This one’s all about men who did things. If you ever wanted to be a man “Would be King”, “Fell To Earth”, “Lived Again”, “Loved Women”, “Wouldn’t Die” and “Wasn’t There”, you’d fit right in with this theme. Some of those were surprisingly hard, with full blame going to the generational gap. Not much else [...]

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This crossword had no easily-discernible theme. Several pop culture clues abounded, making life difficult for yours truly, but I persevered and got it in the end. Also, a higher-than-usual preponderance of words from the Far East in this one. “Sahib” for “Master”, “Caftan” for “Beach cover-up”, “Bey” for “Old Turkish title”, “Alcohol” for “What virgin [...]

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Small Island is the book you wish every author would write. Andrea Levy pulls off a small coup here, shining a spotlight on issues that you wish were examined with such empathy and laced with such humour. Make no mistake, there is nothing humorous about the topics she touches on, but the style of writing [...]

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Elias Khoury‘s Yalo is the tale of a Lebanese boy, specifically Syriac, who gets caught up in events beyond his control, and is thrust into one maelstrom after another by virtue of his almost Gumpian naivete. Yalo is a simple child whose grandfather teaches him that words are all mankind can ever create, but they [...]

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This one was easy and had everything to do with the human fish, “Michael Phelps”. “World Record Time”, “Eight Gold Medals”, “Butterfly Stroke”, “Speedo” and “Baltimore Bullet” gave it away. I had no idea that last one there was his nickname, but so be it. Some bad wordplay was seen in this one: “Acers” for [...]

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This crossword had circled letters that spelled out “Peace Child Beauty Circle”. This may seem as if Whitestone and Shortz are imagining a roseate world, or simply yearning for the hippie days of their youth. Alas, the truth is much more prosaic. Each of those words forms a phrase when prefixed with “Inner”. Something Alex [...]

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Time for one of everyone’s favourite holiday activities: gambling! “Fourteen on Red’, ” Hit Me Again”, “Double or Nothing”, “I’ll Take One” and “Roll the Dice” gave this one away. New knowledge, although easily guessable: “Olaf” for “Norway’s patron saint”. Also, “Slue”, a type of “Pivot”. Good stuff!

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Ich habe dieses Buch gelesen und es ist gut. Bernhard Schlink is in good form with The Weekend, a book about a leftist terrorist who is freed after serving time for four murders committed as part of his obligation to the cause. Jörg has just been released from prison and has had plenty of time [...]

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This crossword had a definite phonological component. Check out “EZ on the Eyes” for ” Good-looking, briefly”, “QP Dolls” for “Oh-so-cute carnival prizes, briefly”, “CD Character” for “Risky person to do business with, briefly”, ” IC Streets” for “Winter hazards, briefly” and “SA Contest” for “Student writing competition, briefly”. Yeah, you get it. New word: [...]

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“Missile Universe”, “Textile Messaging”, “Castile Iron Pan” and “Hostile Computer” could have only one thing in common, apart from showing up in a New York Times Crossword: the suffixion of the lexeme ‘ile’ to the end of the first word of a well-known phrase to form answers to some truly groan-inducing clues. You groan after [...]

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