Thank you for the years of enjoyment and challenge your crosswords give me. When I first started I couldn’t finish a simple one, now the first puzzle I turn to is the cryptic – they are fun and funny. I must admit,I find the Baffler more difficult than the Stinker, but I eventually get [more…]
Have you ever seen how much muscle is lost after a broken bone has been in a cast for several weeks due to lack of use? Similarly our brains need to be exercised to stay in tip top condition.
Countless research studies tell us that our minds need to remain mentally active to avoid the [more…]
AFICIONADO comes from the Spanish for ‘arouse affection’ and means an enthusiast or ‘Ardent devotee’ (Demon 22dn).
Most of you Demon aficionados had no trouble with this answer but a few of the less canny crossworders had AFICIANADO, AVICIANADO or even OFFICINADO. The latter caused more problems in across clues, ’Slipstream’ (21ac), which was WAKE [more…]
Download a free sample of Lotus Logic, the new grid on the block, which features in our bi-monthly Lovatts Handy BrainTrainers magazine.
To solve these puzzles, apply the same principles of logic you’d use for Sudoku, but in a roundabout way (check out the grid – you’ll see what we mean!).
Lotus Logic is pure [more…]
In reference to The Judge Sums Up BIG FEB. relating to Goliathon Dec.’09 , I considered ‘two-by two craft’ as one of the easier clues.
What is the purpose of a crossword , such as The Demon or Goliathon , without a challenge?
Christine , I also feel you have been too lenient in increasing the [more…]
Anthony Trollope was a very successful and popular novelist in Victorian England. One of his famous series of books was the Palliser novels, including Phineas Finn written in 1869. When it came to our Demon clue, ‘Trollope novel, Phineas …’ at 27ac, many of our puzzlers not surprisingly tried to fit FINN, but this [more…]
Thank you very much for the runner-up prize for the Goliathon in Big No. 204 and also the DIY runner-up. I truly enjoy completing Goliathon, Demon, etc. I feel such a sense of achievement when I have completed one of these fascinating/frustrating puzzles.
Thank you all for making these very short days, and long [more…]
There are probably more quotes about love than any other topic, and why not, when love is what makes the world go round?
With St Valentine’s Day this month, there’s no better time to read what famous people have said about love:
“It’s easy to halve the potato where there’s love”
Irish proverb
“You can’t blame gravity for [more…]
Tackling a Demon can be like climbing a mountain and this was true of clue 7dn in the November BIG. ‘Mt McKinley’ didn’t even seem like a clue to some, but the clue referred to the fact that Mt McKinley has another name.
The highest mountain in North America is in Alaska and in 1896 [more…]
