indy but fairly few problems for me, up to now.

  2. Update: Arkadium have responded. There is a check box I missed under settings – fairly obvious now i see it – for “Display clues as a list” – which returns to the normal settings. Though I don’t know why the various switches there seem to toggle on their own. I certainly didn’t toggle it. The ‘skipping existing letters’ function regularly toggles and I only discover it when I find I’m entering gobbledegook. (Mind, you, I can do that perfectly well on my own!) I’ll copy this onto the Indy blog.

  4. I started solving this in Chrome on my laptop just after midnight, and it was fine. Then having got a few clues I came back to it this afternoon and had the same problems as you, so something seems to have changed in the intervening time. I don’t think I’d accidentally hit any of the switches myself.

    I used to work in IT myself (nothing web based) so I have some sympathy with Arkadium in that they’re having to design a system without being able find out what the users actually want. However much of this is down to their idea of “improvements” isn’t ours!

  5. We were delighted to see all of the clue on screen, we’d been moaning for months about having to scroll sideways to read the clue!

  7. In portrait orientation on my android mobile, using Firefox, long clues on the Guardian website are only partially displayed when you put the cursor on the corresponding position in the grid. If you turn to landscape mode, you can see the whole clue, but not the full grid.

    Then, of course, there’s the invasive Purple Blob …

  8. For Pdp from Qaos blog. – my main problem with Terry Pratchett is a certain type of student, always male, obsessed with TP and determined to annoy me with questions about pseudo-science.
    A few suggestions you asked for. Classic science fiction – HG Wells, Olaf Stapledon , Ursula Le Guin .
    Dystopian sci-fi – John Wyndham, Philip K Dick, JG Ballard.
    Fantsasy – don’t bother, try Magic -Realism , Franz Kafka, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Haruki Murakami.

  9. Roz@8 – re TP – lol; I could see how that would create a lifelong hatred of the man.

    Thanks for the recommendations. Recently, I mentioned Murakami and Garcia Marquez, who are both brilliant storytellers and writers. I think I’ve read every novel by Murakami up to Killing Commendatore. He is definitely my favourite living author (with Kazuo Ishiguro). One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my favourite novels. Kafka’s Trial and The Metamorphosis are good too but “enjoy” is probably not the best word that describes my reading experience.

    I recently read The Three Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin and its scope reminded me of Olaf Stapledon’s Last and First Men and Star Maker. I don’t know why I didn’t read any more Stapledon after those two but will see what else is available.

    The others are known but I’ve not read any of them. They’ll all go on the list. Thanks again for taking the time to share them.

  10. FAO Roz: I know you glance at this page (and, indeed, there you are just above me) and I know there is no way this can come across as anything other than shameless self promotion. Which it’s not. But I put out a puzzle on MyCrossword this morning that contains a clue addressing an issue you and I have discussed in the past and on which you have views. I’d be interested to hear your reaction. You’ll know the one, should you care to give it a try – and provided your long-suffering and estimable IT staff are willing to press Print on your behalf. Here’s the link to make it easy: https://mycrossword.co.uk/cryptic/362

    I know you won’t need Annotations to solve it (perish the very thought) but, if you want to see my thinking, you might suggest to same IT staff that they print out the Annotations on a separate sheet.

    Happy to hear your thoughts here, though I know you’ll need to censor any entry. Alternatively, I’d be more than happy to swap email addresses via Gaufrid if you wanted to subject me to your unredacted feedback 😉

  11. pdp11@9 – Brian Aldiss and Alfred Bester are a couple more 50s/60s sf names worth seeking out (Aldiss kept on going and wrote non-sf too) and for quality writers straddling the various speculative fiction genres you could also take a look at Gene Wolfe, M John Harrison, and China Mieville. Really what Roz@8 calls “magic realism” is just fantasy written by established ‘literary’ authors and shelved in a different part of the bookshop (that said I hope you have read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke). If you want something closer to trad ‘heroic’ fantasy but a cut above the Hobbit rip-offs then Jack Vance had plenty of style and Michael Moorcock was very prolific and full of ideas using often quite sparse prose (many trilogies are set in his linked “multiverse” and used to be easy to find cheap in charity shops with very funky 70s covers). Happy hunting!

  12. pdp11: I’d second Gazzh’s recommendations of Vance and Moorcock (though the latter is a little dated now). Have you encountered Iain M Banks? His Culture series is written on a suitably vast galactic scale and includes some super reads. A slightly left field option is Jack Campbell whose Lost Fleet series contains some of the cleverest descriptions of space battles, at a technical level, that I’ve encountered; not the most sophisticated of storytellers and a bit repetitive at times (I think he intended stories as able to stand alone so he repeats some things that a reader of the series might find irksome). His work just struck me as the first I’d encountered to actually make a Thing out of battle strategy and tactics. Finally, I thought the first of the Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson – Red Mars – was an excellent description of the colonisation of a new planet though the sequels didn’t reach the same level imho. You have a long reading list ahed of you…

  13. MrPostMark@10 I am all in favour of self-promotion, anyone who makes the effort to set a puzzle should let everyone know on here , many people may want to try it.
    It will have to be Monday now , will have my Paddington stare ready when I get it printed. Perhaps I should just give feedback on here after a week with a spoiler warning. Unfortunately my IT skills are too advanced for the current email system.

  14. Gazzh @11- Magic – Realism uses normal situations and people and introduces an odd , maybe surreal possibly even true element. Metamorphosis is probably the classic example , apart from Gregor becoming an insect everything else is painfully normal. Fantasy involves elves , goblins, dragons, talking trees and other adolescent male obsessions. The difference has been described as one is writing and the other is typing.

  15. Roz @14 – they weren’t the things I was obsessed with as an adolescent male…

    I have no problem with fantasy as a genre in principle. The problem is there’s just so much of it, it’s hard to separate the half-decent stuff from the sea of dross.

    The writing/typing line was famously (first?) used by Truman Capote about Jack Kerouac. On which point, I agree with Capote.

    Gazzh @11 – I’m a massive fan of Brian Aldiss – a rare breed of SF writer who not only had good ideas but could wrangle readable prose too.

  17. Indeed, Roz, you’re a true lady. Apologies for lowering the tone.

    By the way, I’m surprised you haven’t had the obligatory standard outraged response from a Tolkien fanboy yet: “THEY’RE NOT TREES!!!”

  18. Slightly off topic but comments about typing vs writing and then prose reminded me of this.

    The famous Irish playwright and wit, Brendan Behan was invited many years ago to Oxford University, to participate in a debate on this topic. His opponent spoke eloquently for almost two hours on the important distinctions and the quality of prose. Behan then rose to his feet and promised to be brief . He recited an old Dublin rhyme . ” THERE WAS A YOUNG FELLA NAMED ROLLOCKS WHO WORKED FOR FERRIER POLLOCKS AS HE WALKED ON THE STRAND WITH A GIRL, BY THE HAND THE WATER CAME UP TO HIS …. ANKLES” “That” declared Behan “is prose. But if the tide had been in , it would have been poetry”.

    I’ll get my coat…

  19. Great story Blah@18 I wonder if it is true, hope to see you in the blogs more.
    Widdersbel@17 , Tolkien mania seems to have died out a bit, some years ago it was unbearable, I think there were films out at the time.

  20. Hello all,

    We’re going back through some old Rufus crosswords and have been defeated by the following (from 22 November 1999):

    It’s to be found in the estate agent’s brochure (7) The answer is “situate”.

    Grateful for enlightenment.

  21. Blady @20
    I’m sure this is simply a cryptic definition, a type of clue of which Rufus was very fond. If a house for sale is ‘situate’ on, say, the south side of Rochester, it means it is ‘to be found’ in that place. So the answer and my quoted phrase from the clue are equivalent. And who would use a pseudo-posh word like ‘situate’ but an an estate agent (or a solicitor, perhaps)?

  22. Blady@ 20 I am sure Alan B is quire correct, situate is also a legal term meaning situated.
    Basically just a dreadful clue, one of the reasons I could not stand Rufus crosswords even when I was learning.
    If you have access to old crosswords try Custos and Janus , also old Everyman ( set by Custos ) .

  23. Roz@22 I wasn’t a big fan of Rufus’s crosswords either, but I must disagree about that clue for situate. It’s very simple, very deceptive and grammatically sound. It being a cryptic definition doesn’t make it dreadful, even if you don’t like those clues.

  24. I agree with James. Like many cryptic clues, it plays with the use/mention distinction: here, in relation to the phrase ‘to be found’. In the surface, it’s a straightforward use of the phrase, but cryptically, it’s a mention and might be disambiguated in non-cryptic use by putting it in inverted commas (as I did in my second sentence, above). The mere fact that you can’t solve it by a pseudo-mechanical process of building it up from cryptically clued elements doesn’t at all make it a bad clue.

  27. Uh, ok, you mean as a possible alternative answer, Roz@25? So you would need at least one check letter to be sure that’s not it?

  28. I don’t have a problem with the clue as such, but this adjectival meaning of SITUATE seems to me to be uncharacteristically obscure for a Rufus puzzle. It’s been a long time since I’ve leafed through estate agents’ bumf, but as far as I recall the property would be described as situated or located wherever it was. I prefer Roz’s suggestion at 25, even if it doesn’t fit the crossers!

  29. Thanks ever so all for the responses and the interesting debate. We wondered if we were missing something (which we were, which was the little dig at estate agents!).

  30. Roz@18, have been solving very late in the day recently so by the time I catch up on the blogs it seems redundant to post just to echo what’s already been said often several times. I’m still around though more in lurk mode these days.

  31. Blah@30 I know what you mean. I do the Guardian on my way home and I am often late or tired or both. The blog is usually pretty full and nothing new to say, I try to resist adding a comment when I think the puzzle is awful .
    Blady@ 29 thanks for the clue, still think it is awful, far too many possible answers and I defy anyone to say they would get this solving it cold. Crossing letters are no justification, every clue should be solvable entirely by itself and if you solve it correctly you should be absolutely sure of your answer.

  32. Gazzh@11, PM@12 – a belated thanks for your recommendations. I like the idea of going back to authors from the 50s/60s. I’ve added all the suggestions to my now large list, including Piranesi.

    I’ve read some of Iain M Banks’ non-SF work but have never tried his SF books. I read the first of the Mars series and, for some reason now forgotten, didn’t continue, which, from what PM said, was a good choice!

    Thanks again 🙂

  33. MrPostMark @ 10 , managed to get it printed plus the annotations , quite brilliant especially after finding out more later. I will give some feedback next week with a spoiler alert , people will have had plenty of time by then.
    I do see what you mean about the awkward answer , very hard to clue – Ex presenter Sybil lit the screens. (7)
    Still not quite there.
    I think I should plug this puzzle on the Guardian blog unless you object.

  34. Crikey, Roz. That, from you, I consider praise indeed. I might have to print out a screen shot and frame it 😀 . I didn’t think to come here today; you’d suggested a comment next week which is fine. Puzzles on MyCrossword only tend to be current for a short while and mine will be well down the page by then so little danger of spoilers doing any harm. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I LOVE your alternative; believe it or not, I’d come up with Sybil and will briefly explain my choice when we touch base in a week. ( Without diverting this page away too much from its proper focus and towards a private exchange. After all, it’s that particular clue and alternative treatments that had come up in our previous discussion and prompted me notifying you, rather than seeking feedback on the wider puzzle. Still glad to know you liked it, though 😉 )

  35. Re hard to clue PostMark and Roz, how about “Steve McQueen part with an eye for you on the radio is Percy’s successor”

  36. Petert @35: definitely smoother than mine…. 😉 Like I said, I’ll (briefly) explain my reasoning when Roz comments next week. Though it is an ABSOLUTELY fair point to make that no setter should ever have to explain his/her thinking. Bad setting! But it was an exercise for me that led to some interesting thinking.

  37. I’m a few days late for this, but in response to cruciverbophile @28 “property would be described as situated or located” – in my experience it’s nearly always “nestled” these days – and this goes for holiday cottages, and even hotels and pubs, too.

  38. SH@37, I always wonder exactly how said properties are enjoying the wide variety of amenities on the doorstep, and to whom they are boasting about them? Also how does so much fit on a doorstep? These are from actual examples from a local estate agent.

  39. Blah @38. I think those “doorsteps” are usually such as to require a car journey of half an hour or more.

  40. PM – really enjoyed your puzzle @10. Was it a debut? If so, kudos (actually kudos anyway). And thanks to Roz too for alerting me to it on today’s Imogen blog.

    ‘Gerbil lit touchpaper!’ claims ex-presenter 🙂

  41. eb @40: Glad you enjoyed. No, not my debut. I’ve put out four before this but this was the third to be written. We are a creative community when it comes to coming up with clues. I’m going to briefly explain my rationale for that clue when exchanging with Roz in a week.

  42. I also enjoyed the puzzle PostMark@10. I failed with DEMESNE which is annoying as it was in a previous Guardian puzzle recently I think. I would never have got the theme, although I have heard of Percy Thrower. I’m still lost with the parsing of BILLITT (not sure how offers…over starter and mains works. Thanks, and thanks to Roz for the link.

  43. I must remember not to come back here until I’ve finished Postmark’s crossword, as I was going to report progress and found two spoilers (which of course are allowed here, so no complaints).
    About half way and enjoying it so far: can’t parse DEMESNE, like 17d, and I can see the beginnings of a theme which is probably why Roz thought I’d enjoy it, though I’m not sure I know all the right GK.

    Right, I won’t be back until I’ve finished.

  44. Really enjoyed PostMark’s crossword – took me at least as long as a typical Guardian effort – quite a bit of checking – took a while to tune in… Highly recommended!

  45. Lovely crossword Mr PostMark! Good mix of clue varieties, some easy write-ins, along with a few chewier ones. LOI for me was the US staged production…I was trawling my mind for an obscure French cheese for much too long. Well done! See you soon in the Guardian as a setter, not just a contributor in the blogs!

  46. Thanks, PostMark, that was interesting and I enjoyed most of it. I liked the idea behind WEEDED and the surface made me smile, but there are about three billion men in the world and several million different names for them, only one of which is ED – and that’s before you even start thinking about all the other things that “man” might mean.

    No, I didn’t have all the right GK for the theme, but apart from BILLITT (who I don’t remember and had to look up) all the names had other satisfactory explanations, so it shouldn’t have been a problem for those unfamiliar with the programme. (And I don’t understand the starter and mains business, either).

  47. Postmark, I dug your puzzle, too. I look forward to learning the rationale for the obscure clue . The first four letters of the clue don’t seem ideal. Double bluff?

  48. Question for those who use the Guardian Puzzles app on iPhone: have you got today’s Prize puzzle (28709)? It hasn’t appeared for me yet, though I can see it on the Guardian website.

  49. Follow-up, in case anyone’s interested: today’s puzzles appeared on schedule, and yesterday’s appeared at the same time. Presumably just a temporary glitch. Mildly annoying but never mind.

  50. SPOILER ALERT – references to crossword by MrPostMark@ 10

    Very impressive range of clues, I was vaguely aware of a gardening theme but missed the presenters idea until I read the annotations. Must have been tricky to get them all in. I only remember Thrower from Blue Peter, Geoff Hamilton my favourite by far , could not stand Titchmarsh or Buckland.
    Favourite clues, out of many, 18Ac is so neat,22Ac well hidden ( did you know a dynamo produces eddy currents ? ) , 25Ac and 17D are great subtraction anagrams, 4D the best of all ,20Ac very misleading.

    Billitt very hard to clue and obscure – I will await your thinking.
    A few minor adjustments, can ignore these , just personal views , the clues are fine.
    15Ac – AND not then puts each definition on an equal footing.
    10Ac – I think of DECLARED from bridge or Bezique but Chambers does give you support, maybe EXHIBITED instead.
    16Ac – TARGET of course ……

  52. First of two messages. This one to say thanks to all those who took the trouble to have a go at the puzzle and especially to those who commented (and/or suggested possible clues). Roz, I’m deeply indebted as I’m sure your recommendation carried considerable weight and I’m delighted you enjoyed it. You’ve ticked a couple of my personal favourites and I completely agree with your suggested improvements. (Particularly 15a where I thought of AND after the puzzle appeared in lights. Maybe a post publication edit was in order.)

    Thanks also to those who commented on MyCrossword.co.uk. I’m not the only one to have given MyC a plug on 225. There are some good setters on the site and it is well worth visiting. Contributors there have also been encouraging and helpful.

  53. A good clue should not need explanation so 24a was not a good clue. But I’m glad I gave it a try. It seems to me it could have worked but feedback suggests I was wrong. 24a came about as a result of three factors.

    I did not want to omit BILLITT from the list of presenters but both he and his surname are somewhat obscure. I didn’t feel cryptic solutions were fair, given that many solvers would have no idea what they were aiming for. A 7 letter word gives a long acrostic so I felt hidden was the best and fairest solution. But, again, if solvers don’t know what why’re looking for, would they spot it? If the solution was presented in full view as the first thing they read in the clue, maybe that would work.

    Roz was kind enough to critique my first puzzle wherein I had a hidden solution whose ending coincided with the ending of a word. One of her particular bête-noires. Totally fair to call me out – it wasn’t properly hidden – but it did get me thinking, is there a reason such a construction breaks any rules? It’s not elegant or well-hidden but it is an identifiable string of letters within fodder. Where the setter actually wants the solver to find it, could it be a viable device? Call it semi-hidden or concurrent maybe? And BILLITT did form the beginnings of a coherent phrase – ‘Bill it to me’ – which I have even used myself when ordering food or drinks (rarely, naturally!).

    Finally, I’ve always been intrigued by the solution coming at the beginning/end convention and know it is occasionally broken. It wasn’t that I was looking for an opportunity but one did seem to present itself. I don’t know how to represent this mathematically but [(string of letters) offers … over starter and mains] seemed both grammatically OK and logically sound. ‘Starter’ is the first letter and ‘mains’ the bulk of the string and, as it’s a 7 letter word, the mains are going to be the 6 letters that follow. (With the redundant 3 after that equalling ‘afters’ perhaps!). And the solution is what was being offered so sat in the middle.

    Finally, finally the overall surface was clearly intended in, say, a restaurant setting with Billitt himself offering to foot the bill. You can certainly have a discussion over several courses of a meal so the idea of something being said or offered ‘over starter and mains’ came together.

    I won’t do it again 😀

  54. PostMark – I have also tried your crossword, very enjoyable although I got very stuck in the obvious place. I thought MARSHES was a great clue as “points out” is a multiply misleading phrase but fairly used here. Also especially enjoyed the subtractive anagrams, the cryptic defs and the perfectly formed THROWER. I didn’t spot the specific theme, unsurprisingly, but did see there were plenty of gardening references, and like how GREEN and FINGERED are arranged in the grid. For the problematic BILLITT how about just “at the outset” rather than “over starter and mains” which while fitting the surface I too found very confusing in terms of instruction? Anyway i may decide to bill you for the time I spent looking up obscure purveyors of shotguns before the tea tray hit me. Also I would say that there were a few nice easy ways in and these were handily spread around the grid so there was always somewhere to go when I ground to a halt in a particular sector. I don’t know if this was deliberate but i think it makes for a very approachable puzzle. Bravo!

  55. Perhaps when discussing Postmark’s puzzle, it would be worth reminding of the link for those who don’t have a printout?

  56. MrPostMark@53 , BILLITT is difficult to clue and obscure but you did need it for completeness, your clue DID work and was very friendly as you intended. I do not say that answers not completely hidden are wrong but I do frown at them , completely hidden is more elegant. It is Mary Quant to Vivienne Westwood.

    I will happily recommend puzzles for anyone who makes the effort to set a crossword, with hindsight I should have done it for Blah and Widdersbell , I enjoyed both of their puzzles.

  57. PostMark @53 – “if solvers don’t know what why’re looking for, would they spot it?”

    In short, no!

    “Ex presenter” didn’t help much as a definition – presenter of what? Without knowing what the theme was, I couldn’t even look it up. And “starter and mains” as others have said is not a clear instruction. In fact, it wasn’t even clear to me that it was an instruction. It might have been the definition, given its position in the clue.

    You could have taken a slightly different approach than a straight “hidden”: since the container phrase has 10 letters and you need to remove the final three letters, how about:
    “Bill it to me, but knock off 30%” says 70s TV gardener

  58. Roz @56 – glad you enjoyed it.

    Shameless self-promotion corner:
    My latest effort was on Big Dave’s Rookie Corner last week, and is still there if anyone fancies it:
    link to solve online
    link to printable PDF

    One clue didn’t quite hit the mark – 7d – which relies on an Americanism that apparently isn’t as well known to UK solvers as I’d assumed!

  59. Hope this is not off-topic but I often need help with crosswords and have been using a Seiko ER6700 electronic crossword solver. I need a new one but they seem to be out of production. I did buy an ER6000 off eBay but it’s not as good with anagrams, as it only accepts complete words, and not a mixture of words and letters.
    I see there are other makes, such as Lexibook. Can anyone recommend a good model
    Thanks Peter

  60. Widdersbel@58 would you recommend your latest at Big Dave’s or one of your earlier efforts for me to try first? Maybe as a setter it’s hard for you to say but from the feedback you have already received perhaps there is one puzzle that appears most suitable to newcomers (i often struggle to get on the right wavelength the first time I ‘meet’ a new setter).

  61. Many thanks Widdersbel@ 58 , I will get this printed tomorrow, take my ear plugs and have my Paddington stare ready. Once I have had a go I will discuss 7D and I will mention the puzzle in the blogs. People on here are too modest.

  62. widdersbel@58 A nice puzzle. Congratulations! I got 7 down, but couldn’t parse it, but that could be me being dense.

  63. Petert – Thank you! I’m sure it’s not you being dense – I won’t post a spoiler here but for a very strong hint: click here

    Gazzh – that’s an interesting question and I honestly don’t have a clue how to answer it. Probably the one at Big Dave’s, or maybe this one: #329 at mycrossword.co.uk
    I think the BD one might be easier on the whole, but I may not be the best judge of that.

  64. Thanks Widdersbel, as you provided a handy link to the latest pdf I have printed that – and anyway I could never resist a provocative minx!

  65. Widdersbel @58 , all printed and all done, definitely worth the technobabble from the IT staff.
    A little easier than the other two I have seen but better I think. Crisp, elegant clues and not “trying too hard “.
    20 and 26Ac , 5 and 12 D get special mentions.
    7D has two US links, I am sure the answer is well known, the other may not be. Has been in Azed and I was surprised by the meaning when I looked it up.
    Alert people on here next time you produce a puzzle.

  66. Thanks, Roz – “crisp, elegant clues” is going on the poster!

    Here’s a link to a PDF of the other one I mentioned @63: mycrossword #329 PDF
    – this one also has an obscurity (in 19d) that you won’t find in Chambers, though it is in the OED and wikipedia

  67. Widdersbel, I echo the praise of others, I found your BD latest challenging but very amusing, survived the unfamiliarity with that Americanism (the definition is great and friendly crossers v helpful) and as per Big Dave reviewer queried the broadness of def of 8d but like PostMark’s latest I generally felt I could have been solving a newspaper puzzle. Lots of ticks but special mention for 15D which I got from the word play (with a couple of crossers) having no idea of the definition, always a good sign I think when a setter can manage this (see also Mobo today also 15d coincidentally) and I always enjoy the “flash of jorum” or whatever we call it when looking up to check defn and learning something new. Bring on the weekend for your 329 and maybe more from others!

  68. Thanks Widdersbel @66, it will have to be Monday before I get it printed. There is no way I can endure the IT office twice in one week.

  70. Gazzh @67: it’s not appropriate for me to plug; having enjoyed some feedback, courtesy of Roz, you and others, I’ve had more than my share. But I will continue to plug MyCrossword.co.uk as a great site for those seeking puzzles over and above the published dailies. Tag it as a favoured site, or even sign up, and you’ll have access not only to those published by a few 225 folk who are trying their hands (wringing them in my case 😀 ), but also a wider community including some super amateur (and pro) setters.

  71. Another plug for mycrossword I’m afraid. Knut whom many of you will know from the Indy, and his other aliases has posted one here

    It occurred to me that some here may share Roz’s views on the Indy and hence have perhaps not seen Knuts’s work before. Here’s a chance to do so without compromising your convictions.

  72. Blah@71, Also Julius in the FT (not sure if that’s on Roz’s censored list). I believe Rob Jacques (for it is he) also sets all the TES puzzles. Not sure what name, if any, he uses for them.

  73. Come to think of it, in February 2020 Rob arranged a get-together at Kings Cross for April that year and many pooh-poohed the idea that that Coronavirus thingie would stop them attending. Not sure if he is now ready to rearrange that, as he did eventually decide not to come over from his home in Germany, even before lockdown was announced.

  74. Hi Tony,

    As well as Julius in the FT, he’s indeed Magnus in the TES although I didn’t know he did them all, and also Hudson for the Telegraph Toughie. I don’t generally solve any of the above, not from any political/moral standpoints just a matter of available time (and if I’m honest paywalls though I haven’t checked that recently).

    On a different note (mention of the FT reminded me) I very much liked your clue for inch. Have you ever considered doing a puzzle on MyCrossword?

  75. Tony @72, I am a big fan of Julius . The FT is very fortunate, it was bought from Pearson by Nikkei Inc, an employee-owned company, the Japanese know how to do these things . Also my friend takes the FT and does not do crosswords so I get the paper copy cut out from her. Julius often does alphabetical jigsaws .

    Blah@71 good idea to promote mycrossword . I will mention it in the Everyman blog tomorrow and the Guardian next week. It would be good if someone could put an actual link to the site as well. Unfortunately my IT skills are too advanced to do this on the current version of the Internet.

  76. Roz@75

    The site address is simply http://www.mycrossword.co.uk

    To access all crosswords posted by a particular setter simply add their handle after a forward slash to the main address. For example to see a list of all Raider’s crosswords on the site the link is

    http://www.mycrossword.co.uk/raider

    I chose Raider as the example as he is the architect of this excellent site but the method
    works with any setter handle registered on the site, including our very own Widdersbel, PostMark and Twmbarlwm, there may well be others from here too perhaps under a different handle.

    Setters I suggest you check out (by no means an exhaustive list, nor in any particular order) include Gollum, Coot, Skirwingle, Amoeba, Chopin, Piper, Laccaria, Alf, Meles, Liari, and Guava.

    Other names which have had puzzles published by national dailies include (again in no particular order) Chameleon, Angel, Conto (Bluebird in the Indy), Quince, the aforementioned Knut and of course Raider.

    Apologies to the very many excellent setters I have not specifically mentioned of which there are too many to do so, Also if I have missed anyone who has has the honour of being published, again please accept my apologies.

  77. Sorry Blah @ 76, I did not explain very well. I meant it would be a good idea if someone put the link in the Everyman and Guardian blogs for other people to have a look. I will mention the site and some of the puzzles available.

  78. I echo the love for the mycrossword site and thanks to Raider. I sometimes feel that the puzzles come too thick and fast though, so feel bad that I can’t get around to doing them all. There must be some ace ones that slip through the net.

    Blah @74 et al, in case you don’t know there’s a book of Rob’s TES Magnus puzzles that might still be available. I got it via a link that he posted on here a year or two ago, but I can’t find it now. Maybe worth contacting him (on Twitter).

  79. Blah@74, I’m actually not at all sure that Magnus does all the TES puzzles. Sorry if I suggested that was the case. I was at an S&B a couple of years ago which he was at and it was mentioned that he had just landed the brief for the TES. I might have jumped to the possibly false conclusion that that meant every week. Then again, it might.

    I’m afraid I can’t remember what my clue for INCH was now, but I’m glad you liked it. I do remember it being the target in Alan Connor’s cluing competition on the Guardian blog recently.

    I have set crosswords in the past, but just a handful, really. The first couple were 19×19 themers for the British Go Journal as Sphinx, then a few on Big Dave as Whynot, as well as one on Alberich under the same soubriquet, one for a defunct open area on the website of 1across and finally a couple for the Indy. Unfortunately I don’t seem to find any time to make more now, and in fact the MyCrossword site only started after I last produced one. It does sound like a good site and I see an old correspondent of mine is in the list of names you cite, although I think that’s the only one that sounds very familiar. I was a bit put off by the site name when it was first brought to my attention. It reminds me of when I had to fill out documents called things like ‘My Job Plan’ for the Job Centre, before I qualified for ‘My’ State Pension.

    I do like to keep my hand in at cluing in the above-mentioned comp and often have a shot at the ST, too, although I don’t seem to have made much of an impression there lately. Do you write clues on the Guardian, too? I think I worked out Widdersbel’s handle there (and realized I had enjoyed clues he had written there) … but I’ve forgotten it again now!

  80. Roz@75, I’m glad there’s a paper you can handle without surgical gloves on and that you enjoy Knut’s work as Julius. I didn’t know who owned the FT, so that’s interesting to learn, thanks.

    I don’t think I’ve ever done a Julius, but I have done one or two Alberich and Rosa Klebb in the FT online. I’ve never used a writing implement on that which is famously pink and hard in the morning, though.

    Alphabetical jigsaws sound fun. Of course I used to enjoy Araucaria’s and those of his disciple, Paul. Soup has also done a few including at least one with clues in rhyming couplets in the style of the master. I was lucky enough to receive copies of some of Soup’s when I was in correspondence with him in his capacity as editor of 1across magazine. I’m tempted to guess you are a subscriber to that organ and if you’re not, I’m sure you should be as I think it would be very much up your street.

  82. Tony@79, thank you and i am very impressed that you also have set puzzles. My setting skills are zero , I cannot even think up one clue a month for Azed.
    I have heard of 1across but I do not subscribe. I really like to do “live” crosswords in the paper on the day, the Guardian / Observer , some FT and Cyclops is quite enough.
    Someone printed me some Torquemada which I use for long invigilations.
    I occasionally test solve for a few people who set for the Listener , just as a favour and unofficial, never the final crossword in the paper of course.

  83. Roz @82, I’m quite shocked to learn that you are actively contributing to a feature in a Murdoch publication after all you’ve said.

    If you haven’t heard of 1across magazine before, this is how it introduces itself at https://1across.co.uk

    “Started by the legendary crossword compiler Araucaria in April 1984, we produce twelve issues of 1 Across per year, each featuring five high-quality puzzles. They’re often themed, or feature an unusual conceit; on some you’ll need to ‘solve the clues and fit them into the grid jigsaw-wise, wherever they will go’ – the common factor is that they’re all designed to be entertaining.

    Four of the puzzles will be brand new from our bank of setters – many of whom have been featured in newspapers or on crossword blogs, but others of whom are up and coming in the compiling world. There’s also one historical Araucaria puzzle in each issue – we believe the enjoyment he offers the solver in each puzzle never fails, even at a second battle with his intelligence and wit.”

    If you can find a manual worker to press some buttons for you, you can get a printable sample at this link:

    https://www.1across.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/sample.pdf

    This is a monthly, printed magazine, delivered by post.

  85. I am grateful for the info anyway Tony, maybe in winter. The light is returning so crosswords are fourth on my list now.
    My contribution to the Listener is very minor, I just look at the puzzle and tell them everything that is wrong with it, Some of them never make it into publication. I find the standard very weak compared to Azed.

  86. Tony C @79 – Ah! Good to know you’re Whynot – I’ve come across your contributions at BD and Alberich’s site. Although I can’t remember any details beyond thinking mostly positive thoughts.

    My username on the Guardian is the same pseudonym I use in various other corners of the internet, including here many years ago (I was a regular commenter here ~2008-2009, before going on a crossword hiatus for reasons that are too boring to go into). I’ll leave the details as an exercise for anyone who cares enough to find out for themselves.

    Twmbarlwm @78 – yes, I find it hard to keep up with mycrossword – I’ve still not got round to looking at your latest contribution yet, though I’ve enjoyed your previous ones (there and on BD), so it’s definitely on the to-do list.

    There’s been quite a flurry of new setters on mycrossword lately. One of my favourites was #358 by Hex – a relatively easy one but very well polished and lots of fun. It has probably my favourite clue I’ve seen anywhere this year so far:

    Greengrocer’s used it, perhaps too freely (10)

    There’s also one by someone calling themselves Bottom (#376), which I somehow don’t think would get published in the Times – but not because the clues are unsound grammatically…

  87. I came here after reading Roz’ plug for Widdersbel’s BD crossword. It was a cracker and reminded me of how much I miss a Tuesday Orlando or Arachne. Needed a word search for 2d and I still don’t understand it.

  88. And I also now just did #329. A bit harder (and I had to reveal 19d). Didn’t parse the first bit of 13d.
    Thanks Widdersbel, please don’t be coy about plugging these on the daily blog. Thanks too to Roz for the tip off.

  89. Greg you are very welcome , I think people should be alerted to these on the blogs but I do not know how to do the links.
    2D above=UPON being out of bed = UP working = ON
    I will do the 329 today.

  90. Thanks Roz, my mistake, I meant 3down that I couldn’t comprehend (still can’t) I don’t get the wordplay or really get the definition.

  92. Roz,

    Thanks for all the support and especially for the very kind comments a few months ago on my first foray, but if we start to plug our own work on the individual blogs I wonder if Gaufrid might disapprove. I’m sure (well I hope) he’s fine with it here on GD. Perhap an occasional pointer to GD on a blog would be enough to direct anyone interested?

    I can echo Widdersbel’s recommendation of Bottom’s work but feel the need to add a further word of warning which I’ve copied from their special instructions  “Not for the easily offended. You have been warned”

    PM’s latest is very entertaining too and far less explicit – recommended for those of a more delicate disposition.

  94. GreginSyd @87 – thanks, glad you enjoyed! I won’t post spoilers here but if you’re solving online at mycrossword, there are annotated solutions available by clicking the link under the puzzle. And Big Dave has fifteensquared-style blogs by Prolixic to explain the Rookie Corner puzzles.

    Good point by Van Winkle @93 – General Discussion is the best place for mention of crosswords other than those being blogged.

  95. What would be really handy on this site would be the ability to edit one’s own posts for a few minutes after posting to correct all those silly typos. You know the sort I mean. The ones you notice just after tapping submit.

    Would that be difficult to do?

  96. Crossbar@95 I know what you mean being an awful typist myself. There is a page call Site Feedback where Gaufrid may have an answer for you.
    Blah@92, good point and wise words duly noted.
    MrPostMark@91 , more like nightmares about TtTE, but I will get this printed later in the week, Have been the IT office today and two days in a row would finish me off.

    Widdersbel@66 , printed and done and I will not embarrass you with more praise. 7D I put in and have checked now, second half not in CH93 but sounds plausible and the clue is fair enough. If pushed to pick a favourite it would be 23AC. My hat is well and truly removed.

  97. Help wanted:
    If anyone would be willing to test solve a barred thematic puzzle for me, please send an email to filbertcrosswords at gmail dot com

  99. Thanks Roz@96 and Tony C @98. I’d forgotten about the Site Feedback section, though it’s there large as life on the menu. d’oh. I’m not surprised to see that my query has been investigated previously. I’m usually a fairly careful typist, but can’t seem to stop myself from using my phone’s emojis which I know don’t work on the blog.

  100. Roz @96 – thanks, that’s the kind of embarrassment I can live with! General consensus is that 23a is the pick of that particular bunch – and I must admit I was pleased to come up with it.

  101. Heads up to Gaufrid that the online version of FT crossword No 17,056 appears to have the wrong grid.

  103. MrPostMark@91, got this printed, I can’t stand TtTE , strike-breaking little b…… , also not a fan of clues in the theme. However, the Guardian was once again a Roger Bannister puzzle so lots of time on the train to do this and pleasantly surprised .
    Hidden clues much more Mary Quant now , big improvement.
    11AC a perfect gem of a clue.
    Stepney in 13 AC is beautiful
    24AC a great definition, not quite sues about RELAPSE , perhaps a double bluff.
    27AC rare example of this type of clue done properly.
    I could go on …….

  104. Roz @103: you are very kind. I”m delighted that, despite your antipathy toward the main protagonist, you enjoyed the puzzle. 11a has caused some confusion amongst those few who have commented. It’s tough but fair – with hindsight you are clearly told everything you need to do to get to the answer. Relapse I left in plain sight as a reversal because it looks so odd back to front that it doesn’t encourage you to experiment with it. I would have been more than happy for you to go on … but respect the fact that we should not take up too much of this page. Thanks again.
    PM

  105. 11AC – tough but fair – that is why I said it is a perfect gem.

    Widdersbel @100 you could try for four primes next time though I suspect these must be very tricky to clue.

  106. James@ 102 if you ever “publish” this please put a link on here so I can have a go, but I can’t do email .

  107. Hello (back after a long hiatus).
    I’ve recently learnt that Alberich has been unwell for some time, and I wondered if anyone has any more info. I just hope it’s not serious and he’ll be back soon. His site is quite irreplaceable!

  108. Thanks to all above for more recommendations of puzzles, I have printed a few off and now have a MyCrossword login so will reply on there as I get through them, please don’t be shy if you come across any more that stand out (your own or others). I have been hugely impressed by what I have seen so far. (Also I wonder if “Bottom” is related to the Viz setter “Anus”?)

  109. Gazzh @108: I look forward to seeing you over there and, who knows, you might even be tempted to try your hand 😀 . Having welcomed the support I received, I’m very happy to commend to you the debut puzzle by one Polymath (No. 384). A very polished first contribution and I certainly look forward to more. Enjoy.

  110. Laccaria @?07, on the front page of his site, Alberich is currently showing:

    “Please note: Due to medical reasons, I am not accepting crosswords for analysis or publication until further notice. I hope this won’t last too long!”

    I first saw this perhaps a couple of weeks ago, but I’m not sure how long it had already been up there. I notice he had a puzzle in the FT this month but, of course, that could actually have been produced some time ago.

    Of course, the advantage of submitting a puzzle to Alberich (when he’s accepting them), rather than MyCrossword, is that it will be thoroughly edited before it ever appears. A possible drawback is that he will simply reject it if it needs too much editing (and refuse to consider any further submission for six months). In that case, however, perhaps it’s better that it doesn’t appear publicly anyway?

    Welcome back, btw. I see your name is mentioned elsewhere on this very page (@76).

  111. Tony @110: “I see your name is mentioned elsewhere on this very page (@76)”
    Is it? [quick search] Well I never! I thought I was long forgotten…

    Yes I saw Alberich’s home page message: the worry is that he posted that in January and no update since. He had a puzzle in the Indy (as Klingsor) a week or two ago, but as you say, that could have been in the pipeline for a long time (apparently Mike H is being swamped with new submissions, mostly from BD ‘graduates’).

    I’ve just got back into compiling after a long break, and thinking of putting something up on MyCrossword shortly – but it’s been through a test-solve so it won’t be too rough at the edges. As you say, MC isn’t the perfect resting-place but it’s certainly doing well!

  114. Thanks for the plug Widdersbel@113 , I will brave the IT office on Tuesday and get it printed. Nice clue , definition at the end so you do not need it.

  115. The device of taking each second letter is a good one if it can be done convincingly but unfortunately the image of Jesus scaling a cross doesn’t make any sense to me.

  116. Thanks again Widdersbel @113 , these printouts very easy to use on the train and once again made up for the Guardian puzzle. Great range of clues , probably the friendliest grid of all, every answer is more than half checked and numerous first letters.

  117. Yes, that ‘Platypus’ was good fun – thanks all who contributed (if the team want a ‘reserve’, I’m willing :-/ ). Favourite 25a I think – though ‘Manx’ is, I suppose, rather a giveaway (I recall using ‘guillotine’ to similar effect once)…

    Roz@116: not a criticism, but I can see that we sing from opposite sides of the hymn-sheet! Donning my setter’s hat, I’d have a devil of a job fitting words into that grid – especially if I try to fit in one of my favourite ‘ghosts’. Every single light has an odd number of letters – that restricts one’s choice rather. I might have to add extra letters, Qaos-style (e.g. PANT where the themer is PAN). But I agree: that sort of grid is solver-friendly. The opposite sort, with ends round the perimeter, is setter-friendly.

    Who wins? Boatman told us we have to appeal to many different tastes. I’m still learning…

  118. Can I ask fellow commenters about the ‘letter bank’ device? I’ve encountered this in parsing on a few occasions. I suspect it may be a device used in the US – they were not specifically US-style crosswords I was attempting but I think they might have been by US-based setters. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered it in a published British puzzle. It’s not my favourite, if I’m honest, though I’ve generally made sense of it but as a last resort (excuse pun). Is there a reason it doesn’t particularly feature in British crosswords or have I just missed the ones where it does?

  120. Laccaria@117 I take your point completely , I speak solely as a solver . Clearly the more crossing points and first letters the harder it is to construct the grid.
    The other grid you mention was called a STICKLEBRICK grid by TonyC , I love that term and will use it in future. That grid is often used for words around the perimeter.

    MrPostMark@118 I have never seen or heard the term LETTER BANK, can you explain what it means , I cannot use the link from Blah.

  121. Roz@120

    A letter bank is similar to an anagram except that you can use any letter in the bank as many times as you wish to reach the solution. The general rule of thumb is that the solution must be at least three letters longer than the bank, and the bank must only contain each letter required once. Each LB clue should also contain an anagram indicator and an LB indicator (such as repeatedly, more than once, etc etc) as well as a definition, here’s some examples I wrote last year while participating in a letter bank competition on twitter.

    Our ELINT decrypted repeatedly, that’s explosive (15)

    CERN dig halo to spin multiple particles (5,6,8)

    Christian Nationalism’s confused minds blather repeatedly (28)

  122. Thank you Blah, I have not come across this before. For your (28) I am surprised by how few different letters it actually contains.
    Your middle one is basically an &lit , very impressive. My students often spell it incorrectly, they blame that auto correct thing, I think it is just wishful thinking.

  123. Thanks Blah – I couldn’t get the link to work – it might be a logo? But I will try and find the article. I like your clues – didn’t think I’d have a hope but then realised I actually had germs of ideas which turned out to be correct. All three are splendid but the last two – one for the sheer length and the other for the cad – are remarkable. I’d still be intrigued to learn why they don’t tend to appear in the British crosswords I regularly attempt.

  124. PM, Roz,

    New link here – think my previous link included the Google search string sorry.

    They’ve been common in US and Indian cryptics for a while now, and are starting to appear in the UK, though not as yet in a national daily that I can recall.

    Here’s another with a more cryptic LB indicator, and a less obvious definition than the first three.

    Plenty of hits played from this venal country town? (9,9)

  125. Very neat Blah , from an American puzzle I presume. I never know how to spell the second word.
    I hope they do not appear in the cryptics I do , they are a nice novelty but lack precision.

  126. That’s very interesting about letter banks. It’s certainly not a device I can recall having seen in a UK crossword.

    In principle it seems fair if the clue works logically. I think the two examples in the linked article are fine:
    Weak characters from Istanbul can provide it (13)
    Existential question latent in Brontë’s letters (2,2,2,3,2,2)
    because the wording in both cases does suggest that the answer is indeed simply composed of letters to be found in the fodder. Blah @121: I’m afraid I’m less convinced by the indicators you mention (“repeatedly”, and “more than once”) which seem to me to suggest that every letter in the fodder must be used more than once, which presumably is not the general intention in LBs.

  127. Letter banks also work in reverse – where the “fodder” contains multiple examples of each letter that only appear once in the solution. Here’s an example I came up with recently:

    Original members of Showaddywaddy playing like Hank Marvin? (7)

  128. That’s a very fair point LJ@126, those indicators were early attempts and I probably wouldn’t use them if I was writing an LB now. I was quite pleased (much later in the competition) to have come up ‘Plenty of hits played from’ as a combined LB and anagram indicator.

    Here’s one (probably my favourite) from the competition setter last year, with a far more accurate instruction as to which letters to reuse.

    European city had rent increases to handle storm damage (9,3,11).

    Nice one Widdersbel@127

  129. I recently entered a letter bank clue to the Sunday Times clue writing competition (No.1410) for the word SCISSORS:

    Rico’s to provide a sample of every part used to construct this handy tool

    adding the remark:

    “No idea whether you accept this cluing device at the ST, which I think possibly originated in the USA. Alan Connor did a blogpost about them a while back.”

    My clue got a mention, but only in the “other clues” section where crossword editor Peter Biddlecombe points out cluing errors and the like. He wrote:

    “This clue uses a fairly recently-invented style of clue, called ‘letter bank’. It’s a reduction of an anagram clue to the unique letters involved, such as

    Existential question latent in Brontë’s letters (2,2,2,3,2,2)

    which is a clue for TO BE OR NOT TO BE, made from the letters of “Brontë”, mostly used at least twice. Although I don’t think we’ve ever used one, I don’t think I’d rule out the idea, as long as the indication was as clear as it seems in that example. In this case, ‘Rico’s to provide a sample …’ really means ‘”Rico’s” provides an example …’, and especially when using something novel, I don’t think it’s fair to expect the solver to do this kind of translation to understand what they need to do.’

    I now realize he may have come out with the Brontë clue after reading Alan Connor’s blogpost and/or the comments thereto. I was very impressed by that clue, although it doesn’t seem to have any explicit indication that the letters from Brontë will (mostly) have to be used more than once and could equally well appear at first sight to be a straightforward anagram of LATENT in BRONTES.

  130. Tony C @129 – I think “latent” does the trick, though I agree it’s not quite as clear as it could be.

    I agree with Pete B’s general point that where the clue uses a novel device that most solvers are unfamiliar with, there’s a greater expectation to be even more unscrupulously fair than usual with the indications. For the most common types of clue, the solver is already mentally alert to the possibilities, which means the setter can get away with a bit of looseness. But if you don’t know you’re looking for a letter bank, they can be very hard to spot if not clearly indicated.

    It’s a similar case to composite anagrams that we discussed here not so long ago – those who tackle Azed regularly will be familiar with the format but they don’t crop up in the regular daily cryptics very often, and when they do, they usually arouse a fair bit of comment.
    (eg Philistine’s Guardian 28,709 –
    https://www.fifteensquared.net/2022/03/26/guardian-prize-28709-philistine/ )

    I don’t recall seeing a letter bank in the Guardian but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time – I wouldn’t be surprised if Boatman tried one out on us some time, and I’d be interested to see his take on it.

  133. In case anyone ends up with spare time on their hands on this damp Bank Holiday Monday, I have posted on MyCrossword this morning the crossword that was reviewed on Big Dave’s Rookie Corner last Monday. I was fortunate to escape without too much of a mauling and have edited the puzzle to incorporate advice received. Here’s the link.

  134. When my uncle gave me an old basic chemical balance many years ago it came with small weights in denominations of grains, scruples, and dra(ch)ms, ‘apothecaries weights’ probably well outdated even then. I can’t recall ever having come across a crossword scruple, or grain, as a unit of measure, and wonder if that sense has now more or less fallen out of common knowledge. In its time ‘scruple’ as a measure has had a remarkable range. OED has it as a measure of weight, length, area, time, and angle. It survives vestigially perhaps in the ‘second’, the second, third, etc scruples being successive subdivisions by 60.

  135. PM@?34, I thought it might be a condition that puzzles put up on MyCrossword should not have been published previously (as it is, for example, with puzzles submitted to Big Dave, I believe), but a perusal of the site’s T’s & C’s (and your posting) seem to show that’s not the case.

    I have a puzzle which is the revised (and edited) version of my first attempt to get a puzzle published on Alberich’s website, with a theme aimed squarely at him personally. With very little experience of setting, my desire to include a number of themed words led to an unacceptable grid, so it was rejected. I patched it up to address the problem (of having too many ‘unches’) and tried again, but Neil (Alberich) had a strict rule disallowing such a resubmission and also pointed out that it now had too few unches for his liking!

    Nevertheless, I thought it had certain merits and eventually got it published in the (now-defunct) Your Puzzles section of 1across magazine’s website under the title In Beirut, where it went down quite well, having had a thorough going-over by editor Soup and consequent further modifications. Sadly, Your Puzzles was discontinued and the puzzles there all disappeared into the aether.

    Neil’s recent demise has reminded me of this (as Neil himself agreed, despite the technical faults) really rather amusing puzzle and its present unavailability. I wonder whether I should perhaps get an account and put it up on My Crossword?

  136. Hi Tony
    I think – think – I’ve seen others post puzzles that have appeared elsewhere. Yes, I think widders did so with his Alberich-posted puzzle so there is solid precedent for both of us. And, yes, why don’t you sign up? It’s free, there is no expectation that you do anything, there are no mailings or spam, it simply gives you the ability to comment and set/post puzzles if and when you wish. I know you have pressures on your time but the more, the merrier.

    And then you’d be able to not only have a go at my puzzle; you’d be able to comment on it too. And then I would almost certainly be inclined to reciprocate as and when your amusing offering appears 😀

    BTW, I should say I’m most grateful that you took the trouble to check MyCrossword’s T’s & C’s on my behalf. Good of you to put in the effort! 😉 And, yes, you are right, it does not work in the opposite direction and Big Dave would not accept something previously published elsewhere.

  137. MrPostMark@, thanks , I will get this printed tomorrow, Paddington stare at the ready. I can save it for a journey home when Roger Bannister is next in the Guardian.
    Will there be annotations ? I am in two minds about these.

  138. Roz – Hi. Yes there are, though I doubt if you’ll need them. Plenty of solvers on Rookie Corner solved it without Annotations. But your colleagues will know, by now, where to find them and they print out easily.

  139. Yes I had them last time , I will look at them after the solve. They are interesting but I half think that the setter should never explain .

  140. MrPostMark@133 . all done , took me twice as long as the Guardian. Very nice range of clues and much neater perhaps because there is no theme. This is where you tell me there was a theme……
    Hidden clues fully Mary Quant now.
    15D is the pick, very original, also will name 10Ac, 25Ac ( I swim nearby ) and 13D, I could go on ….
    Ultra-critical nit-picking , associated turns up twice early on, not actually “wrong” it just jars a bit.

  142. Thanks Roz. Glad you enjoyed it. 15d was interesting -you would be astounded at how very, very few film titles there are that give what I needed! Lots of nicknames, surnames, abbreviated names … And how very interesting about ‘associated’. Not picked up by several test solvers, me umpteen times and the various critical commenters on Rookie Corner, including Prolixic. They did find a second ‘initially’ which has now gone. I wonder if it’s something about the way the ‘associated’s fit into the sentences?

  143. Tony @135 – MyCrossword is essentially a self-publishing platform, so I would say the only rule is don’t copy someone else’s work and pass it off as your own. Aside from that, use your discretion. I certainly don’t think there would be any problem in republishing an old one of your own from Alberich’s website – as long as you’re happy to have your juvenilia exposed to public scrutiny! I only republished my one to make it available to solve interactively online, but I left it three months before putting it on MyCrossword, and included a note to credit and thank Alberich.

    There are quite a few on MyCrossword that have been republished from other places – including at least one from 1Across that I’m aware of (with a note to say it was republished with permission).

  144. PM@142 – 15D ” Fanny and Alexander ” seemed to be shown every term at the PPP, no smirking.
    Associated – maybe because I do the clues in order and on paper , it seems very few people do. Also I move on very quickly on my first look, 10 seconds maximum.

  145. Widdersbel@143, thanks for the information.

    To clarify, the puzzle in question was never accepted for publication by Alberich and I didn’t cede copyright when allowing the improved version to be published on the Your Puzzles page of 1across (perhaps the puzzle you refer to was published in the magazine? I don’t know what the copyright situation would be in such a case).

    No problem with my early puzzle being made public from my point of view. I haven’t created that many since then, anyway, and I’m not actively setting any more for now, either.

    There is a bit of an endgame to it, which requires filling in missing words in a preamble. It looks like I can put up a preamble, but it’s not clear that I could give the missing words with the filled grid so solvers could check their answers (or find the answers if unable). Can you advise on that point?

    PS I see you were the last person to have a guest puzzle published on Alberich’s site, a fact now frozen on the front page for as long as the site persists. A poignant honour.

  148. Tony @145 – sorry, only just seen your message. I don’t know if this will do what you need, but you can add annotated solutions to clues at mycrossword, so maybe you could include the missing words in the notes. Not sure how you’d give the complete solution. Might be worth contacting Raider (Tom), the site owner.

  149. Widdersbel @48, Thanks for the info. To publish the solution to this crossword, I need, in addition to presenting the individual grid answers (and annotations thereto, perhaps), the ability to present, separately, a paragraph of prose, being the paragraph presented in the preamble with corrections and gaps filled. Does that sound possible, as far as you know?

  150. Re: http://www.fifteensquared.net/site-feedback/#comment-531695

    Thanks PeeDee for that – and I’ll even forgive you for hijacking the admin account 😉 (two posts later)

    I’m new to this admin lark and, who knows, it may even be temporary. I certainly hope so as Gaufrid does a sterling job but at the same time, I’m prepared to carry on permanently.

    Back to the point – I tend to agree with everything you wrote. An admin’s life is never easy.

    From what I can see, WordPress add-ons are constantly being developed and improved and I’m prepared to look into any but it will be subject to life and time permitting.

  151. Good luck filling Gaufrid’s shoes Kenmac, whether temporarily or not and I hope I’m not reading too much into it, but best wishes to Gaufrid too.

    PeeDee, I think your posts make perfect sense and certainly weren’t TLDR, and if anyone doesn’t know what an acronym means they can always ask the poster who used it.

  152. Thanks, Kenmac and PeeDee, for keeping the site running. And best wishes to Gaufrid.

    Tony @149 – as far as I can tell, it’s not possible to add standalone text in the notes – notes have to be connected to specific clues. One option would be to include the completed paragraph in the comments section under the puzzle, hidden in a reply. Have a look at the comments section on any published crossword there to see how it works – the usual form is to post an initial comment with the words “Spoiler in reply” then reply to yourself with the bit you want to hide. (But note there is a character limit on comments.)

  153. Widdersbel, that sounds like a way to do it, although perhaps I could write Endgame Solution in a comment with a reply containing the solution. As long as the preamble can be even longer, I could indicate that at the start. (Preamble explains the set-up, followed by the para for correction/completion.)

  154. Is it possible to amend the calendar function on the website in order to gain access to blogs on puzzles that appeared several years ago without having to click on the previous month button the requisite number of times?

  156. Tony Collman – the TL;DR discussion and prescriptive/descriptive reference works has crystalized an idea that I have had in my head for a long time, but have been unable to quite pin down.

    First an analogy: a study of a nation of 10 million people shows they are moderately healthy. Does this mean every person is “moderately heathy”? No, there is really a mix of individuals who range form death’s-door to super-fit. Can a nation even be healthy in the same way a person can? The “nation” is an abstract concept, it does not have a liver or a kidney to go wrong and you can’t infect an abstract concept with a bacterium.

    In a similar way reference works about the English Language are about the language as a whole. They are certainly factually based on millions of individuals’ actual speech and writing, but the English Language is not actually the language of any single individual. The English Language in this sense is an abstract idea. To make The English Language concrete is to speak or write, and for that to happen an individual has to use their own personal language and behaviours.

    When I wrote “I write English the language, not English the dictionary” I should really phrase this as “I write my language, not English the dictionary”. The dictionary doesn’t represent the language I speak, it represents the notional “language” of the population I am a part of. Two very different things.

  158. Last week during our first camping trip of the year, I unpacked some kit to find an unfinished cryptic at the bottom of one of the boxes. It was a Guardian puzzle from August 27 last year, and the setter was Paul. I had 6 clues to go and filled in three while still on holiday. I’ve just finished the others, so that’s about an eight and half month solve. To be honest, not much longer than it usually takes me when Paul is the setter.

  162. Peedee@56, that does rather sound a bit like Humpty Dumpty’s “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” (Through the Looking Glass).

  163. Lemming @161, for your last search, try this instead:

    1. Open 15² at any page of you haven’t already got one open (the one you’re probably on now will do).

    2. Click on, or tap (depending on the device you’re using) the grey area below the page header.

    3. Enter the string 16,123 (don’t forget the comma).

    4. Click on or tap the search symbol (magnifying glass), or press/tap carriage return.

    5. You should get this page up:
    https://www.fifteensquared.net/?s=16%2C123 , with the desired puzzle (FT 16,123} as top hit.

    That’s how I do it, anyway, if I know the puzzle number.

    Other useful search terms are the setter’s name or an unusual word in the grid.

  164. Tony @162 – there is certainly an element of that. When children learn their native language they don’t do it by downloading from some standard reference, nor are they taught it by parents explaining the definition of each word they use. Children hear language around them and over time automatically infer words and their meaning by themselves. In this way each person really does create their own personal version of the language.

    And adults too: Eileen’s whimsical Jorum is a great example of an adult choosing what she wants a word to mean.

    Re the TLDR comments on Site Feedback: it is normal to use language within a context. The considerations on how one uses a word in a crossword clue are quite different to how one might use it somewhere else. In a crossword clue being listed in some standard reference book is relevant. In other contexts that may not be relevant at all.

  166. For anyone doing the Genius this month, and like me printed it out very early please note that one of the clues has been corrected. I’ve only just realised.
    This puzzle was amended on 2 May 2022 to correct the clue for 25 across, which formerly read “Dwarf made into paste (8)“
    The clue now reads “Batter made into paste “

  167. PeeDee @164 – TL;DR Wittgenstein in Philosophical Investigations on private language.

    Whilst we can have a private language that only we are privy to, language becomes significant when we communicate with someone else. Then, language is not private: it serves a social function. If a word meant only what you choose it to mean and that meaning were not part of some common understanding, you would fail to be understood until you shared the meaning of the word.

    Humpty Dumpty could assign his own meaning to words but if he wanted to be understood, he’d have to adopt another communication strategy — such as using the meaning the “community” had assigned to the words.

    If each of our vocabularies of English were represented by circles in a Venn diagram, they would intersect. They would not overlap perfectly because vocabularies and understandings differ but there would be sufficient overlap for us to understand each other.

    Language acquisition in children is a big topic. But the product of that acquisition is that children learn the language around them. There may be periods in their learning (and perhaps it never ends) where they think a word means one thing instead of the commonly understood meaning but they are regularly corrected by parents, teachers, and others. Again, if they deduced an unconventional meaning, they would not be understood in a wider group until they converge on the more commonly understand meaning of the word.

    Sometimes, communities take familiar words (eg bad or sick) and give them new meanings. If the words get sufficient acceptance and circulation, they enter dictionaries.

    Eileen did something similar. Her jorum is an example of the formation of new words (or old words with new meanings). She realised that no word existed for the concept she had in mind. She gave a name for that concept: jorum. That word was her own word and the world would have been none the wiser if she hadn’t shared it. However, once she shared it, she had to do two things: provide the word and share its meaning. Once she had done both, a wider community could use that word (if they found it filled a conceptual gap). At that point, it is not a private word with a private meaning: it is a shared word with a shared meaning. This allows a wider group to use it and understand each other. The next stage is for more people to use the word, perhaps outside this website, and maybe it will end up in a dictionary 🙂

  168. Thanks for that pdp11. Very interesting. I think everyone having a personal version of the language sums up my thinking better than everyone having a private version. A private language is clearly not very useful for communication! And your description of how words end up in dictionaries is pretty much the same as the way I think about it.

    I’m not suggesting that one can write whatever one likes and expect to be understood, not at all. But what I don’t understand is how not using language precisely according to some reference book is treated as though it were a sort of crime. Something that is self-evidently wrong.

    It seems to me that many people get a strong and deep seated emotional reaction to people not using words “correctly”. Where does this come from? In the recent example Tony Collman was clearly not happy that I could just put a whimsical semi-colon in a different place than the dictionary recommended (or specified?). It was clearly incorrect. I just don’t understand this myself. What I am trying to get to the bottom of here is where does the assumed authority of the dictionaries and other language references come from?

    I totally get the idea of reference works being a study of the language is used in real life. And I totally get the idea of an editor or administrator proscribing a usage within a domain (within crossword clues is one example). But the idea of a version of language that is universally “correct” because there is a book that says so seems to me more in the realm of religion. Does this “correct” English even exist outside of a dictionary?

    PS. I love dictionaries. I have lots and I read them.

  169. Dictionaries are not to be treated as prescriptive. They are records of usage.

    If your usage of a word doesn’t tally with a given dictionary definition, it’s only “incorrect” in the sense that other people might not recognise what you mean.

    There’s a word for “personal language” by the way: idiolect.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiolect

  170. PeeDee@168 – thanks, I understand you more clearly now.

    If by personal version you mean idiolect, as Widdersbel linked, the stuff I wrote about private language still holds broadly true. Sure, there can be differences between people’s understanding of a language but as the link says, “Linguists who understand particular languages as a composite of unique, individual idiolects must nonetheless account for the fact that members of large speech communities, and even speakers of different dialects of the same language, can understand one another.” This is similar to Wittgenstein’s point.

    However, I see your main point was about some people requiring/expecting/insisting everyone use language as it’s codified in some reference books. With Widdersbel’s (@169) slight qualification, I agree with you. As far back as I remember, there’s been a battle between descriptivists and prescriptivists. Both sides have a point but the trend in recent years was captured by Widdersbel in his first sentence.

    On language use, I might even go further just to be a tad provocative: the importance of grammar, spelling, and punctuation in everyday English is overrated. People who are inclined to be prescriptive sometimes forget that language exists to communicate: if someone gets a thought in their head into my head via language, they have been successful. I’m talking about everyday English here not about professional writers who not only use language to communicate but have other reasons to write eg to entertain.

    As an example, essexboy, on The Guardian blogs, once illustrated a point by using unconventional spelling in a few posts eg qwik instead of quick. He was more inventive. The posts initially looked like gibberish. On closer inspection, I’m sure everyone who read them understood what he was saying.

    On punctuation, the best advice I read many years ago was, when writing, remove all punctuation and, if that substantially changes the meaning of what you’ve written, re-write it. When something like this is said, it’s countered by contrived examples where punctuation changes meaning (“eats, shoots and leaves”). But in practice I’ve not found non-standard punctuation a source of confusion. A whimsical semi-colon doesn’t seem to me a felony or even a misdemeanour!

    Finally, you’ll know that reference works, such as dictionaries, have moved away from calling usage “correct” or “incorrect” but rather settle on something like “standard” or “non-standard”.

  171. Pdp11@70

    I notice that despite your contention (as I have understood it) that punctuation is largely unnecessary, you have punctuated your comment in a fairly traditional way, except for the paragraph:

    “I’m talking about everyday English here not about professional writers who not only use language to communicate but have other reasons to write eg to entertain.”

    Even there you seem not to have been ready to abandon the apostrophe. It’s not quite clear whether you are writing, in that paragraph, about all professional writers or only those who have other reasons for writing, as indicated by the lack of a comma after “who”.

    There’s seems to be a suggestion in this comment (and others) that I have condemned as ‘wrong’ Peedee’s use of ‘tldr;’ instead of the usual ‘tl;dr’. In fact, all I was doing was (successfully) bringing the usual usage to their attention.

    Bwt, I did find your writing eg quite entertaining.

  172. Tony Collman@171 – I wasn’t clear: the grammarian who suggested removing punctuation suggested it as a mental exercise to see how clear your writing is without punctuation, not as an exhortation to never use punctuation or to permanently remove it after the exercise. In some contexts, such as work, many readers are not even seeing the punctuation since they’re skimming emails and reports. That is one reason I’m inclined to agree with his general contention to avoid using punctuation to convey meaning.

    I was not aware of the context of PeeDee’s “whimsical semi-colon” since I missed the reference to the Site Discussion (which I’ve now read). I’m not sure where I suggested you condemned anyone; that was not my intention and I apologise for giving that impression.

    As you noted, I do (try to) use standard punctuation. Anyone who intentionally uses a version of English (whether grammar, punctuation or spelling) that jars their intended audience risks distracting the reader from the main message. That is a reason for knowing your audience, picking the right register, and focusing on what you want to convey as clearly as possible 🙂

  173. Many, many thanks Widderspel @169 for introducing me to the term ideolect and to pdp11 for elaborating on that.

    The Wikipedia article sums up exactly the idea that I have been trying to grope my way towards. It would have been great to have studied language formally at some point, but sadly that never happened.

  174. Peedee, don’t get upset but the dictionaries prefer ‘idiolect’ (with an i). 🙂

  176. Peedee, it’s easy to remember the spelling once you realise it’s directly related to idiom (as well, of course, as dialect — and, perhaps more surprisingly, idiot).

    In Spanish, una idioma means ‘a language’ and I think that may be part of the reason why a private school in Cairo where I once, briefly, taught English as a foreign language was called, to the great amusement of me and my fellow native speakers, the International Centre for Idioms.

  177. Never one to over-promote himself, Blah, a contributor of thoughtful musings to this site on occasion, has produced a spectacular puzzle, published on MyCrossword. It is no spoiler to say there is something going on; there are Special Instructions that indicate as much. But it is a spectacular gridfill, a testing set of clues and a work of art going on in the background. I suspect he hasn’t flagged it because he has one or two self-criticisms but, in my book, they are groundless and I would commend it unreservedly to any fellow solvers (or setters) on here. Link is here.

  178. Thank you MrPostMark for the link.
    Blah, modesty can be overdone, please just put a little link here when you produce a puzzle, I have really enjoyed the ones on MyCrossword.

  179. Thank you so much for the glowing review PostMark. I’m fairly sure it qualifies as hyperbole, but I’ll take it quite happily.

    If anyone does follow the link, then I apologise in advance for two solutions, one non-Chambers, and one non-dictonary, which the grid constraints forced upon me.

    Sorry Roz, if/when I produce another I shall post here, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed MyCrossword, there are, it must be said some absolute gems on there.

    Thanks again PM.

  180. Here’s another MyCrossword gem this one is by the aforementioned PostMark.

    While the inspiration behind the crossword may well not be everyone’s cup of tea, the speed of the compile, the topicality and the number of on the surface unrelated solutions that fit the theme perfectly are most impressive to say the least.

    This article will make sense of many initially quite surprising solutions, and may contain spoilers if read first, then again if the witty cluing bamboozles you, you could treat it as a solving guide.

    Finally to PM himself – boo for making me take an interest in this topic, but chapeau for making it worth my while.

  181. Thank you Blah , I will get both printed tomorrow, two crosswords for the price of one visit to the IT office. I am used to answers being non-dictionary sometimes , no problem as long as the word play works.

    MrPostMark when you pop in I have an Azed clue for you today – 18Ac Azed 2606 , no discussion until a week on Tuesday.

  182. Gee, thanks Blah in return. There was no need to reciprocate (though I am not complaining 😉 ). It was my first attempt at something topically themed and that Guardian article offered rich potential.

    Roz, I honestly don’t know how extensively you follow events at the popular end of press coverage but, whilst it may make the solve even quicker for you, I think there is some merit in reading the article first tbh!

    I am normally quite terrified by Azed but, just for you, will take a look. One clue by a week Tuesday? Maybe I can manage that …

  184. I read most of the Guardian each day, I never click on links, will just do the puzzle and see if I remember any article that makes sense.

    Azed- see it is not so terrifying. There will always be obscure answers for this type of grid and some very tricky clues – obscure word inside another obscure word giving an obscure answer defined by another obscure word.
    However, anyone who can solve the daily cryptics can have a good go at Azed. There are a fair number of normal clues giving normal answers. If you can get started there are a lot of letters to help with harder clues. Try last week , Azed 2605, start in the top right corner, you will surprise yourself.

  185. Seriously, Roz, I do have an awful feeling you’ll have skipped it if you came across it. Normally, I would tbh. It was Marina Hyde’s Opinion from Friday 13th. If you smile sweetly at your hard pressed IT staff and acknowledge their salt-of-the-earth status, they might just print you a copy of that too. Without some awareness, many surfaces and some solutions will have less meaning, even if correctly solved.

    I will take you up on your Azed suggestion as well as see if I can make any more progress now I have one solution for today’s grid.

  186. Blah@179 all done and very neat clues. I will not give anything away in case others want to try it.
    Just mention a few things – Beard in 10Ac is brilliant, you will know why I like 27Ac so much, 26D simple but so effective.
    The two obscure ones are fairly clued, think I have heard of 30Ac .
    Not sure about the special instructions, about half the answers seem to share a category.
    Encore and do not forget the link next time.

  187. MrPostMark@185, got it printed but will save it for a journey home when the Guardian is a Roger Bannister puzzle. Still got the article, our papers go tomorrow on a two week cycle, I did read it the first time around.

  188. Thanks Roz,

    Very glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the praise. I ?will admit to being somewhat smugly self congratulatory about 27A. Fully undeserved but there we go.

    I may have misread your comment (as it’s so nicely done to avoid spoilers, for which I thank you). If so apologies, but if you’ve garnered a connection between about half the solutions, then you have one of the two categories, what other category quite distinct but most definitely related to the other would occur that might apply to the rest of the solutions? There is also a rather large hint as to the names of these categories in the grid. The full extent of the theme is also explained in the annotations should you be feel able to brave the IT department again.

    Thanks for solving, and I shall definitely post a link on any future occasions.

  189. Blah@188 , I have seen it now in the grid, not something I ever look for. The second category seems very tricky to find words.
    With annotations I am in two minds, I have looked at some before and they are interesting but I half think the setter should never explain.

  190. I didn’t add annotations to the two puzzles I have on the site because I think it’s vitally important to maintain the integrity of the serpentine tussle of wits between setter and solver. And I couldn’t work out how to enable annotations. 😀

  191. Given Twmbarlwm’s egregious failure to include links to his works they can be found here and here.

    Both thoroughly recommended and deserving of more praise than they’ve garnered on the site.

  192. Admit it, Twmbarlwm – you forgot the Annotations, went back to do them and found yourself defeated by your own clueing ! 😀 . I have certainly looked back at some of my efforts and scratched my head wondering what on earth I was on about … I can sympathise with solvers. 😀

  193. MrPostMark@185, all done now, strange to do a puzzle where I know the theme in advance. Very impressive again , both the grid and the clues. A few points without giving too much away. My suggestions are just personal thoughts , nothing actually “wrong ” with the clues.
    9Ac …… trying to maintain silence ??
    12Ac I do not know what SMS means or what it is doing, I solved without it.
    17Ac I spell both the same, have not checked Chambers yet, maybe ditch government.
    18Ac just brilliant.
    25Ac ditto
    6D I like the use of DEAL , I am always wise to this.
    21D Just what I like to see, very obscure but clued immaculately.

    Like for Blah I could go on but hard to praise some clues without giving too much away.

  194. Back to annotations, if I was a setter I would take the Torquemada approach – aim to give the solver a thorough beating, never explain, never apologise.

  195. Hi Roz. Quick note to say thanks for the comments. I like your 9a. For what it’s worth, “SMS conversation” = CHAT. SMS is the text protocol and text exchanges are generally referred to as chats. I couldn’t use ‘text’ as it appears as a nearby solution. I did wonder about “…SMS exchange” which would have been accurate and meant the SMS was not superfluous. But it would have introduced an anagrind – fair misdirection or unfair confusion? It was a lot of fun to put together. If only there were another high profile event that one could use as a theme to be scathing about …

    Thanks, as always, for your unstinting support of 225’s amateur setters.

  196. Is it possible to do a poll on who your favourite setter is? For me it’s James Brydon. The guy is a genius. I am always looking forward to his next crossword, be it as Picaroon, Rodriguez or Buccaneer.

  199. Rats@196 I am sure a poll is possible , I do like Picaroon and Buccaneer most of the time but I boycott the Independent for obvious reasons.
    For me a really great setter has to be really difficult , at least sometimes. None of the modern setters seem to fit this condition, maybe Enigmatist , the last great setter was Bunthorne.

  200. Roz@199,

    Surely Vlad is sometimes just as difficult as Enigmatist? Maybe that’s just me. I also seem to remember one of Imogen’s being just nicely tricky enough to qualify as properly hard this year.

  201. Blah @200 I think Vlad ( and Philistine ) used to be much harder but toned it down in recent years. There was one Saturday Vlad in the old style in January this year .
    It is all subjective of course, I only class a puzzle as hard if it lasts more than 20 minutes.

  203. @Roz Sorry, I’m from NZ and don’t know what the “obvious reasons” for boycotting the Independent are.

  204. kenmac@202 this is just the daily Guardian , I have a 20 minute train journey home. I have had a lot of practice.

    Rats@203, sorry this is a very UK thing. We have a lot of issues with the ownership of our newspapers.

  205. Are there any other setters with a similar style to James Brydon? When I don’t get my next installment of a Picaroon, Buccaneer or Rodriguez in a timely fashion I start getting withdrawal symptoms lol!

    I’ve tried Vlad and Paul but don’t really enjoy their style.

  206. Rats@205 , I am probably not a very good judge of style for setters. Maybe Crucible in the Guardian is the most similar ? My favourites are Paul , Julius in the FT which I think you can access, and Azed in the Observer which has a totally different format and style.

  207. As a newbie, can anyone recommend reference books beyond Chambers dictionary/thesaurus? I have been looking at Bradford and Chambers solvers dictionaries and lists books but cant work out which would be best?

  208. Nuthatch @207
    I recommend Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary, which I find indispensable for the ‘advanced’ puzzles in the weekend papers and useful also for those in the dailies. I have the Tenth Edition (2016), but I understand there is a new one out. I think the more advanced you get (beyond your humble newbie status!) the more useful you will find Bradford’s unique and popular book. (It’s the red one, not the blue one, which is a book of lists.)
    The Chambers App has been recommended to me a few times, but I haven’t yet bought/installed it. In any case, I think you were referring to printed books.

  209. Hello Nuthatch@207 , I see Alan has told you about Bradford which I know nothing about.
    When I started I did use a Chambers thesaurus and found it very helpful, it is only small but has lots of synonyms and some useful lists in the back. A Chambers dictionary is always useful, not really for solving but just for looking things up that may appear. If you move on to Azed it is really essential.

  210. I’ve heard the Bradford’s red and blue books mentioned before but I’m not familiar with them – should probably get myself a copy of both.
    Besides the full Chambers dictionary (BRB), the Chambers Crossword Dictionary is also invaluable – I imagine it has similarities to Bradford’s? It’s essentially a thesaurus but with words grouped by letter count rather than meanings, and including lots of standard crosswordisms that a thesaurus wouldn’t include. Also contains lots of lists, eg of cities, rivers etc, and lists of indicator words (anagram, hidden, reversed etc).

    Rats – I second Roz’s recommendation of Crucible and Julius (aka Knut in the Indy). Also Serpent and Tees in the Indy. All setters have their individual quirks, but those are the ones that come to mind as being somewhat similar in style to Picaroon. Loads of others I would personally recommend because I like their style, whether or not they’re like Picaroon – eg Brendan, a long-time favourite of mine. And Carpathian in the Guardian (aka Vigo in the Indy) – often at the easier end of the spectrum but always fun.

  212. Thanks for tips all.

    Alan B @ 208 – i was actually referring to the Chambers Dictionary app. It’s good and includes ability to solve anagrams and search for words using some letters missing e.g. Cr?ssw?rd etc

  214. TimC@35 from Brummie “musicals ” .
    Cain’s Jawbone is very much 1930s based and quite Londoncentric so you would need the internet or a very good reference library. It is always worth trying crosswords from Torquemada but they are chaotic compared to the modern form.
    Popular science books are not for me, they always seem to fall between two stools. Too specialist for the general reader and too general for the specialist.
    I do have a much simpler proof of Fermat’s last theorem but it will not fit into the margin here.

  215. Yes, as well as no letters, diaries and documents for future historians to pore over, the (almost) universal use of computers will deprive future mathematicians of surprises in margins.

  216. Roz @214 The 1930s are a bit before my time but I did spend 6 and a half years at uni in London in the 70s after growing up oop North. Laughed at the margin. 🙂

  217. Roz @209 (and others)
    I have purchased the Kindle version of Bradford’s. I then access it through the Kindle app on my phone. Then I use the search facility, which only searches headwords. Then I have my list of “synonyms” sorted alphabetically within length. I don’t use Kindle on my phone for anything else. I find it very useful.

  218. kenmac,

    Rox @207

    Perhaps you meant Roz@209? Don’t worry, you’ll soon become familiar with the regulars. Once you do, you’ll realize how pointless it was to give Roz a tip about something you can download (unless by some remote chance she does in fact own a Kindle and her technical staff are prepared to download books onto it, in addition to printing off crossword puzzles of interest to her?)

  219. kenmac@217 if this is for me then thanks for the thoughts but probably more useful for Nuthatch. I am afraid that I am the last of the Luddites , I do not even have a mobile phone and my thoughts on Kindle are beyond mere words.
    Tony@218 , the IT staff are for the whole faculty, they are not “mine”. They do in fact feel very lucky when they get the joy of my company for a few fleeting moments. I see it as a kind of social work.

  220. TimC@216 there was a large feature on Cain’s Jawbone very recently in the Observer , I am sure you will be able to find it from the Guardian’s website.
    Sheffield Hatter @215, what a very interesting point, letters and private hand-written journals were dominant across Europe for several centuries . Some of the greats actually published very little of their work.

  221. Thanks Roz @220 The article was easy to find. I’m intrigued. I’m also glad I’m not the only one without a mobile phone, well at least a so-called smart one due to difficulty handling a touch screen. I do have a flip top style one with real buttons which I actually use for, wait for it, making phone calls.

  222. I was puzzled by the comment @214 until, catching up with the holiday crosswords, I realised very quickly that it was a gratutious giveaway of a hidden theme that completely removed any enjoyment from its solving. No spoilers on this page, please.

  223. [Roz@119, you’re all heart*.

    *Heart: An organic pump which circulates the medium of gaseous exchange for respiration in mammals and other complex organisms.]

  225. Roz@214 & Van Winkle@224, yes, it would have been better to refer to the puzzle by its identifying number or setter and date, rather than its theme. If the person referring is able and willing to provide a link to the blogpost in question, so much the better.

Comments are closed.