Vagans (EV) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

EV 1597 Hints

Enigmatic Variations 1597 (Hints)

Illumination by Vagans

Hints and tips by Phibs

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I believe that we may be dealing here with an episcopus vagans, or wandering bishop. My usual source of information on all things historical is 1066 and All That, but it appears to be silent on this subject. However, what I have gleaned from other sources is that the Middle Ages engendered a Wave of Wandering Bishops, deflocked clerics who considered domus to be wherever their mitres came to rest. The Sitting Bishops, who were trained to recognize a crook at a hundred ells, declared their itinerant counterparts parsonae non gratae and united against them under the banner nolo episcopari (‘no nasty episcopalians’), mercilessly moving them on using crosiers especially sharpened for the purpose. The Wandering Bishops were thus a Bad Thing, whose only lasting legacy is the expression ‘long time no see’.

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EV 1560 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1560 (Hints)

It’s Not What You say by Vagans

Hints and tips by The Numpties

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Solvers will already have met Vagans whose first Inquisitor, ‘Excess Baggage’, (with Dante’s Divina Commedia as the subject) appeared last year. In his ‘Encounter’, his first EV, Stanley met Livingstone at Ujiji.… Continue reading

EV 1532 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1532 (Hints)

How? by Vagans

Hints and tips by The Numpties

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Solvers will already have met Vagans whose first Inquisitor, ‘Excess Baggage’, (with Dante’s Divina Commedia as the subject) appeared last year. In his ‘Encounter’, his first EV, Stanley met Livingstone at Ujiji. His first Listener crossword, ‘Hear, Hear’ gave us another theme that required some background knowledge.… Continue reading

EV 1511 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1511 (Hints)

Encounter by Vagans

Hints and tips by The Numpties

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What a pleasure to welcome a new setter to the Enigmatic Variations series – though Vagans is already very active as a solver – usually the very first one to react and make constructive comments when the hints appear at noon on Sundays.… Continue reading