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What I really want to know is......

(35 Posts)
kittylester Wed 24-Mar-21 16:43:44

Why the Times 2 crossword has suddenly got really hard? Or have DH and I both got lockdown brain.

We used to be able to do it as we ate lunch but now we can't.

What do you really want to know?

Lucca Wed 24-Mar-21 16:55:04

Is that the cryptic ? Or the quick cryptic ?

AGAA4 Wed 24-Mar-21 17:00:23

What I want to know is why my mind seems to wander off when I am doing a crossword, reading, watching a film or anything else I am doing.
My mind has a mind of it's own.

EllanVannin Wed 24-Mar-21 17:05:19

I can't even do two things at once now. I used to be able to write here while listening to the news but one thing blocks the other out.

kittylester Wed 24-Mar-21 17:07:11

Lucca no the Times, 2 inside one. Can't even remember what it's called! I've just done most of the quick cryptic.

vampirequeen Wed 24-Mar-21 17:53:53

Cryptic crosswords are a mystery to me. My mind rebels and refuses to even consider that there might be solutions to the clues.

kittylester Wed 24-Mar-21 17:58:03

I love crosswords - it keeps the brain active - possibly!!

Lucca Wed 24-Mar-21 18:23:57

kittylester

I love crosswords - it keeps the brain active - possibly!!

Me too. But I prefer them in the actual paper not in a crossword book and normally in a cafe with a cup,of coffee!

J52 Wed 24-Mar-21 18:31:09

We do it over Breakfast and I agree there’s been a run of difficulty. We consider our vocabulary quite extensive, but some of the answers are really obscure. Then there’s the opposite where the answer to the clue is slang or it’s difficult to see where the link is.
Fridays wasn’t too bad. Today’s was doable.

Lucca Wed 24-Mar-21 18:34:30

vampirequeen

Cryptic crosswords are a mystery to me. My mind rebels and refuses to even consider that there might be solutions to the clues.

That’s how I feel about sudoku!

ninathenana Wed 24-Mar-21 18:40:39

I love crosswords but I can't do cryptic clues

kittylester Wed 24-Mar-21 19:07:12

I'm baffled by why I can do the Quick cryptic but not the Times 2.

Emily49 Wed 24-Mar-21 19:08:17

Perhaps they have a new compiler - one gets used to a certain style?

Jaxjacky Wed 24-Mar-21 20:04:04

I only get the Times on Saturdays, I agree it’s a bit harder, I’m still wading through the Jumbo.

Mollygo Wed 24-Mar-21 20:09:05

We only have the Times at the weekend. I like cryptics but usually only do the Quick cryptic. I find I do more number puzzles like Chain Link and Number Hexagon than crosswords.

kittylester Thu 25-Mar-21 06:58:03

I like sudoku as well but find the fiendish ones easier than the so called easy ones which I almost always mess up.

nadateturbe Thu 25-Mar-21 07:53:34

Can not do cryptic at all, mystery to me too.
but I love crosswords and Sudoku. I didn't used to like puzzle books but was bought some at Christmas and have got used to them.

J52 Thu 25-Mar-21 08:27:02

Today’s was quite easy. The clue 24 Across is a bit misleading.

suziewoozie Thu 25-Mar-21 08:39:57

We do the Guardian cryptic ( or try to) nearly every day . If we haven’t much time, we do the quick crossword but there have been rumblings on the letters page that the latter is getting harder.
One question for Times cryptic crossworders, do you have the name of the setter above the crossword? I know it’s a shared pool and we know who the setter is. This gives us a general pointer as to their style and also the odd one who completely baffles us.

Grammaretto Thu 25-Mar-21 08:43:59

I never could do it kitty
I prefer codewords these says and scrabble on-line. My brain dumbed down years ago.

I would like to know what everyone else does with all the paper clutter that comes into the house and never leaves. Do you have a filing system? A day when you tackle it all?
My paper piles fill most of the kitchen table, the sideboard, the telephone table, the bedside table. I live alone so there is nobody else to blame for the clutter.

Jaxjacky Thu 25-Mar-21 08:53:25

Grammaretto anything important I file, it sits on the stairs, then the upstairs landing, eventually into a metal file box in alphabetical order, a significant amount is now via email, so is filed online. Anything else is straight into the recycling bin.

NotSpaghetti Thu 25-Mar-21 09:06:49

Grammaretto the name for the problem where paperwork gathers in huge "drifts" is flatsurfaceitis.

I have just cleared a half-dozen or so newspapers into the recycling bag and noticed a pile of shopping lists/receipts and some leaflets have appeared to replace them.

suziewoozie Thu 25-Mar-21 09:08:56

Jaxjacky

Grammaretto anything important I file, it sits on the stairs, then the upstairs landing, eventually into a metal file box in alphabetical order, a significant amount is now via email, so is filed online. Anything else is straight into the recycling bin.

My system exactly - my desk ( upstairs) has a pile on it waiting to be filed but nothing goes on the stairs unless it’s been dealt with. My newspapers go to a neighbours guinea pigs weekly. She says they ( the guises pigs) finish the crosswords when they’re bored. ( see what I did there ??)

Lucca Thu 25-Mar-21 09:14:25

kittylester

I'm baffled by why I can do the Quick cryptic but not the Times 2.

I can do cryptic but often struggle with non cryptic too ...weird isn’t it?

JackyB Thu 25-Mar-21 09:15:11

I like war hung this lady's videos. She does decluttering to the nth degree (a bit too much, if you ask me, but I enjoy her enthusiasm). But she is down to earth and realistic. Of course, she is younger and hasn't accumulated so much clutter, but she has 4 children and she includes them in the project.

This one is about how she deals with paperwork.

youtu.be/wdX-aj9LQ2Y