Posted by aljanon: “Hi pooks, you have been missed click here post no.9”
Posted by Bullfrog: “Reading this thread made me think of pooksahib who doesn't seem to have been around these parts lately. Hope everything's all right.”
It's nice to be thought of so thanks for your concern. These days, I'm pretty good at finishing the crossword AND understanding the logic to the clues which is why my posts are less frequent. And when I do post, I always end up slapping the forehead...
As Big Dave said in one of my first posts, it's a case of reading the clues more as word puzzles. I don't think Big Dave's around anymore and neither is 'Campanilla' who was a regular when I first came here. These two seemed to know everything.
What I find myself doing these days is to set an extra challenge such as doing the puzzle in one sitting, only adding clues that connect to previously answered clues, finding the anagrams without resorting to putting the letters in a circle. Makes it that bit more interesting.
I have, on occasion, been able to answer other folks' queries but that's rare as you've gotta be damn quick on this forum.
And always remember there's more to life than crosswords. Rubbish as it is as a newspaper (I've no time for any newspaper really) the Mail does have a good puzzle section and I particularly like KenKen and Isolate. Check them out if you've never encountered them. The New Year edition had a new (to me) puzzle called Round the Block which was quite ingenious but I've not seen it since.
For a great way to relax after your puzzling, get yourself an Internet Radio. I just got one on Friday, a Pure Evoke Flow, and it's even better than I hoped it would be. My kitchen entertainment had previously been 'normal' radio and a bunch of cassette tapes but now I can have as much blues, folk, rock and oldies as I want. And in Russian too, ain't technology wonderful...
A belated HNY to you all.