Yes, it’s the other half’s birthday today, so I must be brief. She shares it with – but, no, there’s a puzzle in that, I’m sure, and now I shall have to wait till March 9 falls on a Saturday again…
The puzzle today is an old Inquisitor, from 2002, when it was called the Weekend Crossword. It’s quite large, and has something perilously close to an indirect anagram in it (though I did remove the injudicious exclamation mark). For some reason, in removing the word lengths (with a good reason) we also removed any indication of multiple word entries (for no obvious reason) – but I haven’t thought to change that!
The Inquisitor (amongst others) has suffered a huge blow today with the announcement of the death of John Harrington (aka Schadenfreude and Oxymoron). I never met him except through his crosswords (there is a collaborative puzzle to come – more on that later this year), and it seems that he was a reclusive type anyway (which may explain his prolific output – he also set puzzles for Magpie and the Cambridge Alumni Magazine). He was one of the touchstones of the crossword world – if his pseudonym was attached, you were in for a good puzzle.
As I must be brief, I’ll just quickly note a Pedro in the Times Quick slot on 21 March, with an Inquisitor two days later, by which time I will be back with another blog. Further ahead, there’s a Listener, but it’s not by Phi…
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