Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Sunday Toughie No 171
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Beam here with quite a friendly Sunday Toughie, all his trademarks are present and I dont think this will trouble solvers too much. I will endeavour to provide a nudge or two if your experience differs
We have 14a and 14d clues and I have hinted half.
Here we go, Folks…
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I gave Gemini (if nothing, I’m loyal – for now) the preamble. And they proposed a promising tactic and one completely wrongheaded observation: “Two Unclued Entries: These are the key! They spell out PRESS RELEASE”. They don’t. The promising tactic: “Tackle the Wordplay-Only Clues: These might be easier to solve initially as they don’t have the extra layer of surplus letters.” Slightly helpful albeit a bit obvious.
A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where it is truly shorts and tee shirts weather with 22 degrees yesterday, and forecast highs of 28 degrees for today, and 29 degrees tomorrow.
For me, and I stress for me, in his own way, Dada friendlier than NYDK was yesterday! One long ‘un, breaking the ‘anagram rule’ as usual with ten (five partials), I might have lost count, two lurkers, and one homophone all in a somewhat asymmetric 29 clues; with 15 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid, you should be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues. And, remember, my electronic blue pencil is at the ready and the Naughty Step is OPEN!
Candidates for favourite – 16a, 19a, 1d, 3d, 8d, 17d, and 26d.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, a number of the more difficult clues have been selected and hints provided for them.
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Sunday Toughie No 170
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I found this rather tough last night, but looking at it this morning, it all appears to be fairly clued. A Spoonerism to start and a couple of compound anagrams indicate this is proXimal. A wide field of general knowledge, from Taylor Swift and actors and actresses to ancient civilisations, tombs and geology is required. The renegade priest was new to me, but with checkers, a relatively easy anagram
We have 14a and 14d clues today and I have hinted half(ish) I may be able to give a bonus nudge if you are in need.
Your submission for the “Mythical 🖊️” is more likely to be successful, as for the 2nd day running a typo in one of the little 4 letter answers will send my entry to the bin
Here we go, Folks…
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This week I thought I’d do a search on Dave Hennings’ excellent database of themed crosswords (xwdb.info) to locate earlier puzzles that had a connection with the word ‘anonymous’.
A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg where Springtime temperatures are fluctuating quite considerably – 20 degrees yesterday and 9 degrees forecast for Wednesday.
For me, and I stress for me, Dada almost as friendly as Cephas was yesterday! Three longish ‘uns, seven anagrams (four partials – three of three letters and one of four letters!!), one lurker (reversed), and two homophones all in an almost symmetric 27 clues; with 14 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid, you should be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues. And, remember, my electronic blue pencil is at the ready and the Naughty Step is OPEN!
Candidates for favourite – 12a, 13a, 21a, 25a, 1d, 6d, 9d, and 14d.
As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, a number of the more difficult clues have been selected and hints provided for them.
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Sunday Toughie No 169
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Happy Easter, folks…
I had to take a good, long look at the BRB to find the pigeon and the nut, that and a couple of dodgy parsings (1d) and new to me knowledge (9a) meant this was probably Light’s toughest Toughie to date (for me™)
We have 14a and 14d clues today and I have hinted half, a bonus nudge may be available if asked
Here we go, Folks…
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Shark is familiar to me as being at the harder end of the spectrum – he’s a frequent contributor to the Usual Cryptic Suspects. The title probably meant that something thematic was going to show up there and might be of some help while solving. Though I’ll admit I usually only manage to decode titles ex post facto. I didn’t bother consulting my Gemini advisor since I couldn’t imagine even him/her having anything useful to contribute given that particular title. Also, I didn’t wonder (though I should have!) whether Easter Sunday might be thematically relevant.