All the Dash team have gone to the party and left me to do the blog. Typical.
And it’s my party – 100 years since we first came out in print. I can feel every one of them. It’s good though to see the old gang again: Christopher Robin, Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit and Owl. No Small: too small I suppose. And no Tigger: he didn’t arrive until 1928 and got erased. I’d recommend my therapist to him, but he just keeps bouncing back.
I expect Chalicea forgot me at first too. People usually do. So I had to be squeezed in on the diagonal. Lucky the letters were right.
Clever lady that Chalicea. Lots of Woody material, And you can’t beat a nice bit of symmetry. I’ve retired now to a nice new symmetrical one. Don’t ask where it is. I don’t want riff-raff like you coming to steal its roof to play Pooh-sticks.
You need brains to construct these things, and solve them. Puzzles that is, not houses. The clues were what the editors call “a good set”. Like disguising Tigger’s name with a clash as RIGGER but clueing it as sounding like RIGOUR. (5ac :Tough conditions reported for scaffolder (5)”). Clever animals like me know a humophone when we see one.
Even clever ones might have got caught out by 34a though: “I’m surprised by that ancient money (4)” for POOF (I’m surprised by that) with the P missing from the wordplay (part of CHRISTOPHER) leaving OOF = “old money”. Then the F of POOF clashed with the H of heart, and, of course, we had to choose the H to get my old friend POOH. You can’t really miss a Bear like him though.
We don’t go in for alcoholic drink much in the Wood but I know Chalicea checks for membership of the Oenophile Club. But has she kept up her own subscription? I may be missing something. But the oysters in 25d must have had champers with them, or perhaps I need to send her a nice bottle of Thistle Chablis to say Thankyou?