Crossword editor’s desk: whatchamacallits and gubbins
NEWS | 14 May 2025
Happily, for those asking, we can be specific regarding the locations of our departing puzzles: the latest of each can be found on the new Observer site at observer.co.uk/crossword in playable form for the most recent puzzle with an archive for each of Speedy, Everyman and Azed. Vale! Here a splendid Genius puzzle by Tramp takes the place at the top of the index previously occupied by a previous, splendid Genius puzzle by Enigmatist. The preamble of the second … Answers to asterisked clues are – of course – undefined. 8 21? … reveals more of its meaning once we see that 8 21 means DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN? The entries in the solution … View image in fullscreen Genius 262 filled grid … from DOOHICKEY to THINGAMY are gamely explained over at Fifteensquared. On the subject of genius: solvers who have enjoyed the three-dimensional crosswords the setters of which have long included Guardian names will be delighted by something even more dimensional from Chameleon, known here as well for the unique cluedoku. As the preamble says: This blue box is bigger on the inside Oh, and I recommend this New York Times interview with “siblings Nate Curry, 10, and Kaela Curry, 8, [the] youngest people who have ever submitted a puzzle to us” for this exchange … Do you have any questions for me? Kaela: How did you decide to become a crossword thingamabobber? … which brings us neatly back to Enigmatist’s Genius. In our cluing conference for CHANGE, the audacity award goes to Newlaplandes’ “Fancy ganache for a ______?”, perhaps as much for ingenuity as for audacity; the runners-up are KJBramble’s scholarly “Put to death during Protestant Reformation?” and Albery’s triple-definition “Reform to replace coppers”; the winner is the ludic “Insignificant capital – try teaching without it!” Kludos to Falconbridge and please leave entries for TARDIS below, along with any favourite clues or puzzles you have spotted.
Author: Alan Connor.
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