Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** / *** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Ottawa where it looks like the drought will be interrupted by a few rainy days. At least, the farmers will be happy – although it may be too little, too late. Today’s puzzle has a good mixture of clue types with varying levels of difficulty – a few easy ones to get you started and a few challenging ones to make you think.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa where we are experiencing a spell of sunny, 30+ degree weather. We just celebrated Canada Day on July 1 and our neighbours to the south are celebrating their national holiday today. So Happy Fourth of July to any American readers out there. The puzzle makes no specific mention of the occasion (only a passing reference to an American in one clue), but there is certainly ample food and drink to throw quite a party.
I found the puzzle, while quite enjoyable, to be a bit less difficult than usual. Jay has also given us a good variety of clue types today. There are the customary ‘select certain letters from a word’ clue (but the puzzle is not overloaded with them) as well as at least one of his substitution type clues.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty **/*** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Ottawa where we are just emerging from a spell of cool, wet weather (much like Britain, I gather) into a hopefully prolonged period of more seasonable weather.
Today, we have a typical offering from Jay with plenty of requirements to select specified letters (first, last, inner, outer, odd, even) from words, but no substitution (X for Y) type clue.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa where April showers are extending into May. Pommers is traveling and apparently somewhat cut off from the Internet. However, I am sure he is closely following – and no doubt concerned by – the recent play of United. As for my sports obsession, the Ottawa Senators have already been knocked out of the hockey playoffs here in North America.
Apparently I get the honour of piloting the new blog site on its maiden run. Let’s hope I fare better than the captain of the Titanic.
Today we have a puzzle that is easily recognizable as a Jay creation. It did take me a bit of time to get started. However, once I had established a beachhead, I was able to make steady progress.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa where we are about to experience some very unseasonable weather – the outlook for Wednesday is sunny and +12 degrees (Celsius).
Today we have a typical puzzle from Jay, although it is missing the usual substitution (A for B) type clue that I have come to expect from him. I debated whether it deserved 2* or 3* for difficulty. While I solved the majority of the clues more rapidly than usual – I did find that the last few put up quite a fight.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from blustery Ottawa where we are currently in the midst of a blizzard. Today’s puzzle is a fairly typical offering from Jay – if perhaps a bit less difficult than usual – with lots of clues where one must either strip the outer letters from words or eviscerate words.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Ottawa where we are having a run of unseasonably mild weather – it may be shaping up to be a green Christmas. Today Jay delivers his typical offering of solid, well constructed clues. I gave it two stars for difficulty as I completed it with minimal outside assistance (despite there being a couple of new British terms for me).
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Greetings from Ottawa where we are experiencing rainy and unseasonably mild weather (rather British-like, I suppose) after a snowfall last week. Today, Jay gives us an entertaining puzzle with a theme appropriate to the date. I breezed through the bottom half but struggled a bit with the top half (in particular, the northwest quadrant). Perhaps my Scottish ancestry influenced the enjoyment factor.
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ***
Greetings from Canada where we are bracing for the first frost of the season. Today, we have a quintessential Jay puzzle, populated with lots of charades, plenty of clues where one must either take or delete the first, last or middle letters, and sprinkled with a few substitutions (A for B type clues). It took me longer than normal to complete it – but that is undoubtedly due to attempting to watch a hockey game at the same time (and, yes, my team did win).
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Fortunately, this puzzle is not overly difficult as I was working “without a net” today. Problems with the DT web site caused major headaches (and no doubt loss of sleep) for Big Dave who was able to ship the puzzle across the Atlantic but not the completed grid. I find this to be a typical Jay puzzle, one that leans a bit toward the easier end of the scale.