Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the Jumbo Cyclops special. This year he has chosen to visit the ‘Pseuds Corner’ feature for the theme… (is anyone else just itching to put an apostrophe in ‘Pseuds’ – before or after the ‘s’?! – but it seems there isn’t one in the published magazine…)
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Independent 10,678 by Raich (Saturday Puzzle 2 January 2021)
Raich is a fairly prolific, and long-standing, Indy and IOS setter, but this is the first of his Indys I have blogged – although I did cover a couple of his Enigmatic Variations barred/thematic puzzles, way back in 2011 and beyond!
Cyclops 691 – Barbaric Narcissism
Cyclops is working the last few Trumpian references out of his system and into his clue wordplay, before Ronald T Dump is finally consigned to the S-bend of history, in a couple of puzzles’ time…
Enigmatic Variations No. 1463: Drawing Parallels by Kcit
Kcit (Phi’s EV alter ego, if an alter ego can have an alter ego? Discuss…) has us doing some Geometry homework this week, as well as the usual English Language test…
Independent 10,649 by Nimrod (Saturday Puzzle 28 November 2020)
The sight of those six letters: N-I-M-R-O-D above an Indy puzzle is usually enough to strike fear into the heart of many a solver and blogger…and this one was no exception for your correspondent!
Cyclops 689 – Poker-faced Putin
What a shame that Cyclops and other setters are soon going to have to find other ways of indicating Ps (‘Trump’s back end’) and Ts (‘Trump’s first…’). It is all going to be JBs and KHs from January onwards!
Enigmatic Variations No. 1459: Winning by Ifor
Be careful what you wish for! A couple of EV blogs ago, during ‘gentle September’, I pondered that there might soon be a ‘backlash’ in the form of an ‘impenetrable Ifor’ or a ‘horrible Harribobs’…and along one duly came!
Guardian Genius 208 by Kite
A ‘jigsaw’ puzzle from Kite this month – with the pieces all needing a bit of additional work before entry…
Independent 10,619 by Morph (Saturday Puzzle 24 October 2020)
A pleasant, if not too taxing, solve from Morph today – no obvious tricks, but it was a treat…(oops, I’m a week early with the Halloween puns…)
Cyclops 687 – Washington Escapade
It is all a bit doom and gloom from Cyclops this fortnight…
Enigmatic Variations No. 1455: Golden Oldies by Skylark
GOLDEN OLDIES suggests to me a Sunday afternoon radio show on Local FM with DJs Smashie and Nicey…what does it mean to Skylark?…
Cyclops 685 – Cherish Nibbles
Is it just me, or is Cyclops getting smuttier in his clueing lately?!…
Independent 10,589 by Tees (Saturday Puzzle 19 September 2020)
I don’t seem to have solved/blogged a Tees Saturday Indy since Xmas Eve 2016, so nice to lock horns again!
Enigmatic Variations No. 1451: The Beagle Has Landed by Chalicea
As far as we know, the ‘Beagle 2′ Mars rover landed, but never became operational – maybe it got stuck in the caramel layer…and it was named after Darwin’s ship ‘HMS Beagle‘, which landed him safely on many shores…
Cyclops 683 – Appraisal Stinko
Obviously this puzzle would have been set and commissioned well before the recent exams fiascos, but there are some prescient coincidences…