Sunday, May 18, 2008

Synchronicity - The Mayor of Casterbridge


Jim was cleaning out the Ottoman... that's a place where things are put away and not seen again for ages... he found this crossword from last Christmas by Araucria in the Guardian. It was a themed one with a some clues based on Thomas Hardy's works. We'd done most of it but not finished it. So, as one does when cleaning things out, he stopped and sat down to finish it now. The radio was on. And what should come on but "The Mayor of Casterbridge"... shame that was one of the clues we'd solved 5 months ago! A bit late to send it off... mind you as they only offer dictionaries as prizes we never do send them off - who needs another dictionary less than a crossword solver?

Update: I've just noticed that they really did say the crossword was by Araucria, not Araucaria I wonder if it was a spelling mistake... or whether there is a move to find a substitute for the beloved monkeypuzzler before he dies... according to wikipedia he was born in 1921.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Synchronicity! How many hours did it take to clean out your ottoman? Heehee

Dru Marland said...

9 Down, "brachydactyl".... *shudders and goes back to Telegraph crossword for the less brainy*

Caroline said...

Anonymous - that question is rather assuming Jim's finished... he also found a game of Rushhour in there and had to solve all the puzzles in that... :-)

Dru - 9 down was: By keeping right with slightly painful foot, nails are nearer to hand in such a case (13).

BY around R (for right) and ACH (most of ache) at which point one can look in a dictionary and discover, reasonably quickly: Brachydactyly which is a medical condition that means "shortness of the fingers and toes" and then discover that one has missolved it a bit... but got the right answer anyway...

Anonymous said...

my dh loved doing the guardian x word when he was in the uk withme last year... in fact he is a huge guardian fan!

Leah said...

i'm just reading this today after writing a post today about synchronicity. :-)

Tony LaRocca said...

I used to make crossword puzzles for our apartment block's newsletter. It's more of a pain in the ass then imaginable.

Caroline said...

krissie - if he's prepared to pay he can get the Guardian crosswords on-line.

Leah - I'm glad your life is full of synchronicities too!

Tony - I can believe that - I've attempted to make some and never finished...