REM’s Michael Stipe declared it an honour to feature in a puzzle; we continue to do those honours
A new book about crosswords? From one of the Guardian’s setters? And one of the setters who has set across the board, edited other series to boot, and brought fresh faces into the game?
It’s true. Maskarade, AKA Tom Johnson, has published All Squared. I hereby recommend it and direct you here to learn how to order a copy for yourself and another for a loved one’s beloved Christmas present.
Last time, I wondered why we no longer had funny adverts. I’m happy to pass on Leadballoon’s point-by-point take. If your own branch of the world has less humour and if you have, like Leadballoon, an analysis that is not an obvious culture-wars salvo, please share. Also: am I right in thinking that cryptics are nowadays more – not less – amusing?
Some eye-catching features of September’s Genius: the underlining in the instruction “Solutions should be fitted into the grid jigsaw-wise, wherever they will go.” (We can’t underline here, so we’ve used bold.) Words familiar from Araucaria’a puzzles, but Soup must mean something not quite the same. And is that … 11 15-letter entries?
