Never knowingly undersolved
ilancaron Solving time: 55’ Humbling. Stared at this for 5 minutes before DRESDEN dropped. The football “club” theme came to mind after another 5 minutes of frustration. At first I thought Premier League but … Read more >>
I really wanted to be able to say that if it’s Tuesday it must be Belgium. But sorry it’s Sunday. I’m hoping someone will explain 6D for me. Everyman has done so below… … Read more >>
Solving time: 30’ (except for DIAZEPAM) This is my first Independent blog and I’m lucky I got Dac who I’ve done a few times and found him quite amenable with nothing too subtle … Read more >>
Solving time: 35’ A feeling of deja-vu crept over as I solved yet again a long anagram for AT THE DROP OF A HAT (in yesterday’s Times as well). I found the across … Read more >>
All the long clues refer to something a bit intense: OVERBOARD, INTENSIVE CARE, PANIC STATIONS, GREAT SCOT (sic), SHOUTING MATCH, NAIL-BITER. Well, except for UPRIGHT PIANOS (uptight?). One unknown composer at 19D (COATES … Read more >>
Solving time: 45’ I found this enjoyable though slow going because Paul’s wordplay is often subtle and surprising and he certainly likes subtraction clues. I got the boxer theme first and then the … Read more >>
Far ranging puzzle: from ENFIELD to the ACROPOLIS. I also learnt that under the Mersey there are several tunnels, and I thought the only way cross the Mersey was via ferry, a la … Read more >>
A couple of racy clues and American states. Unrelated. I found myself solving many of the clues from the definition and struggling to work out the wordplay while writing these notes – I … Read more >>
I had no idea that the mesmerizing 5 silver balls swinging back and forth on my desk was called a Newton’s cradle (17A). Across 3 DAY TRIPPE,R – (pity padre)* followed by R … Read more >>
My first Azed. Definitely hard work: I invested at least 3 hours total. The vast majority of words I had to extract from Chambers. Azed’s saving grace is meticulous clueing – and, in … Read more >>
A puzzle about the tube from Araucaria that probably could be done on the tube. Not all the lines showed up but at least my favorite did (the District, which is what I … Read more >>
Two American cities. Perhaps that qualifies as a theme? Across 1 MINNEAPOLIS – (pile, mansion)*. “Gothic” is somehow the anagrind. 7 S,CREW,UP – Really an Americanism – at least I only learnt it … Read more >>
A literary feast with clever use of grid geometry. I was helped by incidentally having a copy of “The New Yorker” next to me with the name JULIAN BARNES (1A, 4A) on the … Read more >>
I did the Times2 Concise today which is why “unfaulty” is on my mind. As per usual, I find Rufus’s style to be clean, with good surfaces and not very complicated wordplay. I … Read more >>
A leftover xmas clue (7D) and two new words. The nice thing about Everyman is that Chambers isn’t strictly necessary usually if you have the courage of your wordplay convictions: e.g. POCHARD and … Read more >>