The puzzle this time is one from the BBC Music Magazine in 2003.
Quite a lot going on this week, not least the passing of our oldest cat, who died on Wednesday after a sudden decline. Marjorie has a fuller story here. Regulars will know that there will be a puzzle along in due course (the outline of it is beside me as I speak) though I think this one will not be so obviously feline in nature.
I also heard that the June Magpie will feature one of my puzzles, which confirmation arrived shortly after I’d gridded a puzzle which, on reflection, I thought had to be designated its hoped-for successor. (It took me long enough to work out how to print the solution grid, for one thing, which might not go down well with the less specialist publications.) There’s also the faintest hint of an oncoming Listener in the air, which means the semi-permanent note on my to-do list to devise a new one takes on a new urgency.
Before all that a Toughie squeezes into May by the merest whisker (31st). And a Times Quick Cryptic follows on 7 June, before the next formal update. But I will put up a setter’s blog for the latest IQ, Don’t Trust the Picture, somewhere around its closing date (also 31st May). I suppose that means I’m going to have to go and write it now…
