There’s something to be said for blocking the question “Which is the favourite of your puzzles?” with the same sort of response that parents have to “Which is your favourite child?”. There isn’t a pecking order, you want to say. And yet there is, of course – just as there often is in the parent-child relationship.
More pleasant is the way you stumble on a puzzle and recall it fondly – it briefly is a favourite, but it never supplants others. The new puzzle today is one such – glancing through a list of titles, this one sprang out at me, and I thought it was worth sharing. And when I opened the boxfile to get it ready for use, there, below it, published the very next day, was a further favourite, which I will set up next time. That was a good weekend!
The puzzle today is This House Believes… from the Inquisitor series (I’ve reinstated here the ellipsis I feel the title needs!). It exploits an oddity in the English language which only became more pronounced the more I collected examples. And, yes, it does have two squares already filled in, in an already smaller-then-usual grid – what more could you want? A bigger puzzle? That’ll be next time…
As always with more recent puzzles, there is supplementary material available: the fifteensquared blog and even a setter’s blog elsewhere on this site.
Speaking of setter’s blogs, there’s one up for the recent Enigmatic Variations puzzle Arrival.
Between now and next time Pedro produces a Times Quick Cryptic and Kcit a Toughie, both on Thursday 24 October.
Interesting to see how parents are about their children. My favourite sort of ‘child’ is generally one I can put down and walk away from with modicum of satisfaction at a good interaction and understanding of what has transpired. Specifically, my favourites are, unsurprisingly, those cryptic crosswords that I manage to complete in the Telegraph.
I happened independently to land on the Inquisitor archive which I’m diligently plouging through (and enjoying immensely incidentally).
Oddly enough I was stuck on “The House…” when I saw this blog post.
I’m all for it!
So… not sure if this is the appropriate place to for these notes, but in my ploughing through, I solved “Sleepers”.
Am I right in thinking the the anagram fodder in 1A lacks a U (has an A instead) — unless I’m missing something subtle. “Take in mystic planet’s aura – out of this world! (12) ”
Additionally, is there a typo in 33D: “This, if talking year, would be incredible poesy (4)” — talking should be taking perhaps?
That does look like a slip which evaded both me and the editor (and since the puzzle predates the fifteensquared blog, there are no comments from that source either.
I have corrected the typo in the ‘poesy’ clue – some words the fingers seem to want to type even though I know full well what it should be!
Thanks for taking (no L there…) the time to comment.